I am working on the online registration form for the A-meet in Octoboer (which will also be useful for any event where pre-registration is desired).
| Table of contents |
Setting Up the Event
First the creator of the event needs to decide a few things:
- which event is it?
- is it an a-meet? (there will be more things in the entry form to fill out)
- what kind of payment is required?
This stuff will be part of the existing event creation form in the administrative section of the web site, and these can be entered when the event is set up by Brad, Chuck or Van.
Protecting Entrant Information
Much of the information entered on-line by the entrants is private (like address and phone number) and should not be publicly accessible. We will control the information by making Steve Beuerman and anyone else who needs access to it a sysop user on the wiki and only those who are sysops on the wiki will be able to view the private entry information. This entry information will be available on a separate page which allows for:
- viewing of all the entrants at once in some sort of table with a few vital pieces of information (like whether their entry is completed, and anything else useful as a list to event organizers)
- viewing individual entries in full detail
- deleting entries
- seeing a history of entry information (chronological list of changes, so you can see if/when a person came in and updated their entry)
However, the names and classes of current entrants for each event should be available to all before the event, so that people can see who they will be competing against in each class.
How People Will Sign Up
People who want to sign up for the event will go to the event page and click on the on-line registration link, which will take them to a page where they can add themselves as a new entrant or mention that they have entered the event already and wish to update their information.
If they have already entered, they will be able to review their information on the web site by picking from among the entrants, as long as they can correctly enter any two of the following pieces of information from their entry:
- phone number
- street address
- email address
- e-punch number
This "quiz" is necessary to protect the private information of individual entrants from others. After passing the quiz they will be given an opportunity to alter their event entry information. This is assuming the event has not yet been "locked", which we will probably want to do right before the event, after the moment when additional changes to the information would not be used by anyone running the event.
The entry form itself contains all the information about their entry for this one event on one page, and should have a way for them to mark that their entry is still in-complete and they wish to finish it later. I will probably use two different buttons on the bottom of the form, one that says "Save and Finish Later", and "Save and Pay". Until they mark their entry as complete they will not be passed along to the second step, which is payment.
Payment
We should open a PayPal account for BAOC to receive people's payments, or offer a "send the check" option, where after filling out the entry form on-line, they print a copy of the "send a check" page (which contains their name, etc.) and mail that and a check to a given address.
Payment via paypal will probably be just in the form of a button to push which sends them on to paypal with the right dollar amount and payee set up already.
What Will be on the Form?
I was planning to place on the entry form those things on the standard USOF A-meet entry form (http://www.us.orienteering.org/Forms/standard.pdf) for now. Adding things later for other kinds of events (like the Goat) as we need them.
Steve's Comments
Thanks Van. Here's some comments.
Protecting Entrant Information
I'd suggest keeping it simple. Don't let anyone view the entry data other than the A-meet registrar and administrators. Even people that have entered shouldn't be able to call up or change their entry. Two reasons. 1) I'll probably export the data from the webpage into my database, and I don't want the info to change after I've done that, and 2) phone numbers, street addresses, e-mail addresses and e-punch numbers are too accessible, so anyone could call up anyone else's info.
How people sign up
I sent you a barebones form a while ago. I attached it again here. You may not be able to use it, but at least it gives the idea of what's needed. Dinner fees is one thing I forgot to put on the form, but Robert said it will be a pay as you go like last year, so maybe we don't need that added this time. Also, T-shirts maybe should be text entry boxes instead of pull down (or let the pull down menu go up higher), though I don't believe anyone has ever bought more than 4 shirts of one size. You also probably want to add "country" to the address.
Payment
I'm OK with the two options. The key for me is the online entry, not the online payment. Some people don't want to pay online, but I still want them to register on line. For PayPal, we may need to calculate a "convenience fee" (see other e-mail to the board).
Other
Can you set up a "list of participants" page that anyone can see, that has name, club, Day 1 class, Day 2 class, and e-punch number in the beginning, and with day 1 start times and day 2 start times later on about a week before the event. It would be great if it automatically updated.
I'd also like to be able to download everything in some sort of text file format (that excel can read and divide back into fields) so I can import it into Filemaker. Unless of course I can just download an excel file.
Thanks for doing this. It should be a great addition to the website.
- Steve