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Configuring Self-Registration for New Customers
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Configuring Self-Registration for New Customers

This section presumes that the steps in the section called “Initial CI Configuration” have been completed and that communication between bmui.cgi and bmuid is operational. At this point, if a new customer tries to register or an existing customer tries to add a new service, then the "Sorry, we don't presently offer any services in your area." message is displayed.

The steps necessary to complete configuration of the CI for to include self-registration are:

  1. Review the settings of the ciparms list.

  2. Specify what is allowed to be sold through self-registration. This is done by adding entries to the "SERVDEF SELECTION" entries. See the section called “Configuring Customer Registration Services”.

  3. Specify CI Data to POP (see the section called “Configuring CI Data to POP”). At least one entry must exist even if POPs are not relevant to the business.

  4. Specify CI POP data (see the section called “Configuring POP data”). At least one entry must exist even if POPs are not relevant to the business.

  5. Configure the Registration Responses (see the section called “Registration Responses”).

Configuring Customer Registration Services

Click on "SERVDEF SELECTION. This brings up the "Customer Registration Services" page which consists of the following:

Figure 5.7. BillMax Customer Registration Services

BillMax Customer Registration Services


(1)

The Service Definition to sell over the web.

(2)

A filter used by bmuid to select one or more Service Definitions; listed to present to the customer during registration. The filters may be UNIX regular expressions or from the regexmacros list. An empty field matches any supplied value. The filters listed here correspond to "sdf1" through "sdf10" form variables respectively that may be supplied through the bmui templates. As shipped, the bmui template defaultphone.tmp associates the following filters:

  • sdf1 - Area code

  • sdf2 - Dial from phone number

  • sdf3 - Country Code

At this point, Service Definitions that have the matching filter are presented.

(3)

A comma separated list of Service Definition numbers specifying Service Definitions to which a customer may change if they are using the Service Definition listed under "Service Definition".

Configuring CI Data to POP

If a business uses POPs, given data supplied a customer, bmuid will determine the POP from which a customer will obtain service. If a business doesn't use POP, configure a POP that will be selected by bmuid regardless of the data supplied by the customer.

Click on "DATA TO POP. This brings up the "Customer Data To POP" page which consists of the following:

Figure 5.8. BillMax Customer Data To POP

BillMax Customer Data To POP


(1)

Specifies the resulting POP.

(2)

bmuid uses data submitted by the customer to choose a POP for the customer. There must be a successful mapping for registration to occur. The filters may be UNIX regular expressions or from the regexmacros list. An empty field matches any supplied value. The filters listed here correspond to "pf1" through "pf10" form variables respectively that may be supplied through the bmui templates. As shipped, the bmui template defaultphone.tmp associates the following filters:

  • pf1 - Area code

  • pf2 - Dial from phone number

  • pf3 - Country Code

The first POP for which the filters match is chosen.

Configuring POP data

POP data is data that may be returned to the registration client or displayed to the customer when a registration is successful. The entry PHONENUMBER is required even if POPs are not relevant to the business. After a customer has been associated with a POP and registration is successful, a Registration Response is returned to the customer. The form of the Registration Response is defined when configuring the Registration Response (see the section called “Registration Responses”). The POP data (such as phone number to dial, email server, name servers, etc.) that may be passed with the Registration Response is specified using the "Online Signup POP Data" page.

Click on "POP DATA. This brings up the "Online Signup POP Data" page which consists of the following:

Figure 5.9. BillMax Online Signup POP Data

BillMax Online Signup POP Data


(1)

Specifies the POP for which the data is associated.

(2)

Specifies the identifier (name) for the POP data.

(2)

The value for the POP data.

There may be situations in which a POP has more that one entry for a particular data type. For example, a POP may have more than one phonenumber. The desire may be for the customer make a choice from the different values. In this case, use the following entry in a CI template: 

				
<input type="hidden" name="POP_FIELDS" value="'field1','field2'"/>

As an example, as shipped, the CI registration template includes: 

				
<input type="hidden" name="POP_FIELDS" value="'PHONENUMBER','DNSSERVER'"/>

When using this entry, a dropdown list will be created of the POP entries for the customer to select from. For further information, see the section called “Advanced CI topics”

Registration Responses

Upon successful registration, a response stream is returned from bmuid to the registration client by way of bmui.cgi. The stream may be an HTML page or a response customized to the registration client. The response template is determined by matching input values supplied by bmui.cgi against values contained in the answers table. There are ten filters that may be used by bmuid to determine which row in the answers table matches the data supplied by bmui.cgi. Click on the "ANSWERS" button. The "Online Signup Answer Template" page will be displayed:

Figure 5.10. BillMax Online Signup Answer Template

BillMax Online Signup Answer Template


(1)

The directory in which bmuid will look for the template files which it processes to generate Registration Response.

(2)

The name of the template file (without directory) to process and return as the Registration Response if the filters match the data supplied.

(3)

Must always be YES for a match to occur.

(4)

Typically, this contains an identifier for the client registration software. Defaults is "web" if not specified. Typically used to distinguish different CD signup software.

(5)

The browser type. The value supplied by the browser varies wildly but this field could be used to stream specific Registration Response for a particular browser type (Apple's Mac browser for example).

(6)

A Service Definition number. Use of this field allows a specific Registration Response by Service Definition.

(7)

The same parameter as "htmlfile" that is primarily used to control which BMUI templates are used for Customer Interface registration. "htmlfile" parameter may also be used to specify the Registration Response.

(8)

A generic filter for response file matching. Maps to "af1" passed by bmui.cgi to bmuid. As shipped, none of the "af" filters are used.

Once a template is chosen by bmuid, it is processed and the results passed to bmui.cgi which in turn passes un-modified to the registration software. See the section called “Customizing the Registration Response”

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Document Revision A for BillMax 2.2.0   -   Copyright © 1997-2006 The iSpark Group, Inc.

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