return url and afteractivationurl

[ajefts]

Right now, we hard code the retUrl and afterActivationURL in the accounts app. This means that the user is always sent back to the main my-dashboard page. This doesn't work well for situations when the user is starting on another site/page, like cognitive.topcoder.com and we want to keep them on that site.

Let's add support for the following:

1. After the user registers, return them to the page they came from. We should be able to support this if we make the retUrl work on the register links. For example, https://accounts.topcoder.com/member/registration?retURL=https://cognitive.topcoder.com would return to https://cognitive.topcoder.com after the registration form was submitted.

2. When the user activates their account, direct them back to a specified URL. I see the /users api supports an "afterActivationURL" param that handles this. However, the accounts app does not support this. The requirement to to have the activation link in the activation email included a custom retUrl. For example, https://api.topcoder.com/pub/activation.html?code=123KJHH&retUrl=https://cognitive.topcoder.com

[ajefts]

@vikasrohit Hoping you can help with this one?

[vikasrohit]

Yes, I can help with 1, however, I doubt for 2 we would need changes in identity service.

[vikasrohit]

@ajefts for 1 Once user registers, it should send, as per current implementation, user to /skill-picker not dashboard. Do we want to skip going to skill-picker page after registration in such cases?

[ajefts]

Yes. This would be treated like an overrride.

…

On May 3, 2017, at 2:13 AM, vikasrohit ***@***.***> wrote: @ajefts for 1 Once user registers, it should send, as per current implementation, user to /skill-picker not dashboard. Do we want to skip going to skill-picker page after registration in such cases? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[ajefts]

@vikasrohit for 2, are you sure it would require identity service changes? I see the ios.topcoder.com site it using it here: https://github.com/appirio-tech/ap-lime-topcoder/blob/b30351fee5c2cc5f1ffa35b6ea27e82b34c5d5e4/app/services/auth.service.coffee#L38

[vikasrohit]

Deployed changes for 2 to dev. On 1, we currently do not redirect user anywhere after successful registration. We are showing this page to the user:

Are you thinking to redirect to some other page instead of showing this page? If yes, how would we show the successful registration message to the user in that case?

[vikasrohit]

@ajefts Did you get chance to look at it?

[ajefts]

Hi @vikasrohit. If there is a redirect URL, then we will send the user to the provided URL instead of the default success page above.

[vikasrohit]

Okay. Let check it again.

UPDATE: So we have to use the same return url (passed as retUrl param in query string) for both redirections i.e. page to be redirected after successful registration and page to be redirected after successful activation of the account?

[vikasrohit]

bump 😬

[ajefts]

Sorry. Yes, your statement is correct. The retUrl would be used in both places. Do you see an issue with that?

[vikasrohit]

Yes, there will be a problem. When we want the user to be redirected to a page after activation, which requires an activated account (which would mostly be the case), it would redirect user to that same page even after successful registration and in that case user may get errors as the page requires an activated user account.

[ajefts]

I might be a little confused, but let me try to elaborate on what I'm thinking:

1. We have our normal current flow for standard registration. No retUrl is provided. Instead, we have default landing pages specified for registration success and activation success. I'm not looking to change this at all.

2. I'm looking to add an option that IF the retUrl is specified in the registration page, then it would send the user to that page after registration (instead of the current registration success page) and after activation (instead of the current skill picker).

I can see the potential issue with skipping the skill picker since that is were we're asking them to opt-in for notifications. Maybe we could send them to the skill picker and then forward them to the retUrl after you click Done on the skill picker page?

In terms of not being activated and visiting a page prior to activation, I'm ok with that.

[vikasrohit]

Hey @ajefts, sorry to reply too late. However, I just landed here today while cleaning up my stale branches in accounts-app. As discussed I have deployed #94 changes to dev (and I guess dev is deployed to prod as well) which handles only one portion of this issue which is to redirect user to a custom page(instead of skill picker) after successful activation. Further, this is only done for the members app, not for the connect app.

Regarding the skipping of skill picker page, I guess, your idea can work if we update the skill picker page to accept a return url and direct user to that page on click of Done. Do you want me to do those changes?

Now coming to my concern about using the same URL for both registration success and activation success. It still remains same for me. Even if we are okay with having a user visiting a page without being activated, the issue is that the page might be calling an API which requires activated user which would fail in such cases. If we are okay with that or mostly our return urls won't be calling an API, we can use the same URLs for both cases.