Bug: Custom profile properties cannot be selected for custom registration form (DNN 7)

DNN 7 allows customization of the registration form via an easy interface, with intellisense. You just select "Custom" for Registration Form Type in Admin - Site Settings - User Account Settings tab and you can add all the fields you like to your registration form.

 

At the moment of writing, this doesn't seem to work well with custom registration properties (i.e. fields you have created yourself via the "Profile Settings - Add New Profile Property button below on the same tab). If you try to type a custom property's name on the Registration Fields box, it just won't come up (although it's been reported that properties of datatype "Text" do come up).

 

In order to make these properties available to your registration form until a fix is applied to this, you can use SSMS (provided that you have access and experience using it) and do the following:

• Go to your DNN database
• Open the "PortalSettings" table for edit and find the record that has the value "Registration_RegistrationFields" in the "SettingName" field
• You'll see that the "SettingValue" field is a comma-delimited list containing the field aliases of the properties that are to be displayed on the custom registration form. Add the aliases of your own fields in the list.
• Update the table and go to your DNN installation (as the Host user), and click on Tools - Clear Cache
• If everything goes well, you'll see that the "Registration Fields" box now contains your properties too, and they will appear normally on the registration form.

Another way to do this is to use the Host - SQL section on your DNN installation. To see the current profile properties that are displayed on the custom registration form, type this into the Script box and click "Run Script":

 

SELECT
SettingValue 
FROM  {databaseOwner}{objectQualifier}PortalSettings
WHERE
SettingName = 'Registration_RegistrationFields'

 

In order to add one or more fields at the end of the list, you must run something like this (where 'MyField' is your custom field's alias). Remember the comma and use no spaces.

 

UPDATE  

{databaseOwner}{objectQualifier}PortalSettings
SET
SettingValue = SettingValue + ',MyField'
WHERE
SettingName = 'Registration_RegistrationFields'

 

After you run it, go to Tools and click Clear Cache and you will see your fields on the "Registration Fields" box in the Admin - Site Settings - User Account Settings tab.

 

If you still need more power and customization with your custom registration page, take a look at the Dynamic Registration module from Datasprings - at the moment of writing this, version 5.0 has just been released for DNN 7.x.

 

Standard disclaimer: When you do stuff like the above on your database, you do it at your own risk, and I have no responsibility should you damage your database, your computer, or the universe. Always have a backup handy! :)

 

Until next time!