Prefill Registration Fields

Cut the typing out of signup by filling in the order form's contact fields for your visitors before they start.

What it does

A long Contact Information form is one more reason for a visitor to give up on an order before they reach checkout. Prefill Registration Fields fills that form in for them: set a default value for any contact field from a single settings screen, or let Country and State fill themselves in automatically from the visitor's own location. Fields you leave blank are left completely alone, so you choose exactly how much of the form gets a head start and how much your visitor still fills in themselves.

Key features

• Default Value for Every Contact Field: Set a default for first name, last name, company, title, both address lines, city, country, state, zip, email, phone, and fax from a single settings screen, and every new signup starts with those values already filled in.
• Auto-Detect Country and State: Tick auto-detect and the country and state boxes are set from the visitor's own location using Blesta's built-in GeoIP data, so someone ordering from abroad never has to scroll a country list. If location data is unavailable it quietly falls back to the default value you set.
• Separate Registration and Domain Toggles: Turn prefilling on independently for your registration order forms and your domain order forms, so a domain checkout can behave differently from a hosting signup.
• Leave a Field Blank to Skip It: Only the fields you actually fill in are prefilled. Anything you leave empty is left completely untouched for the visitor to complete themselves.
• No Template Edits Required: It adds itself to your order pages automatically, with nothing to paste into a theme file and nothing to re-apply after a Blesta upgrade.
• Fully Translatable, Per-Company Configuration: Every label ships in editable language files, and on a multi-company install each company runs with its own independent settings.

Installing Prefill Registration Fields

Before you start

• If you are on the leased (subscription) licence, the Blesta Club Subscription Manager must be installed and your subscription active. The owned and owned-source licences have no such requirement.

1. Upload the files

Upload the extension folder into your Blesta installation so it lands under your Blesta directory at:

plugins/prefill_registration_fields/

For example, on a typical install: /var/www/html/blesta/plugins/prefill_registration_fields/

2. Install it in Blesta

1. Log in to your Blesta admin area with a staff account that has the Plugins permission, including Install Plugin and Manage Plugin (found under the Settings group in Manage Staff Groups).
2. Go to Settings > Company > Plugins and click the Available tab.
3. Find Prefill Registration Fields in the list and click Install.

3. Configure it

1. From the Installed tab, click Manage next to Prefill Registration Fields.
2. Check Enable on registration page and/or Enable on domain registration page depending on which order forms you want it to affect - the two toggles work independently of each other.
3. Enter a default value for any contact field you want prefilled: First Name, Last Name, Company, Title, Address 1, Address 2, City, Country, State, Zip, Email, Phone, and Fax. Leave any field blank to leave it untouched for the visitor to fill in themselves.
4. For Country and State specifically, you can instead check Auto-detect from visitor location to have the field filled from the visitor's own location using Blesta's built-in GeoIP data. If no location can be determined, it falls back to the default value you set for that field.
5. Click Save.

This plugin registers no cron tasks and needs nothing else set up before first use - once you save your settings, the fields you configured start prefilling automatically on your order pages.

You're ready to go - see the usage guide for a walkthrough of day-to-day use.

Updating Prefill Registration Fields

Upgrading works just like installing: upload the new files over the old ones, then run the upgrade from the same page you installed it on.

1. Back up your current extension files first - good practice before any upgrade.
2. Upload the new version over the existing folder, replacing the old files.
3. Log in to your Blesta admin area and go to Settings > Company > Plugins.
4. Find Prefill Registration Fields and click Update to run the upgrade.

Version-specific notes

• v2.0.0: Adds the "Auto-detect from visitor location" option for Country and State. This version also fixes a bug where leaving Country or State blank could still end up saving a real value the first time the settings screen was viewed and re-saved - if you rely on leaving those two fields blank, it's worth re-opening the Manage screen after updating to confirm they're still empty.
• v1.1.0: The "Enable on registration page" and "Enable on domain registration page" toggles are now actually honoured. If you had either toggle unchecked on an earlier version, re-check your settings after updating - prefilling behaviour may change to match what the toggles say.

Using Prefill Registration Fields

For your staff

Manage Prefill Registration Fields

Go to Settings > Company > Plugins, find Prefill Registration Fields in your installed plugins, and click Manage. This page is the only screen the plugin adds to your admin area.

At the top, an Enabled section holds two checkboxes:

• Enable on registration page - prefills your regular signup/order forms.
• Enable on domain registration page - prefills your domain order forms.

They work independently, so you can turn prefilling on for one type of order form and leave the other untouched.

Below that, a Values section lists every Contact Information field the order form can show: First Name, Last Name, Company, Title, Address 1, Address 2, City, Country, State, Zip, Email, Phone, and Fax. Type a value into any field to have it prefilled for every visitor; leave a field empty and it is left completely alone for the visitor to fill in themselves.

Country and State each carry their own Auto-detect from visitor location checkbox next to them. Turn it on and that field is set from the visitor's own location using Blesta's built-in GeoIP data instead of the static value you typed - useful if your traffic comes from many countries and you'd rather each visitor see their own location pre-selected. If GeoIP can't determine a location for a given visitor, the field falls back to whatever static value you set.

Click Save at the bottom to apply your changes. Settings are per company, so on a multi-company install each company configures its own values and toggles.

For your clients

The order form

Once you've configured and saved values, visit your registration or domain order page (or watch a visitor do the same) - the Contact Information fields you configured fill in automatically within about a second of the page loading. Any Country or State field with auto-detect turned on shows the visitor's own detected location instead of your static default. Everything remains a normal, editable field - a visitor can change any prefilled value before submitting the order.

Good to know

• Only the fields you actually fill in (or turn auto-detect on for) get prefilled - everything else is left blank for the visitor, exactly as if the plugin weren't installed.
• The auto-detect option depends on Blesta's GeoIP lookup being available on your server (the Localization setting for GeoIP under Settings > Company). If it isn't available, or a visitor's location can't be determined, the field just uses your configured default value instead.
• On a domain order form, the same Contact Information fields and the same prefilled values are used as on a registration form - the two toggles simply decide whether prefilling happens on that form type at all.