Redirect to last page the user was on prior to user authentication

Mark Haynes

We have a volunteer opportunity part on a Volunteer page to enable constituents to sign up for jobs for an Event. If they are not logged in, they are directed to the Login page after they choose a job they are interested in. This works fine. On the Login page they can Log in of course or choose to register on our site if they do not have an account. We would like the site in both situations, whether after logging in or after registering, the user should be returned to the volunteer sign-up form that follows the page with the "I'm Interested" button for the selected volunteer job, or at least to the page where the "I'm Interested" button resdes so they can continue from there. Currently I'm directing the login to our home page in BBNC and the registration page to the volunteeer sign-up page for this event. As we add more events, jobs and so forth, we'll need a more robust way of handling this.



It can be done by storing the URL of the page before the login/registration sequence in a variable (JavaScript or session) and then using that variable to return the visitor to the appropriate page.

Karen Badham

Hey Mark,



If you set the targeted and security on the page so that only members have rights, the redirects that you get sent through will end up working the way you expect. I'm changing this to a question since that should resolve it.



Thank you!


Karen

Callen Fairchild Zind

I am not programming savvy so am not sure I fully follow this conversation, but it is related to my question: Is there a way to set up the user login so it always redirects to the URL the person came from?



Ours is set to go to the home page, but if someone is attempting to log in and then register for an obscure event that's not easily found from our home page, it creates a very poor user experience.



How does everyone else handle this?

Karen Badham

Hey Callen,



It's all automatic if you set the targeting & security correctly at the page level. I recommend taking a look at that. The setting is on the targeting & security tab, which is in the properties of every page. if you get your eyes on it, it'll be easy.



Thanks!


Karen

Callen Fairchild Zind

Thank you, but I am still confused. When you say at the page level, do you mean the page the user is on when they realize they need to log in (i.e. in the specific case I'm thinking about, it's a page for registering for a special event), or from the page that contains the user log in part? Or neither? : )



I am not seeing a setting that includes anything about a redirect other than the settings in the user log in part itself, where I see a place to choose either the home page or any other page in our site.



It would be simplest if a user, once logged in, could automatically be redirected to the page they were on before they started the log in process. Does this make sense? I may indeed be overlooking the obvious but am still lost.



Thank you!

Karen Badham

Hey Callen,



I've got a few things that I think will help you.



Stop looking for a redirect setting. There isn't one. It's all automatic. All you have to do is edit the targeting & security on the page you want to have a login required, just like you normally would to hide a page behind a login. If someone clicks a link to a page they can't access without logging the redirects are all automatic.



Thanks!


Karen

Callen Fairchild Zind

Karen,


Thank you! I just did this for the page in question and now see how it works. We were wanting non-logged in people to see what they're missing, which is why we didn't have the entire page hidden behind the log in. But for some instances, this will definitely work better.



Thanks again.

Stephen Robertshaw 2

I have just run into this problem. If I set the targeting and security at page level then after the user logs in to the site they end up right back on the page from which the request was made. This is standard and expected website behaviour.



As Callen has mentioned it is not always desirable to just throw a login screen in someone's face when they click on a link - you might want to give them some information about whatever it is sits behind the login or perhaps a more customised login required message for specific areas of the site.



On the pages I have been making we wanted, if the user was not logged in we wanted to show them a benefits-related FT&I part and the login form part visible. Once the user was logged in they would see the member only information (promotion codes, user names and passwords, secure referral URLs etc). This is something of a pain in itself as you have to have a targeted content part (+2 parts within it) for every part you want to display on the page but the experience for the user would have been improved.



However, because what the user sees on these pages is controlled by the parts in targeted content as opposed to the page as a whole I am stuck with this nonsensical redirect to the a fixed page. I cannot think of single situation where it would be desirable to make someone login on page such as www.site.ac.uk/benefits/library-resou... and once they enter their details they end up at the home page where they have to start navigating back to where they just were! Logout? Sure. Register? Makes sense. Login? NO!!!

Callen Fairchild Zind

Stephen Robertshaw:
I have just run into this problem. If I set the targeting and security at page level then after the user logs in to the site they end up right back on the page from which the request was made. This is standard and expected website behaviour.



As Callen has mentioned it is not always desirable to just throw a login screen in someone's face when they click on a link - you might want to give them some information about whatever it is sits behind the login or perhaps a more customised login required message for specific areas of the site.



On the pages I have been making we wanted, if the user was not logged in we wanted to show them a benefits-related FT&I part and the login form part visible. Once the user was logged in they would see the member only information (promotion codes, user names and passwords, secure referral URLs etc). This is something of a pain in itself as you have to have a targeted content part (+2 parts within it) for every part you want to display on the page but the experience for the user would have been improved.



However, because what the user sees on these pages is controlled by the parts in targeted content as opposed to the page as a whole I am stuck with this nonsensical redirect to the a fixed page. I cannot think of single situation where it would be desirable to make someone login on page such as www.site.ac.uk/benefits/library-resou... and once they enter their details they end up at the home page where they have to start navigating back to where they just were! Logout? Sure. Register? Makes sense. Login? NO!!!

Thanks for spelling this out in more detail--that is exactly the issue we have .

Lisa Folger 2

Did you ever find a solution to this problem?  We are having the same issue.  We have many targeted parts and the standard login returns them to the home page.  We don't like having to create several logins for different pages.  We'd like to have one login part and it redirects them back to whatever page they were on when they logged in.

Stephen Robertshaw:

I have just run into this problem. If I set the targeting and security at page level then after the user logs in to the site they end up right back on the page from which the request was made. This is standard and expected website behaviour.


As Callen has mentioned it is not always desirable to just throw a login screen in someone's face when they click on a link - you might want to give them some information about whatever it is sits behind the login or perhaps a more customised login required message for specific areas of the site.


On the pages I have been making we wanted, if the user was not logged in we wanted to show them a benefits-related FT&I part and the login form part visible. Once the user was logged in they would see the member only information (promotion codes, user names and passwords, secure referral URLs etc). This is something of a pain in itself as you have to have a targeted content part (+2 parts within it) for every part you want to display on the page but the experience for the user would have been improved.


However, because what the user sees on these pages is controlled by the parts in targeted content as opposed to the page as a whole I am stuck with this nonsensical redirect to the a fixed page. I cannot think of single situation where it would be desirable to make someone login on page such as www.site.ac.uk/benefits/library-resou... and once they enter their details they end up at the home page where they have to start navigating back to where they just were! Logout? Sure. Register? Makes sense. Login? NO!!!