Horizion Patron Self-Registration Process

The purpose of this process is to allow online patron self-registration using a library defined registration form instead of the supplied Horizon registration form. The process will take information from the patron, validate the form fields, and register the patron using a background process that interacts with the Horizon system. This process uses PHP socket connections to initially register the patron and an ODBC connection to update certain information after initially registered. No modification of Horizon files is needed.
This software is provided using the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3)

Horizon Version(s)

Horizon Version(s) currently supported: Horizon 7.3

Horizon HIP Patron Self Registration Module

The Horizon HIP Patron Self Registration needs to be activated and the following set in the Horizon admin module:

Patron Self-Registration	HIP > Targets > Target Setup > Horizon > Setup > Patron Self Registration	Defines what fields the user has to fill out when registrating from HIP
Patron self registration - allow/disallow	HIP > Profiles > Profile Policy
Patron self registration (automatic Btype assigned)	Defined on the location table in Horizon	When patron's register themselves in HIP, Horizon automatically assigns a temporary btype. You define that temporary btype in Horizon and then identify it in the location table.

Files Included:

self_registration_documnetation.html:	This documnetation.
index.php:	Main file to manange the registration process flow
config.php:	Contains configurable variables for the process including error message, host settings, database settings, and confirmation page.
registration_form.php:	Displays registration form to patron.
registration_confirmation_form.php:	Displays registration confirmation with barcode to patron.
registration_error_page.php:	Displays registration errors.
field_validation.php:	Validates syntax of form variables.
untaint_input.php:	Used to make sure that all single and double quotes are escaped and all html chars are html-encoded. Called from index.php before beginning any processing of user input. This script places form inputs into $_SAFE array to be used by further processing.
hip_registration.php:	Takes cleaned patron input and registers patron with the Horizon system. Also displays confirmation screen to patron. This file will need customization depending on your particular system.
autotab.js:	Javascript function to auto tab between phone number fields.

Installation Instructions:

Download hip_sr_files.zip
Unzip and copy files into desired directory on server.
Modify config.php to set configuration variables.
Modify registration_form.php (or customized file) to include form inputs desired from patron.
Modify field_validation.php to apply syntax checking on form variables.
Modify hip_registration.php to register form inputs as necessary.
Create link to registration form on appropriate web page(s).

Code Logic Flow

index.php is linked to from a web page (Ex: http://yourserver.org/patronregistration/index.php). The configuration variables are included and the default action is to display the blank registration form.
field_validations.php. Patron fills out the registration form and submits. index.php is called with an action of "Submit". This will then call the field_validation.php script to check the syntax of the submitted information. If the patron needs to correct any fields, the registration form is re-displayed with prior inputs and notation of incorrect entries. If the field validation passes, the patrons information is submitted to the registration process (hip_registration.php).
hip_registration.php. Using PHP's socket calls, a session number is first obtained from the HIP server. Then a connection is made returning HIP's internal registration form (which is not dislayed). A url is created using the patron's information and is submitted to the HIP self-registration process. From this a patron barcode is generated and returned to the process. Using the barcode, any additional information needed is updated/inserted directly into the patron database records. Finally a confirmation screen is displayed to the patron with the generated barcode.
If registration fails, an error screen will be displayed to the patron. This page can be customized with text for the patron and will display the "error number" from the hip_registration.php file. These error numbers are location numbers in the file so that the line of code that failed can be located.
If the server that the code is running on has mail capabilities, an error email can be sent to library staff so that they are notified immediately when a registration problem happens.

Installation help and Address Verification

The Quipu Group, LLC, is providing these files to the Horizon community at no charge. No warranties are implied as each library's system may be different.
If you would like help installing these scripts or need modifications for your particular system, you may contact:

Quipu Group, LLC
1780 South Bellaire St., Suite 232
Denver, CO 80222
800-764-8018
thefolks@quipugroup.com

Quipu Group can also provide an address verification service to validate the street address entered by patrons to help satisfy database vendor concerns about online database access from patrons registering online.