CODEWITHSUNDEEP
hyperlinkactivationforgot-password
Kevin
Kevin

Reputation: 2697

Are manual activation and password reset pages still necessary?

I'm currently coding all of the account management functionality for my site, and have already implemented the account activation and password reset systems by e-mail. The e-mails each contain a link to a servlet (with the appropriate parameters attached to the end), which does all the processing. Tests for the systems have gone well, however I have one question.

If the link's text is the same as its address, is there any reason to include traditional manual activation/password reset page (a page with a form where the request parameters in the activation or reset link would be entered in to the appropriate fields)? If the link doesn't work in the e-mail, the user can always copy and paste it. Is there any particular reason why sites still have seperate pages dedicated to these actions? And should I allow it?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 163

Answers (1)

Joseph Tanenbaum
Joseph Tanenbaum

Reputation: 2241

You never know for certain the kind of transformations your email will undergo before being displayed to the person that will eventually use your reset facility. Combined with clueless users this may pose a problem.

An example: Since reset/activation links can be quite long they may be partially wrapped onto a new line after a transformation from HTML to plain text. Inevitably this will someday happen to a user that does not know how to deal with that situation.

Therefore it might prudent to provide the backup method of just entering the code in a text field which on submit performs the GET that was intended in the first place.

You are of course free to decide that your site does not need the business of said type of user and skip implementation of the manual method!

Upvotes: 1

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