Hey George. Waiting to hear back from @Jjenglert about this. I agree that non-logged in headers and footers should be visible during onboarding since users should not be âsigned upâ until they complete it. It also appears that Softr didnât take T&Cs and PPs into account over the last 8 months or simply took a short cut building these flows out, otherwise we wouldnât need custom coded hyperlinks to have users access them during onboarding.
Hi @Ben
You should be able to build this experience into your onboarding form.
You can add terms checkbox as a field in your DB, then hyper link the terms within the Softr UI, and have them check this required field before proceeding / finishing with onboarding.
You can also do this via showing static information as well.
Am i missing anything?
@Jjenglert, can you explain how to do this for no-coders, because itâs not as straight forward as Sign Up pageâs consent message settings. Onboarding flows do not currently have them. Also, how would users get redirected back to onboarding flows after opening a new page with T&Cs from these onboarding hyperlinks you mentioned? Is it seamless, like opening and closing a modal with T&Cs in it?
Would be happy to my friend.
This goes for any text in our application, you can simply format it as HTML instead of text.
So create a database field on your user table that says âTermsâ and have it as a check box. Can do the same for privacy.
Then add this field to your onboarding list, and make it required. So they need to check the check box to proceed.
Or, you can simply just say something like âby clicking proceed you agree to our terms and conditionsâ and not even do the field on the database. But field on database gives you proof that they accepted it, and the date they accepted if (if needed)
Then in the textbox within Softr, you want to insert something like this. Softr will automatically render the HTML for you inline. Then when a user clicks on that, it will open a new tab and navigate them to your terms.
Iâd suggest having a public page that includes your terms and privacy that you can direct them to. Hope this helps!
<p>
By clicking <strong>Proceed</strong>, you agree to our
<a href="https://yourwebsite.com" style="color:#1d4ed8; text-decoration:underline;">
Terms & Conditions
</a>.
</p>
@artur, @austinyang, and @Jjenglert, thanks for the detailed guide, but it doesnât work as described. I tested it myself on a published app. Links that are supposed to send users to another page (ex. Softr app T&C page) during onboarding redirect users right back to the onboarding flow, as @FPX said earlier.
I also tried a similar code from @Andranik with the same result. Can we just get this function built into onboarding settings, since this workaround is not user friendly for no-code builders anyway? Again, before they complete these flows, invited users that bypass self-sign up will inevitably need easy access to T&Cs and PPs while onboarding anyway.
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@Jjenglert this is exactly what I have been saying does not work⊠feel I have repeated myself 100x on this same issue within the onboarding flowâŠ
Once a user has started onboarding they can only see an onboarding page. Public pages (pages visible to everyone) are no longer visible.
Iâm unsure how this has managed to pass testing before it went liveâŠ
We waited months for this and then suddenly we had thousands of users calling up saying âWe canât see your website. We can only see an onboarding formâ
Please give feedback to the development team to ensure proper testing gets put into place as we are seeing way to many glitches in every feature being released. @artur @Jjenglert @austinyang @Suzie @Andranik We will be tightening up our our own internal testing as a backup but we expect Softr to do better.
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Hi @FPX
What youâre saying is not a bug, itâs how the feature is suppose to work. Onboarding flows are meant to collect critical data from your users, and offer lots of flexibility for you (the developer) to control who sees these flows and when.
I do think there is an area to improve how T&Cs are handled per Benâs comment above, but Iâd also urge you to re-think how youâre using your onboarding flows as it seems like they may not be ideal for your apps user flow, and that youâre over using them / not structuring them the right way.
@Jjenglert, @artur, @austinyang. It is clear that access to Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies were overlooked for onboarding flows. Andranik, from chat help, provided the same solution that JJ did, which doesnât work, and now chat has suggested to send users to a T&C page workaround that I create after onboarding.
What will Softr do to fix this problem and when? There are no user friendly options for this all-to-common and mandatory onboarding scenario. We would appreciate not only a quick response, but a solution after waiting nine months for onboarding flows to roll out. Especially when there were no additional fields added to sign up pages over this extended period, like legacy sign up blocks had for verifying users.
@Ben @FPX weâll offer a log-out button soon so your users can at least have an easy way to back out and re-enter.
What you both mentioned actually share the same root cause â That you have the same domain for everything (marketing site + logged-in user portal ).
This is the reason why most SaaS, internal tools, portals, etc typically use a sub-domain (e.g. app.example.com) to avoid this conflict.
There are definitely many websites that host both under the same domain (usually their definition of marketing site & application is blurry), but the same pattern still applies â The user either:
- Still need to complete onboarding before being able to see previous page
- Can navigate to other pages freely, but once they do that, the onboarding would be considered skipped (which is an option we also have today)
Thereâs nothing technically hard to allow excluding pages from being part of this behavior, but it will present challenges for you and your users.
E.g. What is the rule for exclusion? Is it the same for all user groups and onboarding flows? How can you (and how can we help you) manage/track these different rules. From UX perspective, how will users be ârequiredâ to complete onboarding while also have options to navigate around, and will they understand at which part of the app theyâre required to go back in to onboarding?
Weâre not ruling out the options for sure, but the need is rather easily solved with the common approach of using sub-domain. Itâd be hard to justify us prioritizing these advanced options (which will need to be flexible beyond the 2 examples in this thread) over features that have no alternative currently, which many others and you are also waiting for â hope you understand & still appreciate the feedback as always! 
@austinyang @artur @Jjenglert . The apps with onboarding flows that I need invited users to access Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies are on subdomains. If I understand, your workaround involves coded html links in onboarding flows from a subdomain app to open T&C and PP pages on another âmainâ domain in another tab?
Rather than redirecting users to other domains and back, wouldnât an option for simple modals (pop up windows) containing T&Cs and PPs in onboarding flows be more intuitive to configure for builders on the same subdomain app? Users would simply open them, review the content, and close them during onboarding without leaving the flow. How does this sound for improving onboarding flows, and sign up pages for that matter?
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Just +1ing what Iâve seen others say. Would love to be able to include more types of blocks in my onboarding especially Video and Quick Link blocks.
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Further feedback to the above:
We have sent out another 18 invites.
2 users completed onboarding form.
The other 16x users said when they went to view more info about our site, Ts and Cs / Policy and other Web pages (FAQs etc) that they could no longer access these pages and only see the onboarding page.
Please fix this.
Answering your Qs re RULES:
Q) What is the rule for exclusion?
A) Pages visible to everyone
Q) Is it the same for all user groups and onboarding flows?
A) Yes
Q) How can you (and how can we help you) manage/track these different rules?
A) Not required. App owners are responsible for setting page visibility to Logged In Users vs Non Logged In users.
Q) From UX perspective, how will users be ârequiredâ to complete onboarding while also have options to navigate around?
A) Any pages that are visible to âlogged in usersâ are only visible to users who have gone through the onboarding form. If a user has not completed onboarding, then they are free to navigate the public pages.
Q) and will they understand at which part of the app theyâre required to go back in to onboarding?
A)
i) If they attempt to sign in then they are redirected to the Onboarding page.
ii) If they click on any link (e.g. An email campaign) that is directing them to a logged in user page then they are redirected to the onboarding page.
@Ben Anything else you can think of please help advise your answers so we can help get Softr to fix this.
Thanks @austinyang. Feel free to PM if need any clarification.
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@fpx it sounds like @austinyang is assuming a little too much (ie. He thinks we are not using Softr apps on subdomains). It also sounds like Austin is over-complicating new user onboarding scenarios. We can create separate onboarding flows for different user groups, so trying to figure out where multiple groups should go within a particular flow is not really an issue.
Your answers seem straightforward and intuitive to me. If a user, doesnât finish the flow, they are redirected back to it when they come back. They only have access to non-logged in pages (ex. public pages, sign up, and sign in pages) until they finish the flow. If for some reason, users finish the flow and fall under a user group(s) other than the one(s) the flow is set up for, builders can easily direct them to a customized page where they can be handled via user groups and visibility rules. I donât understand why it has to be more complicated than that.