Softr is a paid service with a great team and a great community.
Sign up without email validation is a joke.
Found out too late that the joke was real.
Website launch impossible. Built it all assuming it works, because “no native validation” is unthinkable.
Native email validation upon sign up shouldn’t even be a topic in the last decade let alone in 2023.
Having a workaround is ok until native is ready.
There is no clear and working workaround.
I’ve checked all related posts. Tried following all workarounds. Either outdated or unclear, all by users, none by softr.
I’ve watched all there is to watch incl video “Supercharge your Softr app with Make”.
when is email validation available natively in softr? the answer is a date (approx).
Can softr write or record a clear, step by step, complete, self-contained workaround, that works, not skipping any part or refer to any past post, for the (hopefully short) period before it becomes native.
Did I just ask for native email validation in august 2023? I think I just did.
Softr is a paid service with a great team and a great community.
Hi there! I understand your frustration and appreciate your patience. I’ve put in a request for a workaround and will share it with you once it is available.
In the meantime, here are some workarounds:
Email Sign-In
You can use the “Sign in with email” option. If the “only registered users can sign in” setting is disabled, this also allows new users to sign up. If you’d like users to submit additional data during sign-up, you can redirect them to a separate page with a form block. Using a hidden field, you can then identify the user upon their submission.
Form Block Submission
Another method is to utilize a Form block where users can submit their details, including their email. Once these details are added to Airtable, they can be approved by the Airtable and application owner. Given that Softr now supports 2-way-sync, users’ details will be automatically added to the Softr user Tab. I’d suggest using User Groups for this: approved users can view all pages and blocks, while unapproved users won’t see anything.
Airtable Automation
This method bypasses the need for User Groups. Users submit their data to Airtable Table 1 via a Form block. Ensure that the Softr User Tab is linked to Table 2. After a user gets approved in Table 1, an Airtable automation can transfer them to Table 2. The User sync feature will then add all users to the User Tab, allowing registered users to log in later.
Softr’s primary use-cases now revolve around Portals (like client or employee portals). Typically, users in these scenarios are pre-registered, so there hasn’t been a significant demand for an email approval process during sign-up. We prioritize new features based on user requests, so while this might be on our roadmap, I can’t provide a specific release date at the moment.
Email Sign-In
not applicable, unrelated, doesn’t address the verification. They can use any fake email upon signup.
Form Block Submission
“… they can be approved …”. That’s manual approval. no one does manual approval for external (sales) website signups.
Airtable Automation
“… After a user gets approved …” That’s manual approval. no one does manual approval for external (sales) website signups.
“…Softr’s primary use-cases now revolve around Portals…”
This is not what softr sales reps said when I contacted softr before starting.
Do you think the statement below is correct, if yes, do you think it should have been in your front page or Pricing or FAQs, or somewhere easily readable? as well as what your sales reps tell me when I ask them?:
[Softr is exclusively for internal sites or pre-approved existing clients, we do not offer basic functionality needed for external sites such as email verification.]
@hungrypixel I realise @sisa has provided the same advice as I just did on your other post.
Email Sign-In does in fact address verification, as a user must have access to the email they provided to receive the code needed to sign in. It does mean anyone can sign up, but I believe that’s what you want?
This means you can’t use a standard sign up block or flow, however it does address your concern regarding preventing unauthenticated users signing up.
This isn’t about signing IN, this is about signing UP. The very first contact with any website is to sign up, not sign in.
To which email should I send the code? I don’t have the email address of a potential customer I didn’t even know existed in the first place, to send him a code.
You keep assuming the pre-existence of a relationship, a pre-approval, a pre-knowledge, a pre-sharing of email, perhaps even a pre-contract, a pre-everything. Up till the sign up, the guy does not exist. This is not an internal website or a website for existing clients. It’s external wide open for any to sign up and pay.
Just look at your own softr.io, what happens? did we know each other? did you have my email? No. I bumped into the name softr, signed up, you sent a verification, I verified, THEN I signed in.
We enable users to sign up via this method. It works the same way.
You don’t need to know the email or user (no pre-existence of a relationship required), Softr automates this process for you. A new user will land on your app, provide their email address to which Softr sends a temporary code to. This user can then sign-up/sign-in using this code. The user is verified as having access to the email they provided.
You can always adjust the page to reflect signing up or signing in. You can even duplicate the page and block and call one sign-up and the other sign-in.
What you’re saying is “why don’t you start with the Pro plan, pay some $2k and see if you can fix it.”
Would you pay EXTRA $1.2k/y just to try to attempt to fix and replace an email verification, that every website in our galaxy has by default, with a “give it a try” called get-a-code-everytime-you-want-to-sign-in?
Someone already said in April: “Wish I had checked if this was feasible before creating my whole app!”
Guys, do you realise it’s impossible to use softr for an external website? Do you realise that?
@hungrypixel, I’m sorry to hear that our offering is not meeting your needs. Your concerns have been duly noted, and we will take them into account as we continue to improve our product.
Hey @hungrypixel, I think you asked this question on my YouTube channel as well. Just so I understand clearly (since I might be able to cook up a workaround), can you describe the specific behavior (since email validation can mean a few different things).
Is it:
User signs up with email/pass combo on website
User receives an email with a link
User must click the link to confirm that the email on file is valid
Hi James. Hungrypixel actually makes great points here. The sign in with code block is a substitute for email verification, but not applicable for sign ups. It doesn’t assign them a password for subsequent sign ins. How are users supposed to sign in after this without a password?
Softr should have had clearer positioning or implemented more of these basic features (i.e. email verification, conditional forms,…) a long time ago.
When Softr intends to do the latter, here’s an idea:
@ob95 while I don’t have a quick solution here, I would like to share that we are rethinking the whole Auth flow, and it includes verification too. I can share more after a detailed task break down on our end…