Email Validation as Authentication

If you’re trying to control spam, it’s more efficient to use reCAPTCHA, there is a plugin add-on that provides this functionality.

Checking an email by actually checking the address with the server can slow things down a lot as you wait for a response. It can be done with a javascript AJAX call to a PHP script, so it’s somewhat complex.

Thank you. I appreciate the reCAPTCHA suggestion for spam control, and will put that in place for that purpose.

I am concerned about real people adding fake entries in the PDB, perhaps maliciously or perhaps simply because they can. I’m interested in emulating the same process used by www.ads-software.com and other sites that keep a registration on hold until the email address is verified.

I can see that using email validation as a field validation during the stateful signup process would delay the transaction. Can I send the validation email when the signup is complete using a javascript AJAX call to a PHP script? Do you have any sample code to get started?

It will require subsequent action to approve or discard the registration after the validation succeeds or fails. Of course, I would like that secondary process to be automated.

Participants Database doesn’t have an automated opt-in process built in. Such functionality can be built, of course, but it’s beyond what could be provided in a support post or even a tutorial.

The main reason I never implemented this is the plugin was never meant to be a general mailing list manager, which brings with it a whole set of needs and expectations.

The same is true of performing an email validation by checking the address’s host server. I don’t have any code demonstrating this (I’ve never tried to do this…) It’s possible it could be done when the form was submitted so the delay wouldn’t be noticeable to the user.