One of the signature features of Tula Software is the ease with which our system allows your students to make payments and register for class, even when they don’t yet have an account, or even when they’re not logged in. The idea behind this system design has always been to make it easy for students to make payments and register for class, and to reduce as much friction as possible.
It turns out however, that during a global pandemic where the majority of our customers have been ordered to close their doors by local, state and Federal governments, this design can create a sub-optimal experience for students, leading to confusion around why they can’t access the Broadcast Links, which require them to be logged in.
Turn off Guest Access
To address this situation, we’ve added a setting to the “Registration Settings” page that will allow you to turn off guest access.
By default, “guest access” is turned on, and this is how things have always worked, allowing students to register for class without being logged in. Now however, you can turn guest access off, and students will be required to log in, or create an account, before continuing. Now, when someone who is not logged in attempts to register for class, they’ll see the following, depending on whether the event requires payment in order to register.
Modified Registration Links
When payment is required, we’ll display the “Sign up & Pay” link like always. But when the popover is brought up we’ve replaced the “Continue without logging in” link with a “Create account” link. And of course, they can still log in as always. For events that don’t require payment to register, we’ve replaced the “Sign up” link that used to expose the name/email fields allowing people to register, with a “Sign in / Sign up” link that’ll bring up the account login / account creation page.
Since rolling out the Broadcast Links feature, the largest number of support request we have received by far have to do with getting students logged in. For our customers that are operating their business online for now, this update should give you some help getting everyone logged in!
We have NOT changed the system defaults, so if you want to take advantage of this new feature, log into your studio, head on over to the Registration Settings page, and turn off guest access.
To all our customers who have written in with notes of thanks, we appreciate you, and we’re grateful to have you all as part of the Tula Family!