Custom Fields for User Registration

This page covers how to enable optional fields on the public user registration form.

Overview

By default, the registration form collects first name, last name, email, and password. NADA also supports two optional fields that are stored on the user record but hidden on registration unless you enable them:

Config key	Database column	Default label (English)	Purpose
company	company	Company	Institution or organization name
country	country	Country	User's country

When enabled, these fields appear on the registration page and are available elsewhere in NADA — for example on the Admin → Users edit page and in User Statistics reports (where company is shown as Organization).

Not the same as public data access fields

Registration fields are configured in application/config/auth_fields.php.

Custom fields on public data access request forms use a separate file: application/config/public_request_fields.php. See Custom fields for public data access requests.

Configuration file

Edit application/config/auth_fields.php on the server. Changes take effect immediately; no database migration is required because the company and country columns already exist on the users table.

File structure

<?php
$config['auth_fields'] = array(
    'company' => array(
        'enabled' => false,
        'required' => false,
        'validation' => 'required|trim|disable_html_tags|xss_clean|max_length[100]',
        'enum' => array(
            'Institution 1' => 'Institution 1',
            'Institution 2' => 'Institution 2',
            'Institution 3' => 'Institution 3',
        ),
        'display' => 'dropdown',
        'help_text' => 'Institution name',
    ),
    'country' => array(
        'enabled' => false,
        'required' => true,
        'validation' => 'trim|disable_html_tags|xss_clean|max_length[150]|check_user_country_valid',
        'display' => 'dropdown',
    ),
);

Field properties

Property	Applies to	Description
enabled	company, country	Set to true to show the field on the registration form
required	company, country	When true, shows a required-field marker (*) on the form label
validation	company, country	Validation rules applied on submit. Adjust this string to match whether the field is optional or mandatory
enum	company only	Suggested institution names used for typeahead autocomplete
display	company, country	Reserved for future use; the registration form renders company as a text field with suggestions and country as a dropdown
help_text	company	Descriptive text (not currently shown on the default registration template)

Enable the Institution field

Set enabled to true for the company field:

'company' => array(
    'enabled' => true,
    'required' => true,
    'validation' => 'required|trim|disable_html_tags|xss_clean|max_length[100]',
    'enum' => array(
        'Ministry of Finance' => 'Ministry of Finance',
        'National Statistics Office' => 'National Statistics Office',
        'University of Example' => 'University of Example',
    ),
    'display' => 'dropdown',
    'help_text' => 'Institution name',
),

Institution suggestions (enum)

When company is enabled, the registration form shows a text input with typeahead suggestions populated from the enum array. Users can pick a suggested name or type their own value. Replace the placeholder entries with your organization's approved institution list.

The field label comes from the site translation for company (English default: Company). To display Institution instead, update the translation — for example in application/language/english/users_lang.php — or customize the registration template. See Extend login.

Enable the Country field

Set enabled to true for the country field:

'country' => array(
    'enabled' => true,
    'required' => true,
    'validation' => 'trim|disable_html_tags|xss_clean|max_length[150]|check_user_country_valid',
    'display' => 'dropdown',
),

The country dropdown is populated from NADA's built-in country list (Admin → Countries). The check_user_country_valid rule ensures the submitted value matches a configured country.

Verify the change

1. Open the public registration page (Login → Register).
2. Confirm the Institution and/or Country fields appear.
3. Submit a test registration and check Admin → Users that the values were saved.

If registration uses captcha, complete that step as well. See Captcha.

Related documentation

• Managing users — user accounts and registration overview
• Custom fields for public data access requests — fields on dataset access request forms
• Extend login — authentication drivers and registration templates
• Captcha — protect the registration form