# Patient self-registration

The patient setup for self-registration involves:

1. Enabling the "Register for Access" link on the Login panel of the home page.
2. Setting up the email server, if this has not been set up for password resets.
3. Setting up your dental institution’s email address for patient self-registration.

> Important: Make sure you have a patient’s email address recorded in axiUm (Patient Info) before you begin the self-registration setup. If you do not have the patient’s email address, the self-registration setup will not work.

After setting up patient registration, you can customize the text in emails and messages.

Enable the "Register for Access" link

Once you enable the "Register for Access" link, patients can go to the Login area of the PatientAccess CMS home page, and click the link to begin registration for an online account.

To set up the “Register for Access” link:

1. On the Settings tab, click Login.
2. In Parameters, select 0 in the Security.PatientSelfRegistration box, and enter 1.
3. Click the Save button.

> In the PatientAccess CMS, the "Register for Access" link is displayed in the Login panel.

Set up the email server

You need to set up the email server (SMTP) to enable messages to be sent from PatientAccess CMS.

To set up the email server:

1. On the Settings tab, click SMTP.
2. In Parameters, select the contents (if any) in the:

> - Misc.SMTPserver box, and enter the IP address or hostname of the SMTP server.
> - Misc.SMTPPort box, and enter the port number of the SMTP server.
> - Misc.SMTPPassword box, and enter the SMTP password.
> - Misc.SMTPEnableSSL box, and enter 1 to enable SSL.

> > Note: Disabling SSL is not recommended for production environments.

> - Misc.SMTPTimeout box, and enter the timeout value in milliseconds.

1. Click the Save button.

Similar to resetting passwords, you can customize emails sent to patients when they're registering for an online account. For more information on customizing these emails, see Edit text in the body of self-registration emails.

Configure your dental institution's email address for self-registration emails

To set up your dental institution’s email address for self-registration emails:

1. On the Settings tab, click Self Registration.
2. In Labels/Messages, click the UI.SelfRegistrationEmailFromEmail box, and enter the email address that self-registration emails should be sent from.
3. Click the Save button.

Configure the name of your dental institution for self-registration emails

To configure the email name of your dental institution for self-registration emails:

1. On the Settings tab, click Self Registration.
2. In Labels/Messages, click inside the UI.SelfRegistrationEmailFromName box, enter the name of your dental institution that will display next to the sender’s email address in the self-registration emails.
3. Click the Save button.

Set the expiry time for emails

The default expiry time for patients to click links in e-mails as part of the self registration process is one hour.

To set the expiry time:

1. On the Settings tab, click Self Registration.
2. In Parameters, select the number in the Security.SelfRegistrationEmailExpireTime box, and enter a value (in hours).

> Note: Entering a value of Zero indicates that the email links will never expire.

1. Click the Save button.

Edit text in the body of self-registration emails

In the body of self-registration emails, you can edit the email text that patients receive when they are registering for an online account. The following replacement strings are placeholders for text in emails:

- {0} (This placeholder displays a patient’s first name in emails.)
- {1} (This placeholder displays a patient’s last name in emails.)
- {2} (This placeholder displays the expiry date/time of the email.)
- {3} (This placeholder displays the link to confirm registration in emails.)

> Tip: You can use HTML to format email messages.

In the instructions below, we will edit the confirmation email to show the patient’s first name rather than show the patient’s first and last name (the default).

To edit a replacement string in the body of an email:

1. On the Settings tab, click Self Registration.
2. In Labels/Messages, select the text of one of the UI.SelfRegistration*Body boxes, and make your edit. For example, we'll select the UI.SelfRegistrationEmailConfirmationBody box, and then remove the placeholder {1} Patient Last Name, so that the patient’s last name does not appear in the confirmation email.
3. Click the Save button.

The example below the confirmation email shows only the patient’s first name.