Internet service providers (ISPs) can use the Internet Connection Wizard sign-up method as part of a custom browser package created with Windows® Internet Explorer® Administration Kit (IEAK).

Important

The Internet sign-up option is not available for the Windows Vista® operating system.

This sign-up method uses Internet Connection Wizard to provide a standard Windows wizard for your customers. HTML pages in this wizard use the Windows system colors and fonts, and they also should meet accessibility requirements. Unless otherwise specified, your customized wizard pages cannot contain any special HTML formatting, such as tables with visible borders, images, or anchors. Only plain text and form elements (where required) are allowed. Tables with invisible borders can be used for layout.

To match the user's system colors, all HTML pages except the ICWsign.htm page must contain no color or font attributes unless otherwise specified. The Internet Connection Wizard defines font styles and colors to match the user's system.

The only requirement for implementing forms within the HTML pages is that the forms use the NAME parameters in the required <FORM> elements noted in this topic. You can specify token names for all other elements in your HTML pages, and these elements are posted to your sign-up server.

Back and Next button functionality

Internet Connections Wizard-mode sign-up has specific requirements that must be met in order for the Back and Next buttons in the wizard to work correctly.

The sample sign-up server code included in the IEAK already conforms to these requirements.

Back button

For the Back button to work properly, you must add a FORM element to the sign-up server page that specifies the URL of the Back button. To retain the data previously collected in the sign-up process, you must append all data that you would like to retain to the URL used for the Back button.

The following is the FORM element required for the Back button to send the user to the previous page of the sign-up process. Note that the data is appended to the URL in name-value pairs:

<FORM NAME="BACK"
 ACTION="http://myserver/page2.asp"?firstname=bob&lastname=smith&address=...">
</FORM>
Note

The NAME element and its value must use all uppercase capitalization because the Internet Connection Wizard is case-sensitive.

Next button

For the Next button to work properly, you must add a FORM element to the sign-up server page that specifies the URL of the Next button. For the collected data to be passed to the next page in the sign-up process, you must add hidden form fields on each of your sign-up server pages. The field should contain the data elements that are collected on this and all previous screens. The URL that you reference must contain code that collects the data from the previous page and displays the next page of the sign-up process.

The following is the FORM element required for the Next button to send the user to the next page of the sign-up process:

<FORM NAME="NEXT"
 ACTION="http://myserver/page2.asp">
</FORM>

Accessibility requirements

To ensure that the elements on the page are accessible by using only the keyboard, each form element must meet the following requirements:

  • An access key must be associated with the FORM element. Use the Internet Explorer ACCESSKEY= parameter in the <INPUT> tag. The access key character should be identified with an underline, using the <U> tag. The letters b, f, g, n, and o are reserved for the Internet Connection Wizard and cannot be used as access keys.

  • Each element on the page must be part of the Internet Connection Wizard Tab key order. To be included in the Internet Connection Wizard Tab key order, the element must have a unique ID in the <INPUT> tag.

  • Each element should have a label associated with it. To associate a label for the different HTML form input types, use the Internet Explorer LABEL= parameter.

Example

The following option button form element meets the Internet Connection Wizard accessibility requirements:

<INPUT ID="option2"
 TYPE="radio"
 NAME="billing"
 VALUE="hour"
 ACCESSKEY="h"
 CHECKED
>
<LABEL for="option2">
 5 <U>H</U>ours per month for $10.
</LABEL>

HTML and design requirements

Each page of the Internet Connection Wizard should have the following design elements, and adhere to the following design conventions.

Important

Only text and HTML form elements are allowed. No images, hyperlinks, or scroll bars are allowed.

Style sheet

Do not specify any font style or color attributes. The parent wizard sets these attributes. If you use a <TABLE> tag in your error pages, the tag must include the following style:

<TABLE style="font: 8pt 'ms sans serif' buttontext"> </TABLE>

Required form elements

This page must include four HTML <FORM> elements to specify different page properties:

Element Requirements

The unique PAGEID for the page

The NAME of the form must be PAGEID (case sensitive). The ACTION attribute of the form must be a unique ID that does not match the PAGEID of any other page in the ISP section of the wizard (for example, <FORM NAME="PAGEID" ACTION="page4"></FORM>).

The Back button function

The NAME for the form must be BACK (case sensitive). The ACTION attribute for this form should be the absolute URL for the previous page (for example, ACTION="HTTP://signup/bin/page1.cgi"). However, no data is posted to this page.

The characteristics of the page

The form is identified with the NAME PAGETYPE (case sensitive). Because this is a standard frame where the ISP defines the entire space, the form's ACTION attribute must be an empty string (for example, ACTION="").

The Next button function

The NAME for the form must be NEXT (case sensitive). This is the form that contains the actual form elements to be sent back to the Internet service provider's sign-up server. There are no restrictions on the token names for the <INPUT> elements within the form. The ACTION attribute for the form should be the absolute URL where the form information should be posted. The URL that you post to on your server should contain a script that receives the data and then displays the next HTML page of the wizard.

Additional references



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