You can give manually created or imported students the option to set their own password the first time they log in to your Thinkific site with an express sign in link!
In this article:
Course and Bundle Welcome Emails
Manually Sending the Express Sign In Link
About This Feature
If you are manually creating students, you can opt to have your students choose their own password using the express sign in link. This is also available for student accounts that are created via our public API, Zapier, and Infusionsoft.
When students sign up on their own through your Thinkific site, they get to pick their own password at the time of sign up. For students who have their account created for them, the express sign in link is an alternative to allow the student to choose their own password the first time they sign in to your Thinkific site.
Email Variables
The express sign in link is available as a variable to use in your site welcome email, course welcome email, and bundle welcome email. A variable allows you to get a dynamically populated URL that is unique to each student that the email is sent to.
To populate the express sign in link into your emails, you can use {{express_sign_in_url}} in the emails. Note that the variable populates an actual URL, so we recommend using the variable when you are creating a link in the body of the email.
To create a link in your email, highlight the text you'd like to use for the link, and click on the link icon in the text editor. In the URL bar, input the variable {{express_sign_in_url}}.
Note: while you're working in the email editor, you cannot test the new link you've just created using the variable. The variable will only auto-populate the actual express sign in link when the email is delivered to a user.
Conditional Statement: Only Show the Express Sign In Link for Students Who Haven't Set a Password
In your welcome emails, you can also use a conditional statement to only show students who have not yet created a password the option to use the express sign in link.
The conditional statement is an 'if' statement, where any content wrapped between these attributes will only display if the student hasn't created a password yet. To set up the conditional statement, use the following:
{% if initial_password_required %}
Input content here that will be hidden if the student has a password already
{% endif %}
This conditional statement is available for use in any of your welcome emails.
Site Welcome Email
By default, your site welcome email will contain the variables and conditional statement needed to provide the express sign in link for new users to create their own password. If you've made changes to your site welcome email, you may have deleted the attributes needed to show the express sign in link to your students. You will want to add:
{% if initial_password_required %} Click here to set your password. {% endif %}
to your welcome email, and set the link for "Click here to set your password." to {{express_sign_in_url}} as noted in the previous section.
You can also use the option of the text editor toolbar to switch to code view using the </> icon, to paste in the following HTML code directly.
{% if initial_password_required %}
<a href="{{express_sign_in_url}}" target="_blank">Click here to set your password.</a>
{% endif %}
Course and Bundle Welcome Emails
By default, the course and bundle welcome emails do not contain the express sign in link variable and attributes needed for students to set up their password.
If you have disabled your site welcome emails, and would like to include the option to set up their password using the express sign in link through the course/bundle welcome email, this is possible using the email variable. You can also use the same conditional statement as the site welcome email in your course/bundle welcome emails to hide the express sign in link when the student has already created their password.
Manually Sending the Express Sign In Link
If you'd prefer not to send the express sign in link via the welcome email, you can also access it via the User page.
Student Experience
When students click on the express sign in link they'll arrive at a page like this:
All they have to do is set a password and they'll be taken straight to your content.
If a student has already created their password and try and use the express sign in link again, they will be automatically redirected to the default sign in page. They will not able to re-use the express sign in link to change their password or create a new password.