How members log in and add/edit profiles

Community Box gives you flexible ways to manage member access and add profiles.

With all of these options, you can brand your directory to match your own website design so your members won't even know they are using Community Box. The only exception to this is on our free plan, where there is a small "Powered by Community Box" link at the bottom of the directory.

Option 1: Members log in with a Community Box account and add/edit their own profiles

This is the simplest and most popular option. Members can sign up for a Community Box account and add/edit profiles, all without leaving your website.

How to enable member signup

To allow members to sign up directly, make sure the “Add Entry” button is visible in your directory search bar. You’ll find this setting in your dashboard in the “Look and Feel” tab, under "Buttons", where you can also change what text displays on the button.

When a member clicks this button:

• A pop-up box appears asking them to log in
• If they don’t have an account yet, they can click “Sign Up”
• They create their own username and password

They can then use these details anytime to log in and add or edit their profile.

If a member forgets their password, they can simply click the “Forgot Password” link to reset it. They will receive an email with a code to verify their email address and choose a new password.

How members add a profile

Once a member is logged in to their account, they’ll see a form that they can complete to add their profile.

You design this form in your dashboard under “Form Designer”.

Here, you can:

• Choose what information to collect
• Decide which fields appear publicly on the profile
• Customise the layout to suit your directory

In short, you’re in full control of what details members provide and what visitors see.

How to approve profiles before they go live

You can choose whether profiles are:

• Published immediately, or
• Moderated before publishing

You’ll find this setting in your dashboard in the “Look and Feel” tab, under "Moderation and signup".

How members edit their profile

To allow members to edit their profiles, make sure the “Add Entry” button is visible in your directory search bar. You’ll find this setting in your dashboard in the “Look and Feel” tab, under "Buttons", where you can also change what text displays on the button.

When they are logged in, members can click on the "Edit Entry" button which will launch the form and allow members to edit their details. If they are not logged in and they click on the "Edit Entry" button, they will be prompted to log in first.

Option 2: Members log in through a third-party platform and add/edit their own profiles  

Community Box supports Single Sign On (SSO) for the following platforms:

• MemberSpace
• Squarespace Member Sites
• Thinkific
• Kajabi

This means that members don't need a separate Community Box login. For example, if you were using Kajabi, your members would log in with their Kajabi account and Community Box would automatically know who they were.

The process for setting up these integrations depends on the platform.

How to enable member signup via Squarespace Member Sites, Thinkific or Kajabi

Please get in touch with our support team on help@communitybox.co to activate the relevant integration.

How to enable member signup via MemberSpace

Go to the "Integrations" tab on the Community Box dashboard and select MemberSpace. From there you can watch a video tutorial and link your MemberSpace account.

How members add or edit a profile with Squarespace Member Sites, Thinkific or Kajabi

Once your member has logged in, the process to add, edit or moderate profiles is the same as if they had logged in via a Community Box account.

How members add or edit a profile with MemberSpace

With our MemberSpace integration, your members can manage their profile details either via the MemberSpace account editor, or through the Community Box profile form.

Unless you need a field that isn't available on MemberSpace (such as an image gallery) then we would generally recommend that your members manage their profile details via MemberSpace. This is because they will already have added some information when initially signing up to MemberSpace so it's easier for them to manage everything in one place. Their profile details will automatically sync to the directory in Community Box.

Option 3: Member profiles are imported from a spreadsheet or added by an admin

If you already have an existing list of your members, you can import the data via a Google spreadsheet or manually add profiles through the Community Box dashboard.

If you import or add the initial profiles yourself, you can optionally and provide access to your members afterwards so they can edit their information.

How to enable profile imports via a spreadsheet

1. Add your member data into Google Sheets
2. Connect your sheet to Community Box via the “Integrations” tab in your dashboard
3. Map your spreadsheet fields to your directory fields

There’s also a video tutorial in the dashboard to guide you through the process.

If you plan to allow members to edit their own profiles in the future, when importing a spreadsheet, you can check the box that says “Add member account for each new profile”.

How members edit their profile

Community Box includes a feature called “Grant Ownership” that allows you to transfer profile ownership to members.

1. Go to the "Profiles" tab in your dashboard
2. Select the profiles you want to transfer to memberss
3. Click the “Grant Ownership” button

Once the process has completed, you will have the option to download a spreadsheet containing temporary passwords for any new accounts created.

You can then either:

• Share these temporary passwords directly with members, or
• Let members claim their own account (recommended)

How members claim their account

Make sure you have completed the Grant Ownership process before doing this step.

Let’s say your directory is embedded at:

https://example.com/directory   

To allow a member to claim their account, send them this link:

https://example.com/directory#confirm-account   

The important part is #confirm-account at the end.

The member will:

1. Enter their email address (this must match the email used in their profile)
2. Receive an email with a verification link
3. Click on the link to verify their email address
4. Set up a new password

Once they have verified their email and created the account, they will be the new profile owner.

Option 4: Member profiles are added from a form using our Google Sheets or Zapier integration

If you would like your members, team or clients to submit their details without having to create a Community Box account, you can set up a form and then use either our Google Sheets or Zapier integrations to automatically add their profile details.

How to enable the Zapier or Google Sheets form integrations

For detailed instructions on how to set up forms and use these integrations, read our How to collect information without Community Box accounts support article.

How members add a profile

Members will fill in a form that you have created (for example using Squarespace, Google Forms or Typeform) and the information they provide will either:

• Be added automatically to your directory via Zapier, or
• Be added to a Google Sheet, ready to be imported into your directory

How to approve profiles before they go live

With the most basic Zapier setup, form data will be added instantly to your directory so there is no moderation option. However, if you are more experienced at using Zapier you may be able to set up an additional step between the trigger (a form is filled in) and the action (add a profile to Community Box).

With Google Sheets, you need to manually click a button on your spreadsheet toolbar each time you import profiles, so you can always review and edit the form data before importing it into your directory.

How members edit their profile

Because this option is designed specifically for people who do not want their members to log in, by default members can't edit their profile data once they have submitted the form.

However, if at a later date you decide that you would like your members to edit their information, you can follow the steps for granting ownership of profiles. This allows members to verify their email and create a Community Box account that will be linked to their profile.

Summary

Community Box gives you flexibility depending on how you run your community:

• Option 1: Let members sign up and manage their own profiles via Community Box
• Option 2: Use Single Sign On (SSO) to allow members to log in with supported third-party platforms
• Option 3: Import existing profiles (or add them manually) and optionally assign ownership to members for editing
• Option 4: Collect member details with a simple form (no login required) and use our Zapier or Google Sheets integration to add profiles to your directory

Need any extra help with setting up one of these options? You can contact our friendly support team on help@communitybox.co