User Self-Registration

Effortless user-management is something of a holy grail when it comes to creating and maintaining complex IT systems. Ideally, any number of users should be well organized into relevant groups with policy and rights settings which allow them to work efficiently. In addition, the incorporation of new users into the system should be pain-free, and adaptable to suit relevant circumstances.

MyQ helps by providing a range of user management solutions, from complex policy and rights settings to simple and low effort ways to add new users to your printing environment. For smaller organizations, the manual addition of new users may not present a serious burden, larger companies often rely on syncing users from an external source such as an Entra ID. However, in many scenarios, giving users the ability to register themselves (with any necessary restrictions) can be a huge time-saver.

Administrators can alter their MyQ system to allow automatic registration of new users in a variety of ways. These users can be automatically added to particular groups to ensure they have appropriate permissions and receive a configurable email giving them any information necessary about their new account.

Read on to find out about the available methods for user self-registration, how to set them up, and additional considerations which may be necessary depending on your organizational circumstances.

Methods of Self-Registration

The allowed methods for self-registration can be configured in Settings, Users. Four methods are available and can be used in combination:

Registering in the Web User Interface - allows users to create a new account from the MyQ login screen.
Register by receiving a job via LPR/IPPS/RAW protocols - after an unregistered user sends a job from their computer using one of these protocols MyQ detects their name according to the currently set method of user detection and creates a new account.
Register by receiving a job via email - if jobs via email are enabled, new users sending a job this way can be registered under the email address that the job was sent from.
Register by receiving local job meta data - this method allows the MyQ Desktop Client to detect jobs sent via local print monitoring and create new user accounts accordingly, however it has been deprecated in Desktop Client version 10.2.

Any of these methods can be configured to add new users to a particular user group, and you can choose to register new users from one method to a different group than that selected for other methods. In addition, you can edit the automated email, which is sent to newly self-registered users, by default this email contains the new user’s username, PIN, and PIN validity.

In addition, in Settings, User Authentication, a fifth method can be configured. This method involves registering a new user when an unknown ID card is swiped. Administrators can choose between three workflows if an unknown ID card is swiped:

Authentication fails.
If an existing user swipes a new or unknown ID card, they can then enter their existing account credentials, and register the card to that account (this option is only supported on Embedded Terminals version 10.2+).
A new user is created based on the card credentials and can be automatically added to the user group specified by an admin in User Authentication settings.

We will look at each of these methods in some detail, taking into account the possible limitations of each method, and best practices.

Registering in the Web Interface

In many cases this is the simplest method to allow self-registration for new users. Users simply click New Account on the login screen of the Web User Interface, enter their Full name and Email, and then receive an email containing their PIN (they can also choose to view their PIN immediately in the pop-up which appears after registration.

The main benefit of this registration workflow that almost anyone who regularly uses the internet will be perfectly familiar with it. In addition, after registering in this manner, new users who sign into the Web User Interface will immediately see the option to edit their User Profile on their Home tab. Here they can alter their Full name, Email, and Default language, set a Password for their account, and choose to generate a New PIN.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that only certain users will be likely to find or use this registration method. They will need to know how to navigate to the login screen of the Web User Interface to locate it and are still unlikely to use it without the instruction of their immediate manager or office administrator.

Register by Sending Job via LPR/IPPS/RAW Protocol

With this option selected, users can register themselves by sending a print job from their computer via the LPR, IPPS or RAW protocol.

While this option can be helpful to allow new users to directly print to devices on their network, it is not recommended as a standard method of user registration. While a new account will be created, as no email is provided, and so the newly created user cannot receive their sign-in details.

In one-off instances an administrator could then locate this user’s credentials in MyQ and pass on the information, this requires a lot of manual intervention, and is therefore impractical.

Register by Sending Job via Email

This option requires a MyQ account which is already set up to receive jobs via email, administrators configure these settings in Settings, Jobs, in the User Web Interface. Once this is set up, a defined email address and procedure should already exist for sending jobs to MyQ, which is clearly communicated to the users in your organization.

Once the jobs via email procedure is established, new users can send jobs via email as a method of self-registration. The name of the newly created account is the email address that the email was sent from, and the user will receive an email with their account details.

At organizations where submitting jobs via email is common practice this method may be valued for its simplicity, asking a colleague how they normally print can quickly and easily result in an effective new registration. Conversely, if your users don’t regularly send jobs to print via email, this method may seem counterintuitive and remain largely unused.

In Jobs, Settings it’s possible to restrict jobs via email to particular user groups. Unregistered users are not in any user group (by definition) and will be registered as a new user when submitting a job via email regardless. However, if your user settings automatically place these newly registered users into a user group that is not allowed to submit jobs via email, new users created this way will be unable to submit further jobs via email.

Register by Swiping an Unknown ID Card

Unlike the other options listed here, the registration of new users when swiping an unknown ID card is configured in the User Authentication settings of the Web User Interface. Under Unknown ID card behavior administrators can select Register a new user and optionally select a group that these new users can be added to.

This means, if an ID card that your MyQ system recognizes is swiped at a card reader, and is not attached to an existing account, a new account is created. This account is initially created with the name anonymX (anonym1, anonym2, etc.) and the user is automatically logged in to the terminal. There, they can edit the account using the Edit Account embedded action. If the Enable user profile editing option is enabled on the Users settings tab, they can change their full name, email and default language; otherwise, they can only change the default language.

This method works well in situations where organizations have robust ID card procedures and may often result in the creation of new accounts for users who weren’t necessarily aware they needed one. However, this method does not include an automatic email informing the user that an account has been created. For this reason, user education about this registration method is vital, as is prompting new users to edit their account details.

Common Issues with User Self-Registration

If users frequently self-register in your MyQ account, it’s a good idea to keep tabs on this behavior to ensure no complications arise as a result. Issues which can be created by frequent self-registration include:

Registered users who are unaware they have an active account and may try to create another.
Registered users lacking or with inaccurate basic user information.
Multiple accounts created by one user via different registration methods.
Existing users creating new accounts by accident (for example after submitting a job via email from an unknown email address).

In order to identify and correct errors of this type, we recommend regularly reviewing your users in the Users tab of the web user interface. For large organizations, editing and sorting of the available columns can help to identify user accounts with issues such as missing user information. User details can be edited here manually, but more importantly, this information can help you understand how self-registration may be being misused.

With an understanding of errors that may be taking place during self-registration, organizations can educate their members to help them create and manage accounts appropriately in the future. In addition, past errors can inform future decision making when choosing how to manage user registration across your MyQ setup.