set cookies or let system know a user has been on site

Question

I would like to set a button on my site that links to a registration page (this registration is off site by a company called Wufoo so it will not be registering on the WordPress site) if a visitor has not filled out the registration page before. With Wufoo, I have embed code, so when the user clicks the button on my homepage for the first time, they will be taken to a page "/register-for-live" and on this page will be an embedded form. Upon completion of this form. The user will be given a new link to the page that actually has the live stream.

Trying to figure this out, is there a way that if someone has already filled that form out, the button on the home page takes them to the page that actually has the live-streaming event? Or alternatively, if the button goes to the same page when they get there, WordPress can tell they filled out the form and load the live-stream instead?

Answer 1

I don't think sending your user off site is the best handling in the first place. I would honestly just use Gravity Forms and use the User Registration Add on - if you are already paying for your plugins. It just seems to weird to me to send your user offsite to register, but I'm probably missing data and it doesn't look like wufoo has User Registration integrated.

You can create two page templates for home (one for registered users and one non-registered users) and add a WP Redirect https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_redirect that sends them to the approiate page depending on if they are logged in or not.

For added functionality you can use this free little plugin to auto-login users once they have registered and hide the admin bar from them. https://github.com/cameck/Gravity-Forms-Auto-Login

Answer 2

Cookies are unreliable for anything longer then a specific session. Some users set them to be deleted once they close the browser, some just use more than one computer (some? at this time probably everybody uses both desktop and "mobile") but a cookie can be set only on one of them.

If a session is good enough, you should redirect when the form in completed successfully to a specific page on your site which will set the cookie. If you need something which should be reliable for a longer time, the only way to go is to register the user on your site and make him login to access the content (or send him an email with a code to use).