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Internet
Service Provider

Concluding the Sign-up Session

The customer sign-up session is concluded when the customer either accepts or declines the sign-up agreement by clicking the appropriate button control on the final ISS HTML page.

If the customer accepts the sign-up agreement, the ISS builds an Internet sign-up (.ins) file that contains information about the customer and the ISP, and redirects the HTTP client to this .ins file. A Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type of "application/x-Internet-signup" has been created for this file. This MIME type is associated with the configuration program on the HTTP client. When it receives data from the .ins file, the HTTP client sends the data stream to the configuration program, which continues with the sign-up procedure. This is the official handoff of responsibility from the ISS back to the HTTP client.

If the customer declines or quits the sign-up agreement, the ISS redirects the HTTP client to an "Abort" .ins file that contains only a "Status=Abort" key. As in the acceptance sequence, this is the end of the sign-up server's responsibility.

In both of these conclusions, the user's decision must be passed to the ISP database. While processing the final CGI request, during which time the Accept or Cancel .ins file is created, any required database processing needed for handling the conclusion of the sign-up transaction should be performed. In the sample sign-up CGI code, for example, the transaction state is set to either "Accepted" or "Canceled." This is the strategic section of code that is provided in this kit; you must adapt this code to your specific database environment.