FAQ

Questions this page answers

Conduit is a social blogging site with authentication, article feeds, profiles, comments, favorites, and account settings.

Use this page to choose the answer that matches what you are trying to do:

Start with Before you start when you need to know which access state or information is needed first.

Before you start

Authentication identifies the account that can use protected parts of Conduit. The Login and Register routes are available to unauthenticated users, while Settings requires an authenticated user.

Have the following in place before you begin:

Conduit authenticates users with JWT-based authentication. The application uses the token to identify the authenticated user.

With the access state and account information ready, continue to Sign in or create an account.

Sign in or create an account

Use Login to enter an existing account, or Register to create one. Login asks for Email and Password; Register adds Username.

Prerequisites

• For Login, have the existing account's email address and password.
• For Register, have the username, email address, and password for the new account.

Steps

1. Choose the route that matches your task:

   If you want to…	Use
   enter an existing account	Sign in
   create an account	Create an account

2. Follow only the sequence for the route you chose:

   Route	Sequence
   Login	1. If you need a new account, select Need an account?; otherwise, enter a value in Email, enter a value in Password, and select Sign in.
   Register	1. If you already have an account, select Have an account?; otherwise, enter a value in Username, enter a value in Email, enter a value in Password, and select Sign up.

Sign in and Sign up are disabled while the required form values are not valid.

Result: A successful Login or Register request takes you to Home. If the request is rejected, the returned error text appears in the error list on the authentication page.

Use Home and its feed states

Home is the article-browsing surface: it offers Your Feed, Global Feed, popular tags, and a paginated article list.

Prerequisites

• To use Your Feed, be signed in.
• To browse the public article list, open Home and use Global Feed.

Steps

1. Open Home.

2. Choose the feed that answers your question:

   If you want to…	Select
   read articles from users you follow	Your Feed
   read the global article list	Global Feed

3. Use the Popular Tags area to choose a tag when a tag is listed.

While tags are loading, the page displays Loading tags.... If no tags are available after loading, it displays No tags are here... yet.

While articles are loading, the list displays Loading articles.... When the following feed has no articles, the list displays Your feed is empty. Follow some users to see their articles here, or check out the Global Feed!. When the other article list is empty, the list displays No articles are here... yet.

Result: Home shows the selected feed, its article results, or the loading or empty-state message that matches the current list state.

For account maintenance, continue to Update Settings or sign out.

Update Settings or sign out

Settings is the account-maintenance surface for the profile picture URL, username, short bio, email address, and password.

Prerequisites

• Sign in before opening Settings.
• Have the profile values you want to keep.

The Settings fields are:

Steps

1. Open Settings.

2. Choose the action that matches your task:

   If you want to…	Select
   save profile changes	Update Settings
   leave the account	Or click here to logout.

3. For profile changes, enter the new values in the applicable fields.

4. For a password change, enter the new value in New Password.

5. Select Update Settings.

When you are not changing the password, leave New Password empty. The update omits the password in that case.

Result: A successful settings update takes you to the updated user's profile. Selecting Or click here to logout. logs you out and takes you to Home. If the settings update is rejected, its returned error text appears in the error list.

If an authentication, loading, or network message appears, continue to When loading or errors occur.

When loading or errors occur

Use the message you can read on screen to choose the next help page. The application displays Each returned error string is rendered as a list item.

When authentication is temporarily unavailable, the header displays Connecting... and the title Auth unavailable - retrying automatically. Authentication retries automatically.

When you have identified the message, continue to the linked task or troubleshooting page.

Continue with the right help page

Choose the destination that matches your next action:

Result: You have the next task or troubleshooting page for the question you are answering.