feat: implements SHOW_REGISTRATION_LINKS feature toggle

[yusuf-musleh]

Description

This PR implements a SHOW_REGISTRATION_LINKS configuration variable to allow hiding the links to the registration form, while keeping the functionality for public registration enabled, through the /register url directly or through the API.

(cherry picked from commit 3025ab5)

Supporting information

Private-ref: BB-7694

Testing instructions

1. Set the SHOW_REGISTRATION_LINKS flag to False in both lms and cms
2. Check LMS: http://localhost:18000/ has no register button at the top
3. Check LMS: http://localhost:18000/register still works does work
4. Check LMS: http://localhost:18000/login doesn't show links to the registration form
5. Check CMS (studio): http://localhost:18010/ doesn't show links to register an account

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[viadanna]

Approved 👍

• I tested this:
• I read through the code
• I checked for accessibility issues
• Includes documentation

[yusuf-musleh]

Thanks @viadanna.

@mphilbrick211 This PR is ready.

[mphilbrick211]

Hi @openedx/vanguards! Is this something one of you could help review/merge? thanks!

[zainab-amir]

@mphilbrick211 yes, we can help review this. I will create a ticket in the backlog. Please note we are in the middle of a sprint and will be able to pick it next week.

[mphilbrick211]

@mphilbrick211 yes, we can help review this. I will create a ticket in the backlog. Please note we are in the middle of a sprint and will be able to pick it next week.

@zainab-amir - perfect, thanks so much!

[mubbsharanwar]

What is the purpose of this flag and how is this different from ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT_CREATION ?

[yusuf-musleh]

What is the purpose of this flag and how is this different from ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT_CREATION ?

@mubbsharanwar ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT_CREATION completely disables new account creation, however this flag SHOW_REGISTRATION_LINKS just hides/shows the UI needed to reach the signup page/form while the account creation functionality is still enabled, learners would be able to sign up by going to the register page URL directly and create an account.

[zainab-amir]

@yusuf-musleh can you comment on the product vision for this? In what cases would we want the link to not be visible but registration page to be accessible via url?

[yusuf-musleh]

@zainab-amir The main use case for this is when you want to limit/enforce your users (learners) to sign up through your own custom portal that makes API calls to LMS in order to create new users. This could be to enforce a certain standard or requirement that you have for your organization.

Setting the ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT_CREATION flag to False breaks that, as it completely disables the account creation. We've implemented this for a client that had this use case setup and thought it might be useful to upstream it as it is generic.

Accessing the /register page through the url directly is sort of a nice to have/fallback in case you want to manually send the link to your learners, but isn't the main benefit gained from this change.

[mubbsharanwar]

Hi @yusuf-musleh,
You added this feature for the legacy design/flow. Please replicate the same feature for the new micro frontend frontend-app-authn.

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[edx-pipeline-bot]

2U Release Notice: This PR has been deployed to the edX staging environment in preparation for a release to production.

[edx-pipeline-bot]

2U Release Notice: This PR has been deployed to the edX production environment.

[yusuf-musleh]

Hi @yusuf-musleh, You added this feature for the legacy design/flow. Please replicate the same feature for the new micro frontend frontend-app-authn.

@mubbsharanwar Thanks for the review/approval, I've created an internal ticket to replicate the same functionality on the new micro frontend.