Users to create catalog entries without access to cms zone.

Synopsis:

I have a website with usergroup subscriptions enabled for different student levels. I'm trying to maintain a catalog of student information.
When a student registers for a new group (ie, new family member, under the same account), I'd like them to make another entry into the student info catalog... I have a limited understanding of how this works, but as far as I can see I would either need to allow access to the CMS Zone -or- create a custom entry form. 

Any ideas on how to do this easily?

ie.
Parent registers themselves on the website, then creates a student profile (Basic Contact Info).
THEN, same member wants to add a 2nd family member, (ie, a child)
so they subscribe to the "2nd family member" usergroup and they need to add another student profile for the child...

what's the best way to get the users to add student profiles when they sign up for a second subscription? (or a first for that matter...)

Thanks in advance!
Amituofo!

Ah, nevermind. my site broke before I even got to start this… :/ I've posted the information I have in my intro thread .

This is actually a question that is burning me as well, I have looked through the tutorials, but is there actually a way for example, that we could add a catalogue entry form to a page, for a user to fill out, not a contact form, but just a catalogue entry form for widget x.

Well Shifu, I lied, that option I just spelled out take the user to the admin zone to create the catalogue as well, hmmmm. Back to the drawing board.

It may be possible with the main_include_module block, but we're at the very fringes of out-of-the-box functionality here.

Thanks Chris, I think it is pushing the limit from my limited experience in Composr.
So then let me ask this, are logged in user supposed to be allowed to use the "Add Category" feature, and if so how, without giving them access to the admin zone, or are Catalogues to be used mainly by admins?
Thanks Chris

Hi,

It may look like the catalogue management is in the Admin Zone due to the unified admin navigation, but it's actually in the CMS zone - you can grant access to that zone. Just make sure you test it to make sure you have the various permissions and privileges set as you want. By default I think it doesn't allow CMS zone access, but once granted it let's people submit almost any kind of content but they'll be party to the validation feature.