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I just want ONE consistent username to appear EVERYWHERE in WP/ BP

  • @rossagrant

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    I’m sure we have all experienced this frustration.

    I find that there are TOO MANY name fields for a user across WP and BP and this can lead to confusion and inconsistency.

    There is the username (required), first name, last name, Nickname and I ‘m getting in a muddle.

    The fact that users can change their BP name is crazy to as it can lead to all kind of duplicate names etc.

    I want to display just the members username that they sign up for when they first register with BP to appear across the ENTIRE site if possible?

    In activity streams, forum posts, EVEYWHERE. You’ll notice that their username never changes with the @mentions but a user can quite easily change the name that will appear in forum posts and activity streams and it can be very confusing when the @username doesn’t match the name the user is posting under.

    Anyone else having trouble with this?

Viewing 22 replies - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)

  • @catagirl

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @rossagrant Yes i’m the same… this username Vs name thing is really annoying. I posted the same message a few days ago, hopefully someone will give us an answer.

    Also, I think that when you reply to someone, it should automatically fill in the @username of the person. (like i did at the beginning of this reply ;o)…

    @agrundner

    Member

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Agree with both statements above. The @mention process isn’t intuitive for a newbie when a member’s display name is different than their username. Perfect example above… Andrea is the display name, but to @mention her I would have to use @catagirl (found by clicking through or hovering over her member name link).

    @rossagrant

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    When someone uses the @username are you supposed to get a notification because you don’t. It says you do when you click on the ? next to the @username on someones profile but you only get it appearing under the @mentions. It would be good to get a notification wouldn’t it?

    With regards to names, their should just be one username that is used for everything on the front end. The first and Last name is useful in the backend but out on the site just ONE global name is essential in my eyes!

    @r-a-y

    Keymaster

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Here are some functions that will override the display name to username:
    http://pastebin.com/kZQnQaJA (updated with forum display name overrides)

    Paste it in your theme’s functions.php file.

    There might be a better way to override the display name for the parent activity update, but this was a quick hack. If anyone’s up for a better fix, please post it!

    @rossagrant

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Hi Ray!
    That’s amazing mate,
    Will this display the uername sitewide? Forums, Groups, activity, messages etc? And is this something that will be integrated into BP as standard in the future?

    With regards to the parent activity, you said there might be a better way for this? In what way do you mean?

    @rossagrant

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Right the only places I still see the BP Name (required) field showing, rather than the username is in private messages sent to users and in my OWN sidebar where I have logged in.

    Is this something on the roadmap to centralise with WP as it does cause lots of confusion?

    @catagirl

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Thanks for the great help @r-a-y and @rossagrant

    I’ve just turn this code into a small plugin for people who don’t want to mess around in the code. I’m going to see if I can upload it to the extend section. I think i’m going to call it “BP Username Fix”

    @rossagrant

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Nice one Andrea. As I mentioned, it still shows the users full name in private messages and on their actual login sidebar. Any way we can alter the code to show username here also?

    @catagirl

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @rossagrant Yes i just saw that… also the full name still shows when users leave a comment in a blog. I think we need to come up with something else before i upload this code as a plugin…
    I’m considering modifying the registration page to “hide” the name field all together, but since it’s required, i need to find a way to fill in the name field using the data entered in the username field… Maybe using JavaScript… not sure yet
    I’ll let you know

    @rossagrant

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Great idea,
    Yeah it would be good to somehow hide the first and last name fields and have them filled with copies of the username somehow.
    Let me know how you get on!

    @r-a-y

    Keymaster

    14 years, 7 months ago

    I just talked things over with Andrea; I’ll be releasing a plugin shortly with the code snippets posted above.
    I’ll add private message username overrides as well. Is there any other place where display names are used?

    However, I do see some benefit with leaving the “Name” field on the registration page. The name gets displayed on a BP profile – eg. http://testbp.org/members/andy/profile/.

    Also Twitter does something similar; they add the “Name” field to the sidebar of each profile.

    FYI, first name, last name and nickname fields are not added to the registration page unless you manually created them as xprofile fields. Look at testbp.org’s registration page for an example: http://testbp.org/accounts/

    @catagirl

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @r-a-y The name still shows up when users leave a comments on a blog… also I understand what your are saying about the “name” field, but i still believe that it should be up to each webmaster to decided if that field should be used or not in the “Profile Field Setup”. If you manually create a user from your main admin, you don’t get asked a name, just the username.

    @rossagrant

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Sound Great Ray,
    I noticed it in private messaging, on the sidebar that tells you you are logged in and when posting a comment.

    If we could leave the name on the registration form that is fine but I just want the username displayed on all front end stuff that the user can contribute to.

    The main reason for this is to stop people from pretending to be other users.

    I really appreciate this and if anyone notices where else the names need changing then let us know! Cheers RAY!

    @agrundner

    Member

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Sounds good @r-a-y. I agree the display name should still appear in the profile page along with the @username.

    @catagirl

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @r-a-y I agree with @agrundner about the name showing on the profile page. But I think this is the only place it should be seen.

    @bofw

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @r-a-y Hi matey

    Did you get any further on releasing this as a simple plugin?

    Cheers!

    @r-a-y

    Keymaster

    14 years, 7 months ago

    I’m about to package the plugin; though it requires two core hacks.
    Check back in a few hours.

    @bofw

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    Cheers r-a-y!

    @r-a-y

    Keymaster

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @bofw @catagirl @agrundner – Plugin is out!
    https://buddypress.org/community/groups/buddypress-usernames-only

    Read the instructions! You have to apply two core hacks.

    @agrundner

    Member

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @r-a-y I’ve been MIA from this site for about a week. I just wanted to say THANKS for posting this!

    @mistercyril

    Participant

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @r-a-y WOW your a total savior for me. Thank you soo much for coming up with all these “concrete” solutions.
    Really appreciate it man. BTW, if I ever make a penny with my site (due to open this week), I’ll remember to make a contribution ;-)

    @r-a-y

    Keymaster

    14 years, 7 months ago

    @mistercyril – Cool! I hope you’ll remember ;)

Viewing 22 replies - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)
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