BuddyPress.org

Hi Tom-

I’d guess that you (or the previous site admin) edited the Display Name field to be called “Name.” You can check by visiting this screen on your installation: /wp-admin/users.php?page=bp-profile-setup

“Display Name” is usually the first profile field created, so if you inspect the input, and it has the name=field_1, then you can guess that your “Name” field is the “Display Name” field I’m talking about, just renamed, similar to how you renamed the “Base profile.” It sounds like when you’re talking about “Forum Name” you’re talking about BP’s Base Profile > Display Name, but with your own naming convention.

I also was wrong about the synchronization between Display Name and First and Last name. If I update the Display Field to be “Too Slim”, the WP First Name will become “Too” and the WP Last Name will become “Slim,” assuming that “Enable BuddyPress to WordPress profile syncing” (s you said). The WordPress “Display Name” field will become “Too Slim.” The WP “Display Name” is also looks like what is used by bbPress in its loops.

So, if you want your users to be able to change the name used by the bbPress forums, you’ll need to have “Enable BuddyPress to WordPress profile syncing” checked. Then, the WP “Display Name” field is updated when the BP “Display Name” field is checked. If you want to leave WP’s First and Last Name fields to not be synced after sign-up, the following code could be added to your bp-custom.php file or wherever you keep your customization code:

// Remove BP's action because it syncs nickname, display_name, first_name and last_name.
remove_action( 'xprofile_data_after_save', 'xprofile_sync_wp_profile_on_single_field_set' );
function my_custom_xprofile_sync_wp_display_name_only_on_single_field_set( $user_id = 0 ) {
	// Bail if profile syncing is disabled.
	if ( bp_disable_profile_sync() ) {
		return true;
	}

	if ( empty( $user_id ) ) {
		$user_id = bp_loggedin_user_id();
	}

	if ( empty( $user_id ) ) {
		return false;
	}

	$fullname = xprofile_get_field_data( bp_xprofile_fullname_field_id(), $user_id );

	bp_update_user_meta( $user_id, 'nickname',   $fullname  );

	wp_update_user( array( 'ID' => $user_id, 'display_name' => $fullname ) );
}
add_action( 'xprofile_data_after_save', 'my_custom_xprofile_sync_wp_display_name_only_on_single_field_set' );

It’s a modified version of this function, leaving the first and last name logic out: https://github.com/buddypress/BuddyPress/blob/5.0.0/src/bp-xprofile/bp-xprofile-functions.php#L803

Hi Tom-

It sounds like you have a lot of balls in the air. For instance:

Remember, I have removed the original xprofile_sync function.

Honestly, I can’t know enough about your setup to tell you anything for sure. What I can tell you is this:

• bbPress uses WordPress’s “Display Name” field, not a BuddyPress field.
• BuddyPress only updates the WP “Display Name” field when profile syncing is enabled.
• BP’s default sync function also updates WP’s “First Name” and “Last Name”
• The replacement function I provided updates WP’s “Display Name” but _not_ the “First Name” and “Last Name” fields.

Feel free to comment out the “nickname” update line. You won’t hurt anything. You’ll just not update the BP “nickname” field. Which won’t affect the name bbPress displays.

Sorry, it’s not the BP nickname field. That’s actually a WP user meta field.

Other things that appear to be true:
• BP uses WP’s “Display Name” to label the user in activity items and elsewhere.
• WP’s ‘nickname’ meta is required but not used widely?

So it seems like the key field for display in BP, bbPress and WP is WP’s “display name” field.

Ha! Names are confusing!

Note that you will have to have “Enable BuddyPress to WordPress profile syncing” checked in order for the function I provided to work.

Also, “WP offers the ability to set the display_name to any of the other names (nickname, first name last name, username, and more)”, yes that’s true, but when your preference is saved, the value you chose is copied into the “display_name” field in the wp_user database, so don’t get distracted by that issue–it’s still the WP “display_name” that bbPress and BuddyPress care about.

Great, thanks for the update!