Username Alias Hack

[Brianna]

VERSION 2 IS OUT

http://www.vbulletin.org/hacks/index.php?s=&action=showhack&hackid=993

ONLY use this thread to get the instructions to revert them if you had installed this version.





Does your forum have a number of admins? Ever look at your forum and see a member with 200+ posts and be like "who is this person? i've seen him/her before, but I don't remember this username" cos they had a name change, and changed their avatar and signature as well? I had this problem a few times. Another administrator changed the member's username and I was stumped. So I had this idea for a hack!

Anyways, here's what it does:

In the User Profile, it will display right beside "Search for user's posts." a list of "Aliases" which is what their previous usernames were, if they were changed at all.

Go here for an example of that (this is my profile at my forum): http://forums.crystaldimensions.com/member.php?s=&styleid=17&action=getinfo&userid=2

-also-

In the Admin CP, there will be an extra field for updating a User Profile, called "Aliases." You can change the Aliases field, but you don't have to, cos the script I wrote automatically appends the old username to that list of aliases. Also, it detects and deletes duplicate entries. Such as if your username is being changed back to "Person" and it was that before, and is now in the Aliases field, it will automatically be taken out of the aliases list. It does one other thing, it only allows a character limit of 70 characters in the list of aliases, but does not end the list with a chopped up username or a comma, instead it cuts off the end of the list to the last comma. If you update the aliases field manually, and the username at the same time, it will override the auto-update and it will update the aliases field to what you entered yourself.

Attached is a text file of the installation instructions! Hope you like it!

[Chris M]

Wow...

This looks cool:)

Satan

[Goldknight]

I like this hack, good job

/me install because this hack is including support...

[darkmaninc]

what's the proper sql query to add a new field into a existing table ??

[Velocd]

Originally posted by darkmaninc
what's the proper sql query to add a new field into a existing table ??

Run this query:
ALTER TABLE user ADD alias varchar(100) not null;

[darkmaninc]

ah yeah doh.... knew there was something i kept missing ....lol
hard to think with a headache...
Thanks Velocd :banana:

[Velocd]

I forgot to mention that this is a pretty cool hack. I might even consider allowing username-changes on my forum now because of it.

Another good addition of a hack to create would be one that logs all the users custom-titles they might have made. I may code this later on tonight if nobody beats me to it ;)

[Brianna]

Thank you everyone, this is my first hack i've ever made ^_^;

Any suggestions of improvement to make it even better, please let me know :D

[UltimaKing]

Very nice!

[Brianna]

oh, and I forgot to mention, a good purpose for manual entering of the alias field is when say a user changes their username to something really similar, but still different, it will auto add to the alias field anyways

like, a user at my forums has "seven" in his username, and he had it changed to "se7en" no real need for "seven" to be in the aliases field, lol

[Stylez]

i like it, good job baby :)

[musicfreak12399]

/me likes this hack a lot and clicks install

[N!ck]

perhaps some username similarity checking could be implemented?

[Link14716]

Can you say..... "Store Integration"? :)

[Goldknight]

Originally posted by Link14716
Can you say..... "Store Integration"? :)
It will be cool :) I ll buy you a cuba cigar if you do that ^_^

[DarkDraco07]

uh, how will this work with the store??

[Chris M]

@DarkDraco07 - I presume as follows :

1.) The user goes to the store, and selects "Change your Username" at "$" in price...
2.) The user pays the money, and changes their username...
3.) Their profile is updated with their Alias...

Satan

[ZiRu$]

damn good idea.....I'll definetely install it

[Brianna]

Originally posted by nicksaunders
perhaps some username similarity checking could be implemented?

Seems quite impossible, imo. I might not have much php experience, but overall I have programming experience, and I do not believe there is a way to do that very well. There are sooo many things to check, let alone any symbol/number/letter possible on the keyboard can be used towards a username. In my scenario, checking for seven to se7en or even VII or simply 7, we would have to do that for eight/8/?ight (see the accent there?) There would be too many things to do there and there is no noticeable pattern there, so therefor it is an impossible thing to do where there is a lack of limitations.

I hope that makes sense o.o

[ZiRu$]

Ok I just installed it.....works great.......only problem is how can I REMOVE My previous Username? Cause I did it as a test and i dont want it to show

[ZiRu$]

bump

[ZiRu$]

bump again

[Chris M]

Ziru$ - Just update your Profile in the Admin CP and remove it;)

Satan

[ZiRu$]

Thanks Hellsatan but it never worked. The "PREVIOUS USERNAMES" in my admin cp is EMPTY and it still shows on my profile :(

[freakyshiat]

No problems at all in my hacked 2.2.8, good job

[ZiRu$]

bump

[Chris M]

Hmmm...Let me think:)

I didnt install this hack yet;)

Satan

[ZiRu$]

ok then BUMP again

[ZiRu$]

last bump

[Talisman]

Wow. You've just solved a problem we don't have yet. Thanks for the great hack.

And ..... can I add one more "bump" for ZiRu$ ?? That would be very useful, too.

Way cool!

[Brianna]

I'm sorry, for some reason it hasn't sent me emails on updates to this thread o_O x.x Well, if you installed it properly, could it be a cache problem with your browser? Or did you try it a separate day or browser session? Did you check your database to see what is in the alias field? I tested to make sure that worked when I debugged it, and it did work fine..

[ZiRu$]

Nope.....i've done 2 formats since then....it's not that!

and i dont have access to phpmyadmin

[Brianna]

Can you get access? Or communicate with someone with the access?

[Opie]

would be nice if this worked with the store

[gameplanetz]

can this intregrated with PPN's change username via UCP?

[NuclioN]

A member changed her name and named herself 'nick name' ... it was not noticed. I changed it to 'name' and her alias went to 'nick'

(???)

The changed nick shoots into Coppa registrations awaiting moderation...... and if i manualy put it in registered it STAYS in the coppa..
As a matter of fact, all changed users are turning into Coppa users and render them static. You can't change their usergroup after that. Uninstall untill solved. :(

[Brianna]

I do not understand how it would affect usergroup at all.. What version of vB are you using? That was developed for 2.2.6 and I am now on 2.2.8 and have not installed it yet, but I can to see if their is a newer version conflict if that is the case.. I'll recheck my code again as well, I've learnt much more PHP since then :) Sorry it gave you problems like that :(

[NuclioN]

Running 2.2.6 this moment. It maybe isn't your hack Brianna, i've got wierd problems with the poll to lately.

[Boofo]

Running on 2.2.9 and working as advertised. Nice hack. Thank you. ;)

The only change I can recommend is maybe setting this up only for Admins (and maybe Mods or Supermods) to view. Sometimes a user might change their username because of being harassed or something like that. Just a thought. ;)

[Brianna]

NuclioN, before I developed my hack on my 2.2.6, I had problems with the poll as well; mainly it seemed that AOL users were not able to vote properly. I would suggest upgrading to 2.2.8, I've been using it for a while now and have had no problems, though that could be a problem for you if you have a ton of hacks installed :/

Boofo, I thought about that as well, but other users may be interested to know who a person is that changed their name as well. However, if a user is changing their name due to harassment, you can just clear out the alias field, that's why I put an option to clear/alter the field it in the Admin CP.

I'm going to download and review my code and perhaps improve it today if I get the chance... Perhaps more options for it..

[Brianna]

Eh, I already figured out a better way to do this, so be awaiting Version 2 ;)

Do I update this hack's page, or do I create another one? This is going to be quite a major improvement to it... Almost all of the MySQL/PHP/Template adjustments will be completely different...

[Brianna]

Version 2.0 is out

http://www.vbulletin.org/hacks/index.php?s=&action=showhack&hackid=993

Enjoy :)

[DarkDraco07]

did anyone get this to work with the store? or can someone make it work?