Digital Point Better Facebook Registration
 

About
I was getting terribly annoyed with the number of users registering with Facebook Connect, only to say they accidentally registered with their real name and wanted to change it.

So with this, the default username will be their Facebook username, NOT their real name.

This will work with 4.0.3 or higher (4.0.3 was the first version with Facebook Connect).

Installation

• Install the product-dp_better_facebook_reg.xml product under AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product

You can see a live version in action here (assuming you are logged into Facebook of course):
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/register.php


Details
Let's say my name is "Shawn Hogan" and my Facebook username is "dpoint" (which it is) and I sign up for a forum that utilizes the Facebook Connect integration that came with vBulletin 4.0.3 or higher...

By default, vBulletin will make my username "Shawn Hogan".

With this addon, my default username will be "dpoint"... if "dpoint" is taken, it will default to "dpoint75" (1975 is the year I was born)... if "dpoint75" is taken, it will default to "dpointXX" (XX being a random number).

By default vBulletin also resets the username back to "Shawn Hogan" if I overrode it, but there was an error with my registration. So as an added bonus, the system will always remember the username if it was set by the user registering.

but, if they don't have a username?

Thanks Shawn nice mod.. Like your Forum too have learned alot.. Visit daily

Then it will simply let them pick one. Although, doesn't everyone have to have a Facebook username these days?

Everyone has a Facebook Username.. Your right shawn 100%

Nice thanks.

Nice mod

/me tags

Nope, not everyone. I don't have a facebook account and no desire to. Would this mod not work for my site then for the users?

downloaded and installed thanks a lot!

Would you happen to share the twitter updates below the menu of your forum? I love the shadow effect and animation between replying to threads..

if not.. that's fine too.. I truly understand the feeling of being copied and it is very annoying.. :P

It will work fine... but it's only useful if you use Facebook Connect so users can register with their Facebook account. But since you would need a Facebook App ID in order to offer Facebook Connect, I assume you don't have one since it requires a Facebook account (which you don't have). :)

Maybe someday... it's not really a standalone system currently. It's pretty tightly wound into our other systems (for example when someone adds/removed premium membership, it has to trigger related actions for adding/deleting those people's Twitter accounts and so forth)... Not a big priority to spend a ton of time so others can have it for free to be honest when all the extra work isn't something I would be using myself. :)

Nope, not yet. I'm trying to hold off until I'm the very last person on earth to sign up for facebook. There has got to be some sort of prize for that, wouldn't you think? ;)

To be honest, their privacy policies make me uncomfortable. And after Sony's Playstation Network hacking fiasco recently, that doesn't help matters in the internet privacy trust department.

Yeah... I have a Facebook account, but I don't really use it. My girlfriend tells me if there's anything I need to know. But that being said, Facebook brings us a TON of traffic and our new user registration went up by probably about an extra 70 per day once we made it so easy to register via Facebook Connect.

Is there any way to do a facebook account with very little personal info and open to on one? That might be enough to get the id you said I need. I enjoy my anonymity too much, I guess.

Ya of course... just do minimal info and make everything hidden and private to everyone.

Okay, I'll give it a shot. But if anyone finds anything out about me, you better be ready to make up the spare room 'cause I'm hiding out there at your place. ;)

If you're really worried, make up a fake name lol

*Away to search for Boofo on Facebook*

Thanks for the mod digitalpoint :)

Excellent, double accounts.

One with facebook and of course my normal account :)

Try Boofo131. Boofo was already taken, it seems. ;)

Thanks for the work.

I'm gonna have th slide on this one, although I was looking forward to getting it working. I can't get past the captcha when I go to create the app. It won't accept my input for the correct words. It keeps giving me an error.

Sounds great, marked as installed, thanks.

Just tested this, doesnt work for me. used my wife account which she uses her real name and no username on facebook and it created a VB user with her real name. I installed the XML file as indicated, did I miss something? BTW running VB 4.1.3.

wrong you only have a facebook username if your facebook account is confirmed via telephone. i just opened 50 of my facebook friends to test it, and only 13 of them had a facebook username.

I think wordplay is right,

I tested as follows. Using again my wifes account I created her a username in FB (account not confirmed via telephone). I then deleted her from my VB users and then tired to register her again using FB connect and once again it created a VB user using her real name.

So it didnt pickup the FB username, nor did it give me an option to change username on VB.

If you want the user to be able to optionally pick/override their username, you would set the AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> Facebook Options -> Enable Auto-Register option to "No".

Also, I should have been more specific... it will only use the Facebook username if they HAVE a Facebook username. If they don't, it will stick to what vBulletin uses by default (their real name).

What do you use on your site may I ask? do you have auto-resister set to Yes or No?

We don't auto register.

I installed this plugin but it doesn't seem to be working for me. Since installing it yesterday, I've had about 20 registrations from facebook, and each of them still have their first and last name as their username. I think it would be kind of unlikely that out of 20ish people, none of them would be using a username. Any ideas?

Sweet. Thanks!

Works as advertised for me. ;)

Have you tried with your own Facebook account by chance?

Hey dp, do you have a branding free option for this? Or how can I remove the the copyright in the footer?

It should only be a copyright on the actual registration page, no?

Correct

Hi DP. Nice mod! Does it make the system remember the user when he comes back to the forum?

I don't - I decided it would make me too easy to track down.:cool:

Anyway, what happens with me is my username gets entered as "profile.php" :D

Personally I'd like to see the username field blank by default - thus forcing the user to think.

Strange... makes me think Facebook is giving an odd profile URL in your case for some reason. I just double checked it with my Facebook account, and it works as expected.

Could you create a plug-in at the register_form_complete hook location with the following code:
Then if you go to your registration page and use the Facebook connect, it will barf out the data we are getting from Facebook.

If you want to PM me that data, I could try to figure out what's going on with your FB account (and presumably some others)...

If you do, don't forget to disable the plug-in after you get the dump.