This is the thread we will begin profile field mapping for UBB Version 6. It will make modifications that use the profile fields much more standardized, assist borg in his "vinkulum" modification, make trouble-shooting more efficient, and avoid most of the problems we had in our last upgrade.

This will probably be the order we need to go in to begin with this:

1. Map the current profile fields in V6 - the easiest part and should be done in the next day or so. - done 02/04

2. Decide if we should use the custom profile fields for standard modifications or allow the user to use them. In other words, most of the work is already done with the 4 custom profile fields already written in, should we use these now? Most likely, yes.

3. Assign profile fields to modifications on a first-come, first served basis, unless by vote of majority we think one deserves precedence over another. We should also leave room for Infopop's further development by starting with several blank profile fields after the current list.

4. Organize development to where a developer working on a new modification "applies" for a profile field and it is assigned based on the above.

Here is the start of the mapping for v6 profile fields. Profile numbers start with "0" for user name and progress from there.

0 - user name
1 - password
2 - email address
3 - homepage
4 - permissions
5 - occupation
6 - location
7 - post count
8 - status
9 - interests
10 - register date
11 - email address viewable
12 - signature
13 - ICQ
14 - allow mass email
15 - publically displayed name
16 - custom field 1
17 - custom field 2
18 - custom field 3
19 - custom field 4
20 - member picture
21 - default topics viewed
22 - AIM
23 - publically displayed name of last user to update this profile|^|member number of last user to update this profile|^|update date
24 - profile locked
25 - publically display user rating
26 - approved registration
27 - PMs enabled
28 - PM notify enabled
29 - PMs locked ("no" means locked)

55 - Birthday (Jordo)

We'll update this post as we go to keep everyone on the same page. Its success is up to you, this should make it much easier to keep track of where we are in terms of the profile fields and make development go faster.

I welcome and encourage your input.

i havent look @ the coding yet but i see you have and i was wondering....how are profile #'s called for...like $thisprofile[#] i think its a diffrent way?

Nope, Ted's still using an array for the user profiles. He should be using a hash. *L*

This sounds like a great idea Allen!

I guess the avatars seem to be the first out of the blocks. Do you guys think we should use cf1 for it? I think so.

Custom user text should probably be next. I vote CF2 for that one.

If I get time tonight, I'll try to find out what those profile fields with the question marks cover. Most likely, Do you agree with the price increase? I think I broke the "no" on mine.

CC - that'd be a good mega hack. Converting the profile fields to use a hash.

Here are the fields you didn't get:

24 - profile locked
26 - approved registration
27 - PMs enabled
28 - PM notify enabled
29 - PMs locked ("no" means locked)

And a correction:

23 - publically displayed name of last user to update this profile|^|member number of last user to update this profile|^|update date

[ February 04, 2001: Message edited by: Leshrac ]

yo costom user text would be easy......like all u do is use one of the costom input fields as a user text and then make it so that if a user has that field filled in show it......and vise-versa!

Regarding profile field assignments, I'm still a big supporter of having the hacks use independently assignable profile field locations. It's just a simple matter of modifying the way profiles are written to, like I did with the Karma hack. This way, the people installing the hacks can assign whatever free fields they have, and thus prevent the profiles from becoming 50 lines long just because someone installed a hack that uses field 49, but didn't install any of the others. Or, better yet, you could have all the hacks read off of a template member file that contained the field definitions for all the profile fields currently used on a particular board. When a hack was installed, it would read that file, find the first free field, and then write to the template and claim it. If Infopop decided to use more profile fields, an upgrade script could be written to use the template file to convert all the member files to the new format and then update the template accordingly. I would be more than happy to work with some other knowledgable members of the UBB hacking community (and Infopop) to write some library files for using a template system such as this, as I really think it would make things a lot easier for people across the board.

OK, I've written up a couple early library files for the system I proposed. One file contains routines for installing and removing profile fields, the other contains common routines for reading from and writing to profiles using named fields (based on the installation) and for determining the maximum allowable fields. They're both heavily commented and cleanly written, Strict compatible, and should be easy to understand. If any serious code hackers are interested in taking a look at them and helping with this project, please e-mail me.

Thanks a lot, that is really helpfull. Earlier yesterday when I was trying to add something to the profiles...I was using trial and error to figure what slot went with what...if I had your map then it would have been a lot faster.

Btw, I love the fact that infopop gave us some extra fields to customize.

Just bumping this back up for some more attention. If anyone is working on hacks that add or mess around with profile fields, let me know and I can give you a beta copy of the library files I've written up for doing so. They seem to work pretty flawlessly so far, and make adding and using new fields a lot easier.

I would like a copy Leshrac, when you get a chance. I may add a couple of fields like the yahoo messenger and MSN messenger. I sent a pm to borg to check this thread out, he may not have checked his pm's recently.

I would also like a copy of the lib files if you get the chance.

hi !
where can i find this hack ?

Hey Leshrac, I'm interested...I really want the custom status part of my hack to have its own profile field instead of using custom field number 4. Please, send the stuff to sephirothdt@hotmail.com . Thanks in advance.

Count me in. I am very concerned that hacks I add vs. other hacks will interfere, and also if adding new profile fields, will this break other software. Can you put my mind at ease and explain how InfoPop would like hackers to deal with profile fields other than the 4 custom fields? I wanna be responsible and make sure I do it right.

Also, I'll need to know the total char limit of a custom field already built into the profile?

-jim

I would like a copy

Email - Rob@stonecrick.com

Jim - I talked to navaho when I first started writing these, and he though they were a good idea and probably the best way to handle it. The libraries allow you to install, uninstall, and interface with additional fields without interfering with any other installed hacks. The user just has to have the libraries installed themselves and do a one-time setup as described in the readme. In the event that Infopop adds more fields to the profile, the template used by the libraries would make it very easy to write an upgrade script that converted all the profiles to the new format.


I'm afraid I don't understand, could you please clarify what information you're looking for?

He wants a max character count for each field.. as I explained over at SK, other than username(25), password(8?), email(40?), and the yes/no fields, there shouldn't be a limit to the outside world.

Hi Leshrac,

I'd like a copy of the your Beta library

Please send it to me at gus@oriented.org

Cheers!