ocPortal Tutorial: Advanced ocPortal member system
Written by Chris Graham, ocProducts
This tutorial will cover some of the more advanced features of the OCF
member system.Table of contents
Merging members
Merging members |
It is worth noting, that you should not be overly suspicious, as members who share some of the listed characteristics, may simply be family members in a household that shares an Internet connection.
The merge member feature will attempt to reassign everything attached (in any way) to the 'from' member to the 'to' member.
It is possible that some reassignments will not be possible, in which case, records may be dropped; for example, if both members share a secondary usergroup, ocPortal would fail [due to database key constraints] to assign both membership records to the same user, and hence drop one of them. You do not need to worry as this is handled automatically.
Custom profile fields
Adding a custom profile field |
Add Custom Profile Fields from the Setup section of the Admin Zone, under the Custom Profile Fields icon.
Lists
For a list-type CPF, define the list by placing a '|' separated list in the default value field (e.g. "This|That|Other"). The first value in the list will be the default.
Custom profile fields are edited by editing member profiles |
- Storing hidden details on member (for example, a list of rule infractions, such as to aid decisions on cumulative punishment)
- Allowing members to specify details about themselves (for example, their occupation)
- Forcing members to specify certain additional details (for example, on a forum for staff of a company, you could make members enter their job role, so as to reduce the chance of a non employee from joining and remaining an active member)
- Allowing members of a certain sub-communities (via their usergroup) to specify details appropriate to that sub-community (for example, those in the 'Football' usergroup of a school discussion forum could specify the position they play, whilst those in the 'Music' usergroup could specify the instrument they play).
Custom profile fields are optionally shown where members post |
Custom profile fields are all shown in member profiles (those that the viewer has permission to view) |
- if 'show in posts' is selected, it will also be visible on their forum posts, and their member galleries and member gallery images/videos
- if 'show in post previews' is selected, it will also be visible when displaying a member sub-gallery in a list of sub-galleries
If you have more than 60 textual CPFs (except Comcode ones), any ones created after the 60th will not be included for searching on the search module's member search form.
Display rules
CPFs are pulled up according to the following set of rules:PROFILE FIELD SETTINGS | SHOWS IN FOLLOWING CIRCUMSTANCES | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Owner viewable | Owner settable | Publicly viewable | Required | Join | Admin add member | Edit own profile | Edit others profile | Edit others profile but has 'View any field' permission | View own profile | View others profile | View own or others profile but has 'View any field' permission | Member searchable | |
N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | |
N | N | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | |
N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | |
N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | |
N | Y | N | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | |
N | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | |
N | Y | Y | N | N | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | |
N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | |
Y | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | Y | N | |
Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | Y | N | |
Y | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | |
Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | |
Y | Y | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | |
Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | |
Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
In addition, members may override display settings in their Account, on a per-field basis. They may choose to display fields:
- Not at all
- To members
- To friends
- To certain usergroups
- To everyone
Encrypted CPFs
When creating a custom profile field, it is possible to mark it as encrypted. If you have the OpenSSL PHP extension installed and configured (see the Web Hosting for ocPortal tutorial), ocPortal can automatically encrypt the contents of such CPFs, such that their sensitive data would not be revealed if the server were to be compromised.For welcome e-mails to work the ocPortal cron bridge must be configured as discussed in the Configuration tutorial
To mark a CPF as encrypted, tick the "Encryption" box when creating the field, making sure to first have encryption set up on your server and on ocPortal.
When editing the value of an encrypted CPF, the encrypted data will be shown. To change the value, simply overwrite it with the data you want to change it to. Leaving the value alone will not cause it to be doubly-encrypted.
When viewing an encrypted CPF on a member's profile page, the encrypted data will not be decrypted or shown. To decrypt and view the data, click the "Decrypt" JavaScript link for the CPF. A popup will allow the decryption passphrase to be entered and the data decrypted. The decryption passphrase is the passphrase used to unlock the private key, as specified when originally generating the public/private key pair. Typically only staff will have knowledge of the passphrase, since there's only one for the entire site.
Categorisation of CPFs
If you prefix CPF names like "Example: Field A" and "Example: Field B", ocPortal will be smart enough to treat this as a categorisation and render the join/edit-profile forms in a more appropriate way.Welcome E-mails
Creating a welcome e-mail |
The purpose of this feature is to gradually advertise the features of your website to your members in a way that reinforces awareness. As most members will not usually return to a website, welcome e-mails provide a strong tool to keep them aware and entice them to fully embrace whatever service you are providing.