Importing existing users

  • Resolved Bodhipaksa

    (@haecceity)


    7 years, 2 months ago

    This is a great plugin, thanks. I will be making a donation.

    I have a couple of questions about importing users who already exist. I’m using Buddypress groups to create discussion forums for classes I teach. Some students, over a period of time, will enroll in more than one class.

    If they’re imported a second time (with the same username), does this result in them being sent a new password? (I’m leaving the password field blank and letting WordPress issue them automatically.)

    I started using “Firstname Lastname” as the username, but I’ve realized that this creates problems when students sometimes use different forms of their name (“Chris Smith” for one course, “Christine Smith” for another.) In those cases the student ends up with duplicate accounts. Is there any problem with using their email address as a username, since that’s more likely to stay constant?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Author Javier Carazo

    (@carazo)

    7 years, 2 months ago

    @haecceity,

    Good morning and thank you very much for your donation. I answer your questions now.

    If they’re imported a second time (with the same username), does this result in them being sent a new password? (I’m leaving the password field blank and letting WordPress issue them automatically.)

    If you read the documentation, yes, this is the solution. Create a column for passwords and leave it blank and passwords won’t be updated.

    I started using “Firstname Lastname” as the username, but I’ve realized that this creates problems when students sometimes use different forms of their name (“Chris Smith” for one course, “Christine Smith” for another.) In those cases the student ends up with duplicate accounts. Is there any problem with using their email address as a username, since that’s more likely to stay constant?

    Using emails as usernames is a good practice, users won’t have to remember two things: username and email, only email.

    Anyother thing, thanks! If you have one minute please leave a good review 🙂

    Thread Starter Bodhipaksa

    (@haecceity)

    7 years, 2 months ago

    Thanks for the help.

    If you read the documentation, yes, this is the solution.

    I had read the documentation, but I hadn’t picked up whether passwords would be reset or not.

    Rather than have a password column that was blank, I just didn’t include that column at all, which hopefully has the same effect. One of the first people I imported a second time had problems with her password, and I wasn’t sure if that was related to me importing her again. It doesn’t seem like it was, though, which is good, since there will eventually be a lot of people who get imported multiple times.

    Thread Starter Bodhipaksa

    (@haecceity)

    7 years, 2 months ago

    Ah. I see from your response to someone else that having no password column resets the password, while a blank password column doesn’t. I’d missed that in the documentation.

    Plugin Author Javier Carazo

    (@carazo)

    7 years, 2 months ago

    @haecceity,

    Yes, it is how it works. We have to improve this part of password management to do it more usable.

    Any other question, do not hesitate to ask us again.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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