A user-centric question - adding a field to the profile ?

I was just having a discussion that brought about an idea I'd like to ask the community for feedback on...thoughts, interjections and the like...

What if - for A USER upon registering or editing their profile they had to define themself, either by;

a - a limited set of radio buttons with a number of descriptions that best describe them ie (a male from blah-blah interested in *a general site related thing*)

OR

b - a set of check boxes that create a description that best describes them ie (male, age, etc etc)

--(maybe even to replace the existing field 'brief description used throughout elgg sites)--

?

...and then - from that criteria be able to PROMOTE / or PUSH content via a profile widget or anything similar to OTHER USERS that are the same.

so for example if someone writes a blog and they have the same 'description criteria' to another bunch/group of users - those other users get notified or shown what the 'similar' user has done (widget or the like)....

furthermore - as I have done an expansion of the comments system for my needs; it would be great to instead of just having the basic byline - have - 'added by James who is Male, 29, and borderline alcoholic (joke)'

I'm just thinking people on an elgg site might be interested in networking with or refering to posts by someone/other people of a similar interest category or having a similar brief description --

The question is where to start and how one would go about such changes - your insights?

 

  • In following this up I went looking through the 'profile' plugin that comes stock with ELGG and couldn't find a form to copy and alter with more fields. I know the above is probably easily achieved with the popular profile manager plugin - but if I wanted to have two (or even one) specific field that I can call on in other plugins/comments etc I'd rather go down the path of editing the existing ELGG form and 'save' action - any clues...../....insights?

    Cheers,

    Jimbo

  • This comment was removed by an administrator because it contained advertising.

  • WOW! AMAZING DHRUP!....

    ...anyway

    was busy looking at edit.php files and the like when the stock profile plugin has the defualt fields laid out and a plugin hook to work with them already in play in the start.php - JOY!

                $profile_defaults = array (
                    'description' => 'longtext',
                    'briefdescription' => 'text',
                    'location' => 'tags',
                    'interests' => 'tags',
                    'skills' => 'tags',
                    'contactemail' => 'email',
                    'phone' => 'text',
                    'mobile' => 'text',
                    'website' => 'url',
                );

                // TODO: Have an admin interface for this

    ... I'll need to figure out and play with the hook - learn and share on this site for others learning elggism and not just rabit on about my clients over and over again...

     

  • @ James

    I would love this feature.  I have wanted something like this for awhile.  Maybe comparisons are done on all your profile fields and have the users you have the most in common with displayed in a widget.

  • @James Listen to TahoeBilly. Here's the plugin that he is talking about:

    http://community.elgg.org/pg/plugins/release/693791/developer/jdalsem/profile-manager

     

    It is an amazing plugin. I tested under 1.7.7 and it works fine. You can create radio buttons, text fields, etc. Try it out!

     

    Rodolfo Hernandez

    Arvixe/Elgg Community Liaison

  • @Stuartsloan - exactly! :-)

    @Tahoe & RJ - I gave up on profile manager when it didn't work with Kev's event calendar datepicker. But I believe that's been resolved. I'll have another look at it - and it might save me ALOT of time - but I have a feeling I'd rather rely on hardcoded additional profile fields (via a mod) so I know clearly where/what they are and be able to use them & exploidt them in my other plugins......we'll see! :-)

    Thanks & Cheers,

    Jimbo

  • James,

    Yes - I think the datepicker conflict should have been resolved in the latest event calendar release.

    Please report back if you still find problems.

  • You might also consider flexprofile, part of the form and related group of plugins:

    http://community.elgg.org/pg/plugins/project/384913/developer/kevin/form-and-related-plugins

    The form suite was created well before the profile manager and I have continued to develop it. It has more / different features from the profile manager plugin and is a more general solution.

  • @ everyone I use profile manager and like it but it there a way to make a profile feild a tag and to match a tag to another user with the same tag.

    eg.

    profile:

    • Insterest: Hockey <-TAG

    dashboard widget:

    • 15 people have "Hockey" in commin with you.  click here to see who they are.

     

    This would help people find people that have similar interest.  kinda like a dating site but not.