Chang the display of username to display name

Elgg 2.3.13

In our site we want to hide the username and expose only the "Display Name".

Is it a way to change all the instances where the username appears (on screen and in emails) to the Display Name, or we have to do it one by one?

Thank you 

  • As far as i know username is only / mostly used in the urls, not when displaying content to the user.

    Do you also want to replace it in the urls? Because that will cause massive problems in the internals of core and every plugin.

  • Thank you Jerome,

    Yes, you are right. So far I found the username only in 2 cases: The Wire and a theme that I use, which I can handle.

    However, exposing the username (e.g. in the URL) might be not the best security approach. 

    In order not to cause massive problems in the internals of core and every plugin we thought about the following approach:

    1. Add to  elggss_users_entity table column "real_username" which includes the username. This column will be used during registration and login.
    2. The username column will include a unique string (maybe some variation of the user GUID). It will be populated during registration.

    In this way there is no need to change the plugins and the URL will include only the unique string, not the username. The only change should be done to the registration/login proccess.

    What is your opinion?

    Thank you

  • However, exposing the username (e.g. in the URL) might be not the best security approach. 

    Why? Because with this you already have half of the credentials required to login? Maybe, but lots of websites use this approach.

    1. Add to  elggss_users_entity table column "real_username" which includes the username. This column will be used during registration and login.
    2. The username column will include a unique string (maybe some variation of the user GUID). It will be populated during registration.

    What is your opinion?

    Seams like a lot of work for little gain.