Making your user- and display name the same unique identifier?

[Ezd]

Is there any possible way to just have/allow unique display-names in your community which will then function as your 1 unique user- and display name identifier?

Maybe it could be done by setting up a system check whenever a displayname is created or changed to see if the display name is already in use?

Things I can see it will solve:

• Confusion between user- and display-names
• @mentions overall would need less explanation. There would be no need to use a blue "?" stamp in your profile to explain what a unique identifier is.
• Your username in WP could be in sync/the same as your display-name in BP?
• 1 unique name for 1 unique user. Multiple users cannot have the same name which will make users more unique.

Just throwing some light at the subject. Feel free to close if there's no way this will happen, is a bad idea or argument on the downsides of doing this. :)

[r-a-y]

It's possible to do this by modifying your theme's register.php by adding a hidden input field for the display name ("field_1" in most cases) and removing or hiding the xprofile field for the display name.

Of course, some admin option or a define override would be nicer ;)

[boonebgorges]

This is an interesting idea. I've always thought it was a bit rude of BuddyPress to insist that the 'Name' xprofile field (1) exist, and (2) be required.

Making it work would be a pretty big job, though, as you'd have to be very sure to catch all the places throughout BP where user display names are called and ensure that they fall back on the username when r-a-y's suggested override is in place. For that reason I think it'll have to be booted to 1.4. Feel free to argue this point or provide a patch if you feel otherwise :)

[modemlooper]

This seems like an easier approach: on the register form if you do not enter xprofile name it just grabs what you entered into the required username field and submits that.

[boonebgorges]

Yeah, that would be easier in the short run. One problem I can think of with that approach is that you still want support the majority of communities for whom Name is a required field. modemlooper's fix will mean bypassing the code that ensures that the field is filled in. So you'd almost have to have an admin-level switch, something like 'BP_REQUIRE_FULL_NAME', which is auto set to true.

[vibol]

What is the preferred approach to this?

I need this display name to be unique, so I was planning on hooking in when it is set to check for uniqueness before allowing the name to go through.

[rosyteddy]

Will this be done please now?
Thanks.

[DJPaul]

We're closing this ticket because it has not received any contribution or comments for at least two years. We have decided that it is better to close tickets that are good ideas, which have not gotten (or are unlikely to get) contributions, rather than keep things open indefinitely. This will help us share a more realistic roadmap for BuddyPress with you.

Everyone very much appreciates the time and effort that you spent sharing your idea with us. On behalf of the entire BuddyPress team, thank you.

If you feel strongly that this enhancement should still be added to BuddyPress, and you are able to contribute effort towards it, we encourage you to re-open the ticket, or start a discussion about it in our Slack channel. Please consider that time has proven that good ideas without contributions do not get built.

For more information, see ​https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/our-awaiting-contributions-milestone-contains/
or find us on Slack, in the #buddypress channel: ​https://make.wordpress.org/chat/