Thanks for the response, and the offer. I'll look more closely at that
extension but I'm not sure if it applies to us. We are using LDAP data but
not performing MediaWiki embedded LDAP authentication. Our whole wiki
resides on a Signal signon-protected site. Any visitor is intercepted, SSO
authenticated and then redirected to the originally requested
url. SSO merely provides LDAP data in header variables that are pulled into
mediawiki by Auth_remoteuser.php extension to AuthPlugin.php. The extension
either logs-in the user(if username exists), or creates a new user from LDAP
info.
But a rename extension might still work if there was a way to check the
database before creating a new user to see if any existing username ends
with the same uniqueemployeenum as contained within the about-to-be-created
username. If so, evoke a change username function. I don't have a clue what
that function would do (possibly go to the MySQL data table
"<prefix>user"
and change 'user_name' for that 'user_id"???)
-----
On 4/28/06, Lane, Ryan wrote:
There was an extension for mediawiki 1.5:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Renameuser
Not sure if it still works.
Otherwise, you may have to use some kind of login that will never change
(not terribly easy with people getting married).
If you use LDAP, you can extend my LDAP Authentication plugin to
incorporate
the code from the rename user extension, and some tracking mechanism in
LDAP
to tell when a user has changed names, and automatically rename their old
account.
If you verify the rename user code works, I may be able to help you with
adding it to my plugin.
Also, my plugin supports pulling preferences from the LDAP server. So you
can have their "Real Name" and "Nickname" preferences updated
automatically
if it is changed in LDAP.
If you aren't using LDAP, then sorry for the bother :).
Ryan Lane
-----
Brian wrote>
I would like
the common name (Bobby Jones) to appear on MediaWiki pages
as
Username. But to account for duplicate names
(200,000+ employees here)
it
would be acceptable to have the Username be
Commonfullname_Uniqueemployeenum
(Bobby Jones 395234).
What happens when Roberta Jones gets married and becomes 'Roberta Chang'
a.k.a. 'Bobby Chang'?
The next time she visits the wiki, 'Bobby Chang 395234' will not be
found
in
the user table and the AutoLogin script will create a new user. Poor
Bobby
will now have to manage a double identity. Or worse, she will email me
and
ask if I can move all her old history/data/pages
to her new name.
A) I don't know how to do that
B) there are 200,000+ potential wiki users here. About half of them
could
all get married, divorced, widowed and
remarried,
Best to figure this out before we release this to production,