I am wondering how many of you faithful users are interested in a plugin that would list users by state/province/country or a mix of all. I actually had written a hack similar to this a while back that I unfortunately did not post to the forums. I have talked with Dirk about this idea and he thinks is a good idea. so I am asking everyone else what their view is on this.

Later

Why a plugin and not just a static page or two?

A plugin would allow for more customization. And it would most likely require additions to the database, along with modifications to the registration page that would if the admin chose "imposed" if you will, the registring user to say what state/province/country they are from.

The list all page would be "dynamically" made by querying the DB for the proper information on the users and display it. The plugin would do the same but would display this in a block, much like the who's online block.

Another advantage to doing it as a plugin would be an install.php script to take care of the installation of the plugin. It would automatically add the required fields to the DB, and the required code for the block display.

Basically I want to allow the admin of the site using the plugin as much ease of use as ppossible and as much customization as possible.

All of this can be done with the CUSTOM registration API in LIB-CUSTOM.php
Staticpages can be dynamic too, ya know. And blocks can call functions.
This about the only useful thing the plugin does that nothing else does. However, even a staticpage can be written to install itself.

Joe,

people often ask about a more detailed user list to display on their site (you know, the whole community thing and such). We don't have anything useful at the moment and those who are looking for such a userlist are normally not capable to hack something together to make their own.

That's why I thought this would be a plugin / add-on that some people would be interested in. You're obviously not part of the target audience :wink:

bye, Dirk

Well, actually, I think the description is just off. I was thinking about this and I was thinking a plugin that simplified the custom registration stuff would be useful. The description above focused on listings by state/whatever, that is too narrow an approach. The object should be to provide a clicky interface to custom registration with any number of fields with any content. Such a plugin would naturally including a reporting part for making lists.

Wouldnt a narrower approach be better than a broader approach? My point being if you think too broadly things never get done, so you narrow down into something managable, to further break the task into smaller tasks to tackle one at a time.

If you give me a list of things that you feel would make the plugin even more useful I will look them over and see what will fit best and work on a much better plan for the plugin.

But like Dirk said, alot of users are looking for such a plugin. So I thought I would please them by implementing it for them.

But any input you would like to add would be greatly appreciated, maybe we can come up with something the works the way I, Dirk and the other users want, as well as something that would do what you want and more.

Later,
Damien

I think a flexible approach would be very welcome by many users. Just 'state/province/country' is a bit narrow indeed. I wonder if many people would use it and I could imagine it is already some work for you.

E.g. an alumni site would typically use things like first name, surname, maiden name, birth date, date of graduation etc. also fields like address, phone, cell phone, fax, homepage would be nice.

It would be great if someone took up the task.

I think the simplest idea would be to create a table with say 10 generic fields (f1, f2, f3, etc) and then let the user assign names to each of the fields, set the permissions for each field (per field, not per user), etc. That is highly flexible without being too much work.

Now those are some good ideas I had not thought of. which is exactly why I made the post to the forum in the first place. Constructive feedback and ideas to make it better. I am not sure when coding will start on the plugin yet, but I will start work on a general plan and incorporate any ideas people give me.

I am starting to see your point about being narrow, so I am going to let the user tell me what they would like in the plugin. I will try my best to implement what I can. I this to be something we all can be proud of.

Let's consider it a community plugin, in the sense that the community will decide what should and shouldn't be in it. Something that will make the dancing :banana: , happy .