Posted by bigheadfish on August 31, 2009 at 10:10pm
Why not just set up one content type and only allow one node per user for this content type?
Maybe a naive question, but why we need Profiles as nodes?
Why not just set up one content type and only allow one node per user for this content type?
Comments
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Er... That's basically the definiton of profiles as nodes...
Michelle
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region
Can we change this groups name to 'Nodes for User Accounts'
I have a major disagreement with both Michelle and bigheadfish on this. The problem seems to stem from attempting to use the word 'profile' as a synonym for the 'my account'. I prefer to use the term 'user accounts'.
For user accounts, many of us want to create applications where we have multiple objects of a particular type. For example we have multiple pictures to the users own gallery and then each user might have multiple galleries, each setup with specific subject matter. Alternatively, each user might have multiple blogs or blog galleries or books or music or thesis or alternatively we might want to allow the user to set up forms of a particular type such as support requests or complaints. Each user needs to be able to fill out multiple support requests or complaints.
Each of the above objects needs to look and feel as if it is part of the user's account. At the moment, this is quite difficult with Drupal 6. I created the Type_user_nids module as an attempt to help solve this problem. This allows the implementer to create appropriate path addresses so multiple nodes of a particular type can look and feel part of the user's account
There are still problems with making these objects link into the user account. The main solution seems to be to use the views module. Views is a good solution when the number of objects of each type each user has is typically large but when the number of each type is typically 0, 1 or 2 per user then the views solutions has a cumbersome appearance. It would be then better implemented with menu links but I haven't found any way to do this with Drupal 6.
I think that the use of the word 'profile' instead of 'user accounts' tends to limit peoples thinking as to what the 'user accounts' should be used for. Otherwise, the "only allow one node per user for this content type" would not have been part of the definition of what we want.
Ken Dawber
Please check out the Drupal 6 site Humanise.org. This is a open source project to create a software oriented detector suitable for Humanitarian demining and further research.
-1 to that name change
This is about using nodes rather than the profile module to hold profile data. It's not about using nodes for the user account data such as username, password, etc.
You generally would only want the user to fill out a node that has the "about me", "interests", etc once, which is why they are typically limited to one per user. Stuff like blogs and image galleries can certainly be shown on the profile page but it would be very unusual to use the content profile to manage them.
I think you are mixing up the profile page, which can contain much more than just the simple profile data and the holder of the profile data.
Michelle
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region
Pls change groups name to 'Extending User Accounts with Nodes'
In recognition that this group is not about using nodes to replace the main user account data, then a better name would be 'Extending User Accounts with Nodes'. The term 'profile' tends to limit people to thinking just about the information that we have in a user profile which a very small subset of the types of things people are trying to do with 'user accounts'. i.e. pictures, movies, sound, blogs, conversations etc, most of which can be done with the content_profile module along with the associated content_access module.
I think that the above is true regardless of whether we are talking about a single node per user per content type or multiple nodes. I have a particular interest in the problems with multiple nodes.
I find the situation where I need to allow each user the possibility to create multiple nodes of a particular type and for these nodes to act and look as if they are part of the user account, a challenge with the current Drupal modules. While content_profile isn't really designed for this, some of the best solutions still involve using it or content_access. Two examples are as follows:
1) Project involves each user being able to have up to 3 of a particular node type. For example a website to allow each student user facilities to get help with their theses but each student is allowed to be working on up to a maximum of 3 theses.
In this case we use content_profile to create a content type that provides the facilities that each user is to have for a thesis. We name this 'First Thesis' then create two more content types as copies of this but named 'Second Thesis' and 'Third Thesis'. We then use the "Show a link to the content profile creation page, if there is no profile" provided by content_profile to provide links to allow the user to create facilities for 0, 1, 2 or 3 Theses.
2) Use of content_access to make a per user list of menu items. Simply create node_types using CCK then using content_access allow registered users to create as many of this type as they like but restrict access to the author. Whenever a node of this type is created, add a menu link to it (probably using rules) as a submenu of a new 'my account' menu link. Ensure that this new my account menu isn't available to the admin or user number 1 by placing it in block and setting it so that it only displays for standard users.
I believe that the current problems with handling multiple nodes of a type per user is such that it would be worth while either extending content_profile to handle this or making a new module specifically to handle this. I would have expected that this group is the correct group to discuss this.
Ken Dawber
Please check out the Drupal 6 site Humanise.org. This is a open source project to create a software oriented detector suitable for Humanitarian demining and further research. We need more people to help with this project.
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You're talking about changing what the group is about and pushing it really into a duplication of the Social networking group. I think it better to keep this group on topic instead of ending up with two groups discussing the same thing.
Michelle
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region