I'm working through CS registration issues and am watching dark clouds gather at the periphery of my earlier happy first impressions.
CS Registration and to a lesser degree, the handling of user identity throughout Community Server, is built around supporting CSForums functionality. That's pretty clear. The verbage all over the registration page gives us the first clue, as does the member profile content. Funny, while CSForums is EXCELLENT, no question there, the majority of individuals who are moving from dotText to CSBlogs are going to turn it off, now and forever, amen.
So now guys like me want to migrate to CSBlogs and maybe share some pics with CSGalleries, and we want to build relationships like we've been doing for some time in dotText, we want to converse with, dare I say, other PEOPLE. Weird objective for a nerd, I know. And here we are trying to do it with an application using the construct of handles as usernames and avatar assignments.
Sorry world, my panties are in a twist today because I've searched high and low in the CS UI and database and can't find a single gosh darn FIRST_NAME and LAST_NAME field combo. Where's that blink HTML tag when you need it? Here it is, there is no support for storing a registered user's first and last name in Community Server. End of blink tag.
Someone, a reader, a friend decides to register on my CS blog. Username: Loverboy69. Okay, I'm good with that. But his real name is, oh, let's say its "Tim Haines." Well, every one of Tim's posts when logged in are going to have the author name of "Loverboy69." Readers of the post thread will want to know who the heck Loverboy69 is and what his credentials might be. They may know Tim Haines and can respond humano-to-humano to Tim, but are they going to naturally begin writing a response something to the effect, "Loverboy69, I appreciate the comment, but guys from New Zealand...(fill in the blank.)"
I didn't like that idea at all, so I thought, "No problem, I'll just display the user's full name from the profile data instead. Change the base component. Whatever." Then I discover there IS no user full name in the profile data. Not a first_name, not a last_name, not a middle_initial, not a surname. Several avatar options, of course, but no support for a user's full name in his or her profile.
So how can Tim have his name displayed with his comments in CSBlogs as it is currently displayed on my humble dotText 0.95 blog? He has to make sure he isn't logged in at the time, for starters, then he can enter his full name in the comment form. His name is then stored with his comment in a multipurpose PropertyValues field in CS_Posts, with "Anonymous" recorded in the PostAuthor field. He can't rate the post or track the post or enjoy any other registered user functionality because he's not logged in, of course...
Eh. The dogs need a walk. Maybe while trekking on surviving snowcover of an open Vermont field with Sadie Girl and Murphy Dog that I'll find my Happy Thought again.