After bridging: display names and Joomla's Manage Users

[brother7]

I can't remember the steps exactly, but lemme try...

I did a fresh install of Joomla 1.0.5 and SMF 1.1 RC2.
The Joomla admin account is 'admin'.
The SMF admin account is 'adminsmf'.
I bridged using Orstio Bridge 3.20.

In Joomla - Manage Users, there are
Name / Username / Group
Administrator / admin / Super Administrator
adminsmf / adminsmf / Registered

I think the problem occurs when I go into SMF and try to change the display name of the 'adminsmf' account to 'admin'.  It returns with the error:
   The following errors occurred when trying to save your profile: The selected username has already been taken.

As a further test, using the 'adminsmf' account, I changed the display name to 'dummy'.  No problem.

I make the following observations:
1.  Within SMF, you can't change the display name to conflict with an existing username.
2.  No matter what you change the display name to in SMF, the change isn't reflected in Joomla's Manage Users.
3.  In Joomla's Manage Users, I now have an entry, with an empty Name, an empty Username, belongs to Registered group and no Last Visit date.

Questions:
1.  Is #1 above the proper behavior?
2.  Is #2 above the proper behavior?
3.  I think my primary concern is the empty user in Joomla's Manage Users.  Does changing display names in SMF cause an empty entry to be added to Joomla's user database?  Can this user be safely deleted, or should it be deleted at all?

I think I'm going to experiment a bit more with another fresh install.  I'm interested to find out the following... if I do a fresh install of Joomla and SMF, with the admin account of both named 'admin', then after bridging, there should only be 1 user in Joomla's database.  If a create a 2nd account named 'test' and try to change the display name of that account to 'Administrator', it should fail according to #1 above.  But will I then have 3 users in the Joomla database?  admin, test, and an empty one... hmmm.

[Orstio]

In Joomla - Manage Users, there are
Name / Username / Group
Administrator / admin / Super Administrator
adminsmf / adminsmf / Registered

I think the problem occurs when I go into SMF and try to change the display name of the 'adminsmf' account to 'admin'.  It returns with the error:
   The following errors occurred when trying to save your profile: The selected username has already been taken.

The SMF profile functions are all integrated with the bridge.  So, if you try changing a username to one that exists in either SMF or Joomla, it will return that error.

1.  Within SMF, you can't change the display name to conflict with an existing username.

Correct.

2.  No matter what you change the display name to in SMF, the change isn't reflected in Joomla's Manage Users.

It should be.  If it isn't, I'll look into why not and fix that.

3.  In Joomla's Manage Users, I now have an entry, with an empty Name, an empty Username, belongs to Registered group and no Last Visit date.

That should not be happening.

I think I'm going to experiment a bit more with another fresh install.  I'm interested to find out the following... if I do a fresh install of Joomla and SMF, with the admin account of both named 'admin', then after bridging, there should only be 1 user in Joomla's database.

Correct.

If a create a 2nd account named 'test' and try to change the display name of that account to 'Administrator', it should fail according to #1 above.  But will I then have 3 users in the Joomla database?

Again, it shouldn't.  If it does, let me know, and I'll fix it.  Blank users should not be created.

[brother7]

Here are the results of my test...

I did a fresh install of Joomla 1.0.5 and SMF 1.1 RC2.
For both, the admin name = 'admin'.  All settings were left at their default values.

I bridged using Orstio 3.2.0 (1.1.2), the latest release on 1/13.  I used SMF registration.

I went into Joomla admin panel and confirmed that only 1 user 'admin' existed.
From the Joomla frontend, I logged out of 'admin' and clicked the 'register' link in the login form.  This took me to the SMF registration screen.  I registered as 'user1'.

Here are the problems...
1.  When I submitted the registration for 'user1', I'm taken to the unwrapped SMF forum, with 'user1' logged in.
2.  I checked in Joomla - Manage Users... 2 users are listed, 'admin' and an empty entry.

Orstio, would you like for me to send you the test site info, so that you can log in and verify?  I can also reinstall the whole thing from scratch so that you can duplicate my results.

[Orstio]

Being sent to the unwrapped forum is usually the result of an error.

Are Joomla and SMF installed in separate databases?

I wouldn't mind testing it, if you don't mind giving me access.

[brother7]

It was a fresh install of both.  All I did was install the Bridge component, make the template changes, and change the registration to SMF instead of bridge.  Everything else was left at default.

I'm using 1 database.

I sent you the relevant URL and login info.

[brother7]

Just wondering if there's been any progress in tracking down the empty user issue.

Also, am I the only one who has an empty user in the Joomla user database, cuz I don't see any other threads referring to it, yet I was able to duplicate the issue very easily on a fresh Joomla 1.0.5 + SMF 1.1 RC2 + Orstio Bridge 3.20 installation.

[Orstio]

When I registered as Orstio on your site, it did create a user in the Joomla user table, yes?

I'm not sure how you are getting blank users, but it seemed to work fine when I did it...

[brother7]

Orstio, if you log into the Joomla backend - Manage Users on my test site, can you see the empty user?  I see 3 users there... admin, Orstio, and an empty user.  When I go into SMF and click Members, I see 3 users there... admin, Orstio and user1.  I think the empty user in Joomla is supposed to be user1 in SMF.

Perhaps I can do a clean install again and let you be the first person after admin to register, then maybe you'll be able to duplicate my problem.

[Orstio]

Yes, I saw the blank user in your Joomla backend, but, when I registered, it created a user that wasn't blank.  So, I don't know what you are doing to get to a blank user.

[brother7]

OK, I'm gonna whack the test site again, do a fresh install of Joomla 1.0.7 + SMF 1.1 RC2 + Orstio Bridge 3.20 and let you be the first to register.  Hopefully, you'll be able to duplicate the error.  Will PM you w/ login info.

[brother7]

Many thanks to Orstio for troubleshooting my issue.

The source of the problem was a mismatch in user registration methods.  The default Joomla method is User Activation.  The default SMF method is Immediate Registration.  The user registration method of Joomla and SMF must match!  The error was also causing SMF to unwrap.  Match the registration methods and the unwrapping problem goes away too.

Thanks again Orstio!

[brother7]

Orstio,

If you're gonna release a Bridge update, I'd like to request a revisit to this issue.  Apparently, the matching of user registration methods between Joomla and SMF wasn't the cause of the empty user in Joomla.  I changed both to Activation and am still seeing an empty user in Joomla.
I'll put up another test site and send you the info, so that you can verify the bug.  Probably won't get to it tonight, but by tomorrow AM, I'll PM you the info.

[brother7]

An additional observation on the empty user issue.  When I go into Joomla's Site - User Manager, it shows about 10 users.  But at the bottom, it says "Results 1-20 of 20".  Apparently, the empty users are counted, causing the user count in Joomla to be approximately double.  It seems to me that every registered user increments Joomla's user count by 2... 1 for the empty user and 1 for the real user.

[MadPax]

That is happening to me too and it is driving me nuts with components that use user management for several activities. You got to scroll through endless lists of empty users.

In the beginning I wasn't too worried about this but now I am starting to be because of the user count and possible arising issues.

Funnily I changed from phpBB to smf because of a very similar issue. The joomlastuff bridge burned down my user database and I was left with unusable user information. By having migrated to smf everything went ok till I start not being to comfy with this issue.

Anyone?

PS same configuration as brother's.

Pax