Puzzled: No way to use/update the avatar image in s2member ?

[candy]

Hi,

I thought this goes without saying that a user can modify / update his avatar from withing that profile page, however, for s2member that does not seem to be the case !??!

Inserted this code [s2Member-Profile /] on a new page, and when I go there I can modify email, password, but NO sign about the avatar ! Was not present in the registration form either, so something is obviously quite wrong here ...

How can that be?
I need people to be able to update their image and no, I don't want them in the backend

How can I please achieve that ?!?!

I don't really think that one needs to install buddypress ONLY for allowing the avatars to be enbaled ...

Thanks!


PS: s2member also seems to conflict with any other plugins out there, which try to solve the issue by allowing the upload of that stupid avatar in frontend.

This file here seems 2 B culprit

wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=user_avatar_add_photo&step=1&uid=61&

no matter which plugin I tried to use, calling this URL falls back on a "not found page".

So how can this be solved please?

[Cristián Lávaque]

s2Member doesn't add avatars, so you do need another plugin to add that functionality. What avatar plugins did you try that didn't work with s2Member's profile page?

[candy]

well, I tried all those User avatar, Simple user avatar, whatever was in the lists you posted here every now and than. None worked ...

I really wanted something stupid and simple, just a minimum of member management, unfortunatelly simple thing seem the most difficult to achieve.

I could not keep from wandering why on Earth did the WP guys took those gravatars as standard, for simple people who in many cases hardly know to navigate through a normal site, telling them they should 1st register somewhere else to get their picture showing is really stupid.

I am afraid I'll have to revert to buddypress again, but that definitely should not be the way.
Changing one's picture belongs to the basic understading for any normal person out there.
Those avatars might be only good to use in IT forums or such, but not for normal communities / member sites.

I know you guys had to rely on the WP core, and WP does not offer that avatar thing, but please put it your list for future updates, cause all those nice profile custom fields, and profile pages etc are only half done without a proper user image.

And thanks for taking the time.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks for the suggestion and vote for this feature. I'll definitely show it to Jason.

[arthomas]

+1 for that feature, as he pointed out, its a basic and essential feature that almost everyone needs.

[antseo]

I second that motion.

[Eduan]

Me too.

[taylorv]

I'll add my thumbs up for this suggestion that avatars (or gravatars) be incorporated in some fashion into S2Member. "Members" like to see themselves; they also like to know who the other faces are behind the names, especially when interacting with one another.

If the rationale behind not including some facility for photos is that WordPress handles it in comments, or forum software handles it in forums, I guess I can understand that.

Is there a place to actually vote on suggetions?

[tripleaaadelay]

I agree.

Cristián, if you polled people, I would guess a lot of s2Member users are avoiding using the more secure profile page in order to have avatars with the default wp dashboard.

How soon can we learn if this will be an update to s2Member (a wonderful tool may I add!)?

[antseo]

hey, I found a way... go here and download the Avatars plugin .... http://www.sterling-adventures.co.uk/bl ... rs-plugin/

Then to get a sidebar Avatar widget, you need to purchase from Peter Sterling the sidebar widget extension which you can do from that page. It's only like $5 or $6.

Then use something like widget logic to set that Avatar sidebar widget to your s2member profile page.

Enjoy

[Cristián Lávaque]

seozones, thanks for the tip!

tripleaaaintokyo, thanks for the kudos!

[Lesley]

I found this thread as I was trying, as others here are, to allow my members to add an avatar, What worked for me was to choose to use the WP default profile editing choice. Then I installed Cimy User Extra Fields plugin and WP Hide Dashboard plugin. And now we have avatar uploading functionality and a profile page that doesn't look "back end" and can be added to-silghtly. I have tried it with some pretend members on my end and am waiting to hear from a friend whether it worked for her. As Candy and others have said, it is such a basic thing and shouldn't be so hard to manage. I know it is more a WP thing than an s2member thing, but I have researched membership plugins all weekend and none of them seem to think about the importance of profiles and such for building community within these membership sites we are trying to create.

I would be interested to know if the s2member pro version offers more in that area?

And the sad thing is, after accomplishing all that, I noticed that the comment usernames and avatars aren't clickable anyway and don't link to profiles or websites. I am sure that with alot of time and frustration and coding I will find a way to do that, but again, it is so basic it ought to be a part of any configuration.

All that I want is for my members to be able to click on name in a comment box and be able to learn more about their fellow member...that's how you build community and it shouldn't be so hard. And we shouldn't have to learn Buddypress and get drawn into all its complexities and problems when what we want are membership tools rather than social networking.

Any chance of s2member adding something like this?

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

And the sad thing is, after accomplishing all that, I noticed that the comment usernames and avatars aren't clickable anyway and don't link to profiles or websites. I am sure that with alot of time and frustration and coding I will find a way to do that, but again, it is so basic it ought to be a part of any configuration.

The closest s2Member can get you to this in the current release of s2Member v111105, is with the s2Member Pro Login Widget, which does include a User/Member's Gravtar, and links the Gravatar to Gravatar.com for managing their global avatar image. Please see: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2781

I understand this is not exactly what you're looking for though. A future release of s2Member will include this feature, through the application of a Custom Registration/Profile Field configured via s2Member, to accept a Profile Image upload. Until then, you might want to try one of these plugins:

[tripleaaadelay]

"A future release of s2Member will include this feature" ~ Jason

Great news! Very much looking forward to this feature!

[antseo]

That would be great. Thanks Jason!

[Lesley]

Thank you for the response, Jason. I look forward to that new feature. For the time being, I am trying out Buddypress and it seems to be giving me the profile/membership directory features I want, without too much trouble, tho' I am still testing the registration flow.