Email as Username

[bsowards]

Searched the web for a few days on this one, no luck. You guys are awesome, so I figured I'd ask.

Is there a recommended way to make the username field for registration accept an email address?

Rather not deal with users trying to guess what username they should pick.

Hooks/function.php works for me as an approach.

[Cristián Lávaque]

I imagine it should be possible, although I haven't done it myself. Have you searched the hooks related to registration? It won't just be a matter of populating the username with the email field, but also making it validate as a username. Here's a good reference for WP hooks: http://adambrown.info/p/wp_hooks

I hope that helps.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the heads up on this thread Cristián.

@bsowards: I would advise against trying to modify the WordPress core in this regard, because many areas of WordPress, and almost all plugins rely on a strict Username validation and sanitation, which would not expect nor allow characters found in email addresses, such as the @ symbol. This becomes even more of an issue in a Multisite Network installation of WordPress.

Instead, you might try pre-populating the Username field, via JavaScript. Perhaps using jQuery to fill the Username field with only the first part of the email address being typed in ( i.e. johndoe22@example.com ), would automatically populate the Username field with: johndoe22, and then the User would have the ability to change it if they like something better. This would need to be custom coded ( just a few lines ), and then connected via the Hook login_head for the WordPress core.

[Jason Caldwell]

I went ahead and finished this up for anyone that wants to use it.

Create this directory and file:
/wp-content/mu-plugins/email-to-username.php

Code: Select all

<?php
add_action ("login_head", "s2_email_to_username", 1000);
function s2_email_to_username ()
    {
?>
        <script type = "text/javascript">
            (function ($) /* Wraps this `$ = jQuery` routine. */
                {
                    $.fn.swapWith = function (to) /* Utility extension for jQuery. */
                        {
                            return this.each (function ()
                                {
                                    var $to = $ (to).clone (true), $from = $ (this).clone (true);
                                    $(to).replaceWith ($from), $ (this).replaceWith ($to);
                                });
                        };
                    /**/
                    $(document).ready (function () /* Handles email-to-username on keyup. */
                        {
                            var email = 'input#user_email', login = 'input#user_login';
                            $(email).closest ('p').swapWith ($ (login).closest ('p')), $ (email).keyup (function ()
                                {
                                    $(login).val ($.trim ($ (email).val ().split (/@/)[0].replace (/[^\w]/gi, '')));
                                });
                        });
                }) (jQuery);
        </script>
<?php
    }
?>

* Please make sure there are no extra spaces/tabs/line breaks before or after the <?php ?> tags.

[bsowards]

Thanks Jason, very cool, appreciate the code!

[Cristián Lávaque]

Very cool!

[antseo]

Hi Jason. I built out that dir and page but when I try to sign up as a member, I don't see the username as the email. What am I doing wrong?

[bsowards]

This doesn't make the email address the username. Per Jason's earlier comment, that isn't a good idea since so many plugins rely on the username to validate properly - and having an "@" in the username would violate it.

So... this code snippet is for auto-generating usernames instead. As of right now it doesn't appear to validate that the username is available. If we added that then you could have this script auto-generate a username, set username to "display:none," and then use the "Email as Login" plugin.

Effecctively, this would make the email the username as far as the user is concerned, without hacking Wordpress.

I think this will be my next plugin...

[antseo]

Thanks bsowards. so what are the steps then to making that script work using the s2member profile shortcode?

[bsowards]

You upload this into wp-content/mu-plugins/s2hacks.php but put it outside the <?php ?> tags.

Once i have this plugin built I'll upload the notification here, probably will take a few weeks.

[antseo]

I didn't see an attachment. Are you referring to the script above?

So with regard to the username, I guess I don't why the email can't be used since it's a unique identifier?

[bsowards]

Per Jason's comment, wordpress core doesn't allow it.

There's no attachment yet, I haven't made the plugin yet.

[antseo]

okay, no worries. Thanks!

[bsowards]

This worked for BuddyPress:

http://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/email-login-randomized-user-urls-solution/

[sonora]

I'm using a plugin in conjunction with s2member Pro to allow users to log in with either their email address OR their username:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-email-login/

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks for sharing that!

[antseo]

nice! thanks!

[Raam Dev]

I've modified Jason's script slightly to hide the username field and append a randomly generated number to the username (to reduce the chances of a user registering with a conflicting username; as noted in the code comments, this isn't a fool-proof solution.) I also hid some other elements that I didn't want to show on the registration page.

You can see an example and grab my modified version of the script over here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15672&p=49082#p49082

[antseo]

okay cool. I did notice when I tried to implement this plugin ... http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/si- ... wordpress/ ... that the captcha isn't recognized on Submit action. Any idea why that would be?

[Jason Caldwell]

@seozones @bsowards
Forum rank updated to Experienced User