Advantages and disadvantages of migration¶

• Advantages and disadvantages of migration
  • • Requires Extended Fields
    • Plugin now uses custom fields
    • Field names are not translatable
    • Author box code now depends on field name
    • Full control over hints
    • No separate “Profile” section
    • No inline hint
    • Prefix http:// is not required anymore
    • No OpenID fix anymore
    • The extended_profiles table is not used

While it may seem to be just a new version actually 1.0.0 is a completely new plugin. Therefore you should consider advantages and disadvantages before migrating (for the just mentioned reason I don’t name this process an update).

I tried to make new plugin very similar to the old one but for different reasons it was not always possible. Here is the difference between versions/plugins (it’s up to you to decide what is an advantage and what is a disadvantage):

Requires Extended Fields¶

Version 1.0.0 is built on top of the Extended Fields plugin. That is it won’t work without it!

Verdict: Is it a disadvantage? I don’t think so... But it’s not an advantage as well...

Plugin now uses custom fields¶

Now you can do anything with extended profile fields, what you could do with just custom fields because, actually, extended profile fields are custom fields (but edvanced ones)!

For example, earlier you could change if “Project of Interest” should be required in Administration → Plugins → Extended profile → Configure.

Now this should be done in Administration → Custom fields → Users → Project of interest → Required.

Verdict: The advantage!

Field names are not translatable¶

Now field names are custom field names and they have the same problem - they cannot be translated! But you always can just change the name!

Verdict: A disadvantage definitely!

Author box code now depends on field name¶

Previously there was a separate table extended_profile which could be used by the plugin to customize the author box. Now it fetches appropriate fields by their names!

The following fields are shown in author box:

• Company
• Company website
• Position
• Blog
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Verdict: A disadvantage!

Full control over hints¶

Previously hints were hard-coded in localization files. And they were defined only for “Facebook” and “Twitter”...

Now “hint” is a property of a custom field! That is it can be changed (no more my Facebook IDs in your profile), disabled or added!

Verdict: An advantage! Localization is not supported but...

No separate “Profile” section¶

I always wanted to move the extended profile fields where they are now! Just there were no possibility to do this!

Verdict: I believe this is the advantage!

No inline hint¶

I name “inline hint” a gray text in an input text element. It is not supported anymore.

Verdict: I liked its look and feel... A disadvantage?

Prefix http:// is not required anymore¶

Previously you should always specify http:// in URL-enabled fields (e.g. “Blog”). Now you can omit http://.

Verdict: I guess it’s the advantage?..

No OpenID fix anymore¶

Previously the Extended profile plugin contained a fix for OpenID authentication. I was hoping it was a temporary solution and guys from Redmine would fix it soon... It was not!

Nevertheless since 1.0.0 the OpenID fix was removed from the Extended Profile plugin... And moved to the separate plugin OpenID Fix.

Verdict: Advantage! This should be a separate plugin!

The extended_profiles table is not used¶

While it remains in the system... This table was replaced by custom fields and is not needed anymore!

Verdict: Not sure what is this...