Authentication

Matt,

Thanks for posting this info.

I'm a novice to php and mysql - however, I can edit the php easily enough as you suggest, but don't know where to get started with MySQL and allowing null fields. I've been trying to connect with MySQLAdmin without any luck - not sure if I'm using the wrong tool or the wrong technique!

If there was a way to hard code a default text value into the php I might find this easier (e.g. so the city is always Birmingham)...

Any advice much appreciated,

Regards,

Niall.

Matt, I want to not just make it a nonrequirement, but I want to remove the city and country field altogether. I am NOT a techy, at all. I do not understand techy talk. I have been trying to accomplish this for a few days, and I am at the point of tears and anger, and it takes a lot to get me there. I was told to comment out code and I was given examples. Nothing changed at all. I finally found out how the hell to get to MyPHPAdmin, and I was told to allow nulls, but there does not seem to be an option of "null", so how do I do this. There is a column that says "Null", but it is static and not dynamic. There is not a damned thing I can do with it. I just want the damned fields removed. Is it really this frickin' hard?!?!? Is anyone able to explain how the hell to do this? Is anyone out there knowledgeable enough to teach this?

Associated problem which has been bugging me for well over a year - does anyone know how to ensure that when a user joins themselves onto the system but when they are already linked to the LDAP/AD record - persistently the Forename field in the profile page does not offer a text box hence the person can never move beyond this until the administrator has completed their forename for them.

any help would really be appreciated

thanks

Neil

Using 1.98 I have finally figured this out.  Thanx mostly to th ports above this.

 In moodle->user->editlib find the rule statements for each field you do not want to be required.  This is the e-mail one:

//$mform->addRule('email', $strrequired, 'required', null, 'client');

 simpley comment them out.  This will make sure that the form willnot require the field to have data. This is all you would have to do for country/city.

If you want moodle to work without requireing e-mails then there is more to it. This is becasue moodle checks to see if the e-mails are e-mails, and that they are unique in the database when the user is craeted, but also when you login the system checks to see if the e-mail, user name, Fname ad Lname are no empty.

In the file moodle->user->editadvanced_form.php is where the initial validation checks occur. You need to find the

function validation($usernew, $files) {

and then comment out the line like i did below.

if (!$user or $user->email !== stripslashes($usernew->email)) {
if (!validate_email(stripslashes($usernew->email))) {
  //$err['email'] = get_string('invalidemail');
} else if (record_exists('user', 'email', $usernew->email, 'mnethostid', $CFG->mnet_localhost_id)) {
  //$err['email'] = get_string('emailexists');
}
}

I'm new to php but I'm pretty sure the 2nd if checks to see if the e-mail is blank and the else if checks to see if unique. I wanted to be able to have blanks so a commented out both.

The problem at this point is when a user logs in Moodle checks to see if the user name, first name, e-mail, etc are not blank. If they are blank they will force them to enter in this info. So in moodle->lib->moodlelib.php, find the function

function user_not_fully_set_up($user) {
     return ($user->username != 'guest' and (empty($user->firstname) or empty($user->lastname) or empty($user->email) or over_bounce_threshold($user)));
}

not just delete the:

or empty($user->email)

If you are still having problems, check moodle->login->signup_form in the

function validation($data, $files) {

if (! validate_email($data['email'])) {
  $errors['email'] = get_string('invalidemail');

} else if (record_exists('user', 'email', $data['email'])) {
  $errors['email'] = get_string('emailexists').' <a href="forgot_password.php">'.get_string('newpassword').'?</a>';
}
if (empty($data['email2'])) {
  $errors['email2'] = get_string('missingemail');

} else if ($data['email2'] != $data['email']) {
  $errors['email2'] = get_string('invalidemail');
}
if (!isset($errors['email'])) {
if ($err = email_is_not_allowed($data['email'])) {
  $errors['email'] = $err;
}

}

These errors may be causing trouble, and if they are comment them out.

I did not have any problems with the database not accepting nulls.

If you have any questions just send me a message directly.

I found this all out by using the following steps:
1. I found the error message in moodle->lang->en_utf8->moodle.php - the "invalid email text"
This is where the get_string command get's it's text from. I fond this line:
$string['invalidemail'] = 'Invalid email address';
I then knew that any function calling get_string("'invalidemail'") would cause the error message.

2. I used a program to search through all the code and find get_string("'invalidemail'"). I found it in several places and commented them one at a time to make sure I knew which one was causing the error when I was creating a user.

3. I then tested the system out and found a new error when i tried to login, I followed steps 1 and 2 almost exactly. When i found the error I decided to search for teh function that was failing (function user_not_fully_set_up) and decided just to alter it instead of simply commenting out the error.

You'll need to edit /path/to/moodle/login/signup_form.php.  Comment out lines 78-97 to remove both country and city. 

This does NOT however fix the problem of when you try to edit user settings demanding that they be set.  I'll have to keep digging.