Changing username

[Søren Bjerg]

I was wondering if it's possible to change one's username - not display name - without it having critical effects to the forum/making the forums act like it had never happened (with profile links in messageindex still working)?

Would like to get rid of the 'admin' username, and keep the profile settings, posts, etc. - and not registering a new account and making it administrator.

[Peter Duggan]

Changing the username in phpMyAdmin is certainly possible (I've done it before) but, if it's an established board, you might have to run queries on a number of tables...

[David]

You'd have to update these tables

messages
instant_message
and probabally some log tables

[Peter Duggan]

You'd have to update these tables

messages
instant_message
and probabally some log tables

And members!

[Peter Duggan]

And members!

Possibly also boards, if you've appointed yourself as a moderator to any of them!

But I think the log tables all use IDs rather than names...

[Søren Bjerg]

Hmm... suddenly seems like quite a process... tried changing the username on a local copy of my forums, and now it's complaining about my password.

Did try assembling password relevant code and profile information into a page so I could dump a new hash into the db... but that seemed to fail too .

[Peter Duggan]

Think these queries should cover it, but I haven't actually tested them so please don't head straight for your live board:

UPDATE instant_messages SET fromName = 'new username' WHERE fromName = 'old username';

UPDATE instant_messages SET toName = 'new username' WHERE toName = 'old username';

UPDATE messages SET posterName = 'new username' WHERE posterName = 'old username';

UPDATE members SET memberName = 'new username' WHERE memberName = 'old username';

Moderators' names would probably be simpler to change through your Admin Center if you've appointed yourself to any of the boards!

[[Unknown]]

Oh right.  Changing the username will change your password to... so you'll have to reset your password.

-[Unknown]

[Douglas]

Ya'll want me to write up a quickie script that'll do this in a one step operation for ya?

[Søren Bjerg]

Ya'll want me to write up a quickie script that'll do this in a one step operation for ya?

I know I'd greatly appreciate it .

Appreciate the help.

[Douglas]

I'll have the script available for you in just a second.  I had to get the password set up correctly, and have just tested it.  

Give me 10-15 minutes.

[Douglas]

Since this is pretty much a mod, I've created it in simpletext format and have moved it over to the Mod's folder.

You can find that thread here.  I have slightly updated it to improve querying the db (Thanks, [Unknown]!)

You can find this thread HERE in the Mods area now.  

[Søren Bjerg]

Much thanks!

Worked like a charm on my webhost (Linux), couldn't get it to work on my offline server (Windows), though.

*thumbs up*

[Douglas]

Glad to help.    I'll update the above to indicate that it works on *nix systems, and not Windows.