InstantASP Community Forums / Old Forums / InstantForum.NET 4.x / Suggestions & Requests / Blank Username Protection / Latest Posts

RE: Blank Username Protection

DanMorin — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 10:29:04 GMT

This is a good idea. A random username would solve the problem and force the user to pick a better name :)

Thanks for the code sample. I am already using a similar method to generate passwords with the following code in InstantASP.Common\InstantASP.Common\Components\User.vb:

[quote]Public Function GenerateAndSetNewPassword() As String
Dim sPassword As String
sPassword = InstantASP.Common.Text.Generators.RandomAlphaNumeric(8, True)
SetPassword(sPassword)
Return sPassword
End Function[/quote]

RE: Blank Username Protection

Mark Christianson — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 10:02:42 GMT

Why not generate a random username, there are .net tools out there to help.

http://aspalliance.com/703 <-- random passphrase generation

[hr]

I found this function for random strings

[code]
Private Function RandomStringGenerator(ByVal intLen As Integer) As String
Dim r As New Random
Dim i As Integer
Dim strTemp As String
For i = 0 To intLen
strTemp = strTemp & Chr(Int((26 * r.NextDouble()) + 65))
Next
Return strTemp
End Function
[/code]

RE: Blank Username Protection

DanMorin — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 18:16:33 GMT

[quote][b]AL (aholics.com) (9/23/2005)[/b][hr]Of course, this would publicize an email address...but not in such a way that bots would recognize it. Regardless, you need to be careful with privacy issues regarding the creation of a name in this manner.[/quote]

I don't want to display the email address because of privacy and spam. I am thinking of displaying the email if the username is empty for the Administrator (myself). This way, I will be able to contact those individuals if needed.

RE: Blank Username Protection

AL (aholics.com) — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:52:15 GMT

Something like the following would assure unique usernames:

EMAIL:
name@domain.com

USERNAME:
DomainCom-Name

Of course, this would publicize an email address...but not in such a way that bots would recognize it. Regardless, you need to be careful with privacy issues regarding the creation of a name in this manner.

Or, you could just do something like this:

USERNAME:
Name###

Where ### is a sequential number starting with 1. If Name1 exists, try Name2. If Name2 exists, try Name3, etc...

RE: Blank Username Protection

Mark Christianson — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 09:28:33 GMT

Then why not just park anything in there (random) or just use thier email or some other bit of information you have from them.

RE: Blank Username Protection

DanMorin — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 23:14:17 GMT

[quote][b]Bare (9/22/2005)[/b][hr]I thought the 'username' was a required field upon registration in InstantForum v4.0? If so, how can you have registered members with no username field entry?[/quote]

You are right. The problem is the user is automatically registered via the IF API when requesting an evaluation key for my product. The automatic registration leaves the username blank so the user can pick his/her own. Also, most of the registered users will never post to the forum, so they don't need a username.

RE: Blank Username Protection

Mark Christianson — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 10:36:50 GMT

I cant think of any good reason that you'd even ALLOW it IF you are NOT required to enter that field (which I agree with Bare is required).

Seems like you're trying to implement a code solution for a USER problem.

RE: Blank Username Protection

Bare — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 10:26:47 GMT

I thought the 'username' was a required field upon registration in InstantForum v4.0? If so, how can you have registered members with no username field entry?

I must not be understanding...

It's more a question for InstantASP anyway, but I'm just curious... ;)

Blank Username Protection

DanMorin — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 09:43:59 GMT

The InstantForum does not work well if a blank username is present. I am not asking to re-write the forum logic, but to generate a username if empty when the user logins by email. I think this will be a great feature for third party components to fully use the forum.

Scenario

Each customer can request a 30-day evaluation key for my product. The key is sent by email. I use the forum database to keep those emails, however I do not create a username because 99% of them will never post to the forum.

Problems Associated With a Blank Username

It is now a problem because many users do write private messages while their username is still undefined. With a blank username, it is impossible to communicate back to those users. Another annoying thing is the impossibility to view the user's profile if the username is blank.

Solution

I am thinking of modifying the code to generate a username when the customer logins by email. If you have any suggestions to do this, please let me know. Let me know if you consider to implement this feature, so I won't have to do it.

Thanks