User Attributes

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Ok, simple question here, and maybe a stupid one as well.

I need a definition for these terms used in User Attributes, and what they are used for.

Text.....Text Area.....Checkbox....Date/Time.....Select

I do know what Address, and Number mean.

Thank you

TheCandOFansite
 
NUL76 replied on at Permalink Reply
NUL76
If you read the Basic Documentation on this site you would have found this out:

http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/general-topics/attributes/...

Text - a short text string.
Text Area - a longer field you might use for "Comments:" in a form.
Checkbox - A true/false or on/off setting.
Date/Time - Pick a day from a nice javascript calender, choose the time too.
Image/File - attach a file to something.
Number - force the input to be an integer.
Rating - 0-5 stars on something.
Select - Pick one, or pick many.
Address - Pre-populated with countries that update state/provice lists, all the fields you need to store and address.
TheCandOFansite replied on at Permalink Reply
TheCandOFansite
OK, this has been helpful to me in some degree, but I do not understand. Take for instance " Checkbox " ok, so it is a true/false or on/off setting.....for what ? What does it do, and how or where is it used ? Is it something that is on the users profile page, or somewhere else ?

Same with " Select "....Pick one, or pick many what ? And where or why ?

Date/Time....Ok so you are choosing the date and time,,, for what and where ? What is this used for ?

Number.....I do not have a clue what " forcing the input to be an integer " even means, let alone what it does or is for.

And just what do any of these have to do with the members ? Are these something for their profile pages ? Or,,,just what are they for period ?

Sorry, but I am new to all of this. There is much that I have never even heard of, or understand the meaning of. Have you never heard of someone being new to all of this ? A novice, a beginner ?

And as far as reading the Basic Documentation goes. To me, the word Documentation carries a meaning completely different than " Meaning of terms used " or " If you want information on the words used on Concrete5,,, look here "

So no, why would I have gone there to find out this info, or read it ? And even after reading about the User Attributes there, I still have no idea what they are about or for.

Thank you.
Proteus replied on at Permalink Reply
Proteus
Custom attributes are one of the deeper features of Concrete5.

They are not 'used' for anything in particular—that's up to you. They're like Legos.

For instance, I use a Select custom attribute on my site in order to show what client I did a project for. The project's page will list the client's name underneath it because I "selected" it. I realized that a custom attribute would be useful to me in that setting. I use checkbox attributes to turn on/off a whole navigation bar on my site, because I want it on some pages but not others.

They're a bit more on the developer side of things. It helps to know a little bit of PHP code to take advantage of them. It's not so much of "What are these used for?"—more like "What *could* they be used for?"
Darkwater23 replied on at Permalink Reply
Darkwater23
Well said Proteus!

To give you a real world example, I used C5 to create an investor portal for an investment firm. I added a User Type attribute as radio buttons. Most of the users are of type "Investor", but there are some special users, like CPAs that work for the Investor. The get a different value ("CPA").

Then, on the portal pages, I use C5's permission handling to make sure only registered users can see the page and then use the user attribute within some PHP code to show content based on the user's User Type.

The firm posts investment docs to the site and can flag the documents as non-private or private (a feature I added). A CPA can only see documents for his client and only documents that are non-private.

Pretty cool, huh? :D
TheCandOFansite replied on at Permalink Reply
TheCandOFansite
Responding to both of the above, I would say that I suppose....Because frankly I do not understand what either of you are talking about.
Mnkras replied on at Permalink Best Answer Reply
Mnkras
they are user editable values (most of the time) that can be interpreted by a php script to do different things based on the value

for example a check box attribute
[x] Recieve Newsletter

when a news letter is send, it will check all users for that attribute, if its checked it sends the email to them, if its not it doesn't
TheCandOFansite replied on at Permalink Reply
TheCandOFansite
Thank you, this I understand. my only problem would lie in php script, Another of those things I know nothing about.
Ricalsin replied on at Permalink Reply
Ricalsin
On a slightly different note, but one I'm sure you'll be aware of: Is there no such thing as a default setting for "semi-private" user permissions? Meaning, a logged in person can view their own profile and make changes, but their profile is not viewable by others - members or not?

If no, I understand what will need to be done. I was just wondering if I was missing something obvious in the core platform.

Rick
TheCandOFansite replied on at Permalink Reply
TheCandOFansite
Well for one, I am not concerned with " semi private attributes," my concern mainly is, no one can use their member pages.

What is entered as one person's info on their member page, becomes eveyone's info, it transfers from the one member's page to everyones pages. And I do not know how to stop this from happening.