this will be a fun one!

We have more and more users arguing for completely blocking access to the wp backend (including the profile page) and will be implementing an option in 4.1 to do such a thing.

This goes the other direction and expands the user access to the backend. Of course, I dont understand the shock of some users in having their users access the wp backend.

One comment on dropping our code. We have set it up just this way with the pluggable display routines. In fact, I just walked a guy through yesterday using the pluggable feature to get User Photo working with his stuff. This guy wasnt a coder and he did it just fine.

I have it on my 4.1 list to expand our user group interaction with roles, if possible. This will note likely include direct integration with role manager. But, what does that really mean (role manager integration??? What we really want is the interaction between roles and user groups which likely lets you use role manager or other similar tool.

Anyways, just throwing in my 2 cents!

I intend to come back to this thread but I have to go out and am hurrying so just want to throw something into the pot here quickly.

One reason I do not want to actively (as opposed to passively) build in coded support for various other plugins AND not rely any further on WP UI components is because of the possibility of moving SPF one day to BackPress… if BackPress ever really gets off the ground. Just food for thought…

what the heck is backpress???  never heard of it…

'BackPress' is a project supposedly going on within Automattic to create the framework that both WordPress and bbPress uses but, bsically, without their UI or front end. In other words a common framework that both of these systems can use but also that anyone else can use to build an application on. This includes the current tables, the user registration system etc.

If it comes off it would allow something like Simple:Press Forum to be a standalone application.

interesting, never heard of it…  just found their trac page – not much activity, but a bit…

moving to 'backpress' would still lend it's self to relying more on the WP tables than using SPF custom tables.

I still see a need to use, at the very least, using WP user and usermeta table information as opposed to SPF tables.

The change then would simply be, a setting to display said information in SPF, or simply direct to the backend profile. (with other plugins the backend is a nonissue as backend can be front end displayed for lower class subscribers, CYC plugin)

after this, the additional features like the members search would always display member info in the front end, but it should be populated with information gathered from WP tables with Admin being able to select which items are displayable and which are sortable.

At that point all manor of plugins will be able to integrate, Role Manager, Membership Plugins (pay subscriptions), Register Plus, User Photo, Gravitar Plugins and core functions, with the ability to turn of the duplicated functions in SPF in favor of plugins that the admin may find more suitable.

First up moving to the sfmembers table has given us more plus points than we have lost. Usermeta is not a great table to have to use and relies on multiple rows being requested on what can be an extremely large table.

Next up – it is a myth to assume that storing our 'extended' data in Usermeta makes it instantly avalable to either the WP profile page or third party plugins. We DO store some user data in Usermeta but WP ignores it when displaying the WP profile page and always will. It is only interested in what it knows about. I suspect that this will be equally true of all third party plugins that work or extend ths collection of data.

Making our forum specific data in sfmembers available to third party plugins is actually a breeze although I am not sure what data items would really be of interest outsde of the forum. But if there are data items in there of interest perhaps wooing other plugin authors to support us would be a better prospect.