Deprecate hook_user_format_name_alter()

Removed the module_handler service calls from core/modules/user/src/Entity/User.php & core/lib/Drupal/Core/Session/UserSession.php.

There were a few tests implementing this hook as well. Have removed them as well for now. Should be re-thinking on how to get them back in.

I can't discover which commit to revert to so that this patch applies so I am going to try to manually reapply the patch.

Wasn't too much trouble to manually re-apply. Let's see what testbot says!

I'm going to investigate the failing tests.

Addressing failing tests.

patch contains a lot of unrelated changes (pull fresh 8.0.x)

Apologies. I'm on a plane now. Will try and work on it on my travels.

#11 + removal of @see

+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Session/AccountInterface.php
@@ -137,9 +137,7 @@ public function getAccountName();
    * @see hook_user_format_name_alter()

removed too

Thanks @andypost. I did manage to clean it up but you beat me to it. I'll unassign.

This hook is not deprecated. We need at least a change record.

There is an issue #2572821: Fix documentation on hook_user_format_name_alter(), should we continue to put out effort there?

This case confuses me a bit. You may overlooked realname module. You are breaking it hereby isn't it?

How should a developer change the display-name of a user with tokens if we cannot alter it any longer? I'm using it together with address field module and use the firstname and lastname to generate a good display-name. Others may use individual fields, but core has no replacement for this and I guess should not have. People have different needs here.

I'm just adding a reference to a caching issue here as there seems to be an important bug in core.

If someone removes it it becomes a contrib blocker.

This is 9.x now as it would otherwise break realname once 8.1 comes out. And that is not acceptable.

I cannot read any of these alternatives in the linked comment.

People only run one module for altering display-name. So, no conflict.

I have overridden autocomplete of entity references in realname D7. It sounds like a lie that it is not working. Have not yet implemented this in D8, but D7 works perfectly.

Note that it seems there are a lot of gotchas with D8's hook_user_format_name_alter(); I seem to remember things more-or-less working in D7 with hook_username_alter(), and that's just not the case with D8.

It would be nice if either we deprecate quickly and offer some other reliable way to alter the username, or we lock it in and clean up edge cases (e.g. username display on the user profile page, etc.) ASAP (re: @hass' comment above about Realname module).

Need some help with the remaining test failures. Can you join, please?

If we're going to remove it in 9.x, we need to deprecate it in 8.x first, so moving back.

If you deprecate something, what is the name of the new function that alters the display name? The feature is still required and IMPORTANT!

Suppose the proper way to render "realname" is special ds field that build from tokens

This is how realname works, but without the alter hook I cannot change the display name. This makes this case a won't fix.

@hass suppose realname very useful so better to refactor it into calculatable field somehow like http://cgit.drupalcode.org/drupal/tree/core/modules/text/src/TextProcess...

Thank you for creating this issue to improve Drupal.

We are working to decide if this task is still relevant to a currently supported version of Drupal. There hasn't been any discussion here for over 8 years which suggests that this has either been implemented or is no longer relevant. Your thoughts on this will allow a decision to be made.

Since we need more information to move forward with this issue, the status is now Postponed (maintainer needs more info). If we don't receive additional information to help with the issue, it may be closed after three months.

Thanks!

From what I can tell using gitlab search this isn't used much so probably could still be deprecated.

The issue summary says that allowing modules to change the username with hook_user_format_name_alter() has a lot of down-sides and not a lot of up-sides but does not make clear which those down-sides are. At least, the issue summary should explain what those down-sides are.

The documentation for the hook says it can be used to ensure user privacy in situations where $account->getDisplayName() is too revealing. I think that could still be a use case for the hook.