Duplicate of User Display API

Wow, I thought I had done a pretty thorough search for existing modules... I found several that were mildly related, but somehow I missed this one. Downloading now...

I've download the user_display module and played with it a bit. I'm intrigued by the concept, and I'll gladly add a pointer to your project page.

However, I'm not convinced that your module warrants me abandoning Avatar Blocks. I wrote this module to address a specific client need. Avatar Blocks addressed that need. I'm not sure your module does. While my client does a great job of running a Drupal site, he's no developer.

I've only spent an hour with your module, so I'm hardly an expert. But I kinda' know what I'm doing. Nonetheless, I couldn't get your module to display user pictures. I followed the instructions, patched phptemplate, placed settings.php files in both the theme and the module folders, and a tried handful of other things. This isn't intended as a knock on your module... I'm sure it works as you describe and that I'm simply doing something wrong. Eventually I'd figure it out. My client wouldn't.

Am I correct in stating that in order to produce a Who's Online block that displays user pictures using your module, that you must a.) patch the core phptemplate.module file, and b.) edit your settings.php file to describe the layout of the block elements as a nested associative array?

What Avatar Blocks aspires to do is to make is very easy for a user to publish these specific user picture blocks without coding, CSS, template edits, etc. I want the user to be able to just configure the picture size and publish the block. Your project is significantly more ambitious and offers a slew of features. But it's a dev tool. For your average non-coding drupal admin who just wants picture blocks, the technical barrier is too high.

I'd be happy to merge this project into any other project that fills the same need, or even abandon it should there be a better alternative that fills that need. Maybe your module is that better alternative... I'm completely open to that possibility. But at first glance, I don't see that it is.

The User Display API was just too difficult on setup and for what I was trying to do. I have to say that I would prefer to stick with a much more user friendly module such as Avatar Blocks.

I am sure that developers will enjoy using the API for their needs but as far as an out of the box solution for what I was trying to do without messing with editing files Avatar Blocks fits my needs.

Just one end users honest opinion. :)

oww... you placed settings.php into the theme/module folder? Well, I hope to finish the UI module soon, so all of that file editing won't be necessary anymore - but the configuration values need to be added to your site's settings.php, located in ./sites/[sitename]/settings.php... (again, as long as there is no UI module)

That was the first thing I tried. When that didn't work for me, I left those change intact and created a separate settings.php file (ala the 5.x ThemeSettingsAPI module) and put it in my theme folder. Then the module folder. Once again, I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, and I really haven't looked at the code to see where I'm making my mistakes.

Of course, you are welcome to join forces in User Display!

I'd be happy to do that. Feel free to use my contact tab if you've got some specific ideas of how I might be able to help.

Drupal needs a consistent and flexible method of displaying user pictures throughout the site. And we've both come to the conclusion that interfacing with ImageCache is the way to go. I think we're approaching the problem from different perspectives: you're attempting to address the needs of developers, and I'm attempting to address the needs of 'end-users'. If we can do both under one umbrella, it's better for everyone.

But at least for now, I think this project has merit.