Change 'member since' display on user account page [#517638]

What if we changed this (in user.module @ line 914):

  $account->content['summary'] += array(
    '#type' => 'user_profile_category',
    '#attributes' => array('class' => 'user-member'),
    '#weight' => 5,
    '#title' => t('History'),
  );
  $account->content['summary']['member_for'] =  array(
    '#type' => 'user_profile_item',
    '#title' => t('Member for'),
    '#markup' => format_interval(REQUEST_TIME - $account->created),
  );

to (something like) this:

  $account->content['summary'] += array(
    '#type' => 'user_profile_category',
    '#attributes' => array('class' => 'user-member'),
    '#weight' => 5,
    '#title' => t('Summary'),
  );
  $account->content['summary']['member_for'] =  array(
    '#type' => 'user_profile_item',
    '#title' => t('Member since'),
    '#markup' => check_plain(strftime('%B %Y', $account->created)),
  );

Or maybe "Overview" instead of "Summary"?

I attached an image with "before-and-after" screenshots... I just think the "Summary" (changed) version seems a little more aesthetically pleasing, especially for D7UX.

Thoughts?

Comment	File	Size	Author
#33	d7_profile.png	100.32 KB	jerdiggity
#30	user_profile_page_alter.patch	841 bytes	jerdiggity
#30
#28	user.module.patch	1.02 KB	jerdiggity
#28
#26	user_profile_page_alter.patch	1.03 KB	jerdiggity
#26
#26	possible_new_profile_page.png	43.61 KB	jerdiggity
#18	user.module.change_member_for.patch	793 bytes	psicomante
#18
#18	user.admin_.inc_.change_member_for.patch	1.39 KB	psicomante
#18
#17	profpage.jpg	24.73 KB	jerdiggity
#15	user.admin_.inc_.change_member_for.patch	1.39 KB	jerdiggity
#15
#15	user.module.change_member_for.patch	786 bytes	jerdiggity
#15
#10	user.module_98.patch	838 bytes	jerdiggity
#10
#7	user.module.patch	799 bytes	jerdiggity
#7
#5	user.module.patch	836 bytes	jerdiggity
#5
#3	user.module.diff	866 bytes	jerdiggity
#3
#3	user.admin_.inc_.diff	1.34 KB	jerdiggity
#3
#3	user.module.patch	866 bytes	jerdiggity
#3
#3	user.admin_.inc_.patch	1.34 KB	jerdiggity
#3
	summary.jpg	28.97 KB	jerdiggity

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Comments

Comment #1

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 16 July 2009 at 01:40

Status:

Active

» Needs review

I've since created a simple module for 6.x (http://drupal.org/project/alterprofilepage) but I personally think it would improve the user experience by a long shot if it were a part of the core. Reason: users want 'flair' rather than technical details. Not that this would, in and of itself, provide anymore 'flair' but it would (at minimum) eliminate technical details. eg:

Member for 1 day 3 hours 27 minutes 42 seconds

Obviously that's an exaggeration but more-than-once I've heard clients "snicker" when they read that part on their profile page. (Well, actually only twice but that's still twice as bad as never...)

Also, the word History seems to invoke an insecure or "exposed" feeling like, "I don't want people to know my $any_type_of_information history."

Comment #2

Bojhan CreditAttribution: Bojhan commented 17 July 2009 at 23:44

I think it makes sense, can you make a patch?

Comment #3

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 19 July 2009 at 12:44

File	Size
user.admin_.inc_.patch	1.34 KB

user.module.patch	866 bytes

user.admin_.inc_.diff	1.34 KB

user.module.diff	866 bytes

Comment #4

19 July 2009 at 13:00

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch failed testing.

Comment #5

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 19 July 2009 at 13:28

Status:

Needs work

» Needs review

File	Size
user.module.patch	836 bytes

Comment #6

19 July 2009 at 13:40

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch failed testing.

Comment #7

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 19 July 2009 at 13:52

Component:	user.module	» user system
Status:	Needs work	» Needs review

File	Size
user.module.patch	799 bytes

!check_plain()..??

Comment #8

kaakuu CreditAttribution: kaakuu commented 19 July 2009 at 13:59

The user profile is long scroll of things and there is no easy administrative way to hide or alter the order of things that appear there ( unless tpl is rewritten or extra modules are called in ) - its a long long scroll. While in real world all profiles have at least two columns or several "blocks".

There have been discussion on vertical tabs and others.
Maybe the admin should have the ability to determine
#
in how many columns the profile is displayed
#
which blocks go where ( drag drop )
#
give users the ability to drag drop blocks where they like -its their profile after all!

Comment #9

19 July 2009 at 14:10

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch failed testing.

Comment #10

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 21 July 2009 at 01:10

Component:	user system	» user.module
Status:	Needs work	» Needs review

File	Size
user.module_98.patch	838 bytes

Comment #11

oneoftwo CreditAttribution: oneoftwo commented 21 July 2009 at 08:49

Nice small patch, does what it is supposed to. I like the idea, only I would prefer %x instead of %B %Y...

Comment #12

moshe weitzman CreditAttribution: moshe weitzman commented 21 July 2009 at 17:28

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

I prefer the interval, and i don't like skipping the timezone personalization fo format_interval either

Comment #13

Jaza CreditAttribution: Jaza commented 22 July 2009 at 01:14

Title:

Proposal to change default user account page

» Change 'member since' display on user account page

While I really like the "member for" interval display for profile pages on d.o, for 99% of client sites I end up changing it to a "member since" non-interval format. I think that having a default of "member since" in a "month-year" format is a UX +1, and from experience I'd say it's closer to the average non-tech user's expectations.

Re: changing "history" to "summary", I see this as a change from bad to same. Personally, I don't think that a title is needed here at all; I think we should just remove the 'history' title, and replace it with empty space. "Summary" is just as repetitive, and I see it as just another attempt to think of an appropriate title where none is really needed.

Comment #14

Bojhan CreditAttribution: Bojhan commented 22 July 2009 at 08:44

Lets leave the title change, but keep the time change.

Comment #15

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 28 July 2009 at 11:07

Component:	user.module	» user system
Status:	Needs work	» Needs review

File	Size
user.module.change_member_for.patch	786 bytes

user.admin_.inc_.change_member_for.patch	1.39 KB

Good feedback... thanks for the input. For uniformity (if this were to get implemented), I'd want to change the words ['member_for'] to ['member_since'], and since some of the markup on user.admin.inc would have to change anyway (to match the modified user.module), there's no reason why that change shouldn't take place as well.

That said, I'm attaching a patch for review (two actually -- one for each file) that would essentially:

Make the code more "uniform" (than was the previous patch I submitted), and
Change the output to what is suggested in #11 and in #14

My logic behind this is that:

moshe makes a very valid point (#12) regarding personalization;
I (obviously) agree with Jaza & the first half of #13, and the second half is a valid point as well;
~~what Bojhan suggested in #14~~ what oneoftwo suggested in #11, to my knowledge, should take care of the personalization issue moshe brought up (correct me if I'm wrong though... it does happen every few years.) :)
- and now that I think about it, it actually probably does no good for locale issues. :(

Now for the "fun" part...

Comment #16

Bojhan CreditAttribution: Bojhan commented 28 July 2009 at 11:53

Could you supply a screenshot?

Comment #17

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 28 July 2009 at 12:41

File	Size
profpage.jpg	24.73 KB

Sure. See attached.

Comment #18

psicomante CreditAttribution: psicomante commented 28 July 2009 at 17:20

File	Size
user.admin_.inc_.change_member_for.patch	1.39 KB

user.module.change_member_for.patch	793 bytes

changed to format_date($account->created, 'medium')

Comment #19

psicomante CreditAttribution: psicomante commented 29 July 2009 at 17:20

tested, it works well. I think it could be an option in the user configuration. Or better...a template.

Comment #20

Gurpartap Singh CreditAttribution: Gurpartap Singh commented 29 July 2009 at 17:35

Isn't ago format more useful than exact date?

Comment #21

Bojhan CreditAttribution: Bojhan commented 29 July 2009 at 21:03

No.

Can I have a last notation, of what the format is now - we have changed it like 20 times now.

Comment #22

Gurpartap Singh CreditAttribution: Gurpartap Singh commented 29 July 2009 at 22:22

Ok.

1 day 9 hours

Comment #23

Bojhan CreditAttribution: Bojhan commented 2 August 2009 at 03:22

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

test failing

Comment #24

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 3 August 2009 at 04:56

It looks like user.admin.inc is passing but user.module isn't...

I think it's because the user.admin.inc patch would have to be applied/committed to core first because of the changes in verbage (in the new code, the field ['member_for'] would change to ['member_since'] just for 'uniformity' but that can change... Just trying to avoid any confusion).

Comment #25

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 24 August 2009 at 22:44

Status:

Needs work

» Closed (won't fix)

As stated, (properly) implementing this would require two core changes -- one to user.admin.inc and a separate one to user.module but I would guess the core maintainers have bigger fish to fry than this.

If anyone wants to implement this on their site please see the alter profile page module.

Cleaning this out of the issue queue...

Comment #26

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 20 September 2009 at 00:52

Status:

Closed (won't fix)

» Needs review

File	Size
possible_new_profile_page.png	43.61 KB
user_profile_page_alter.patch	1.03 KB

After checking out the latest HEAD, I really think it would be a shame to not at least get the community's input about implementing this.

Re-opening and submitting new patch for D7 while there's still time.

Please also find an attached screenshot.

Comment #27

20 September 2009 at 00:55

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch failed testing.

Comment #28

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 20 September 2009 at 01:02

Component:	user system	» user.module
Status:	Needs work	» Needs review

File	Size
user.module.patch	1.02 KB

That's weird... worked for me. Trying again. Oops (changing component).

Comment #29

20 September 2009 at 01:15

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch failed testing.

Comment #30

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 27 September 2009 at 09:42

Component:	user.module	» user system
Status:	Needs work	» Needs review

File	Size
user_profile_page_alter.patch	841 bytes

Yet another attempt...

Comment #31

Dries CreditAttribution: Dries commented 27 September 2009 at 19:12

I'm not sure about this patch. Both visualization formats are useful depending on the context of the site/visitor. Can we do both? Like: "Member for $interval since $data"?

Comment #32

27 September 2009 at 22:05

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch failed testing.

Comment #33

jerdiggity CreditAttribution: jerdiggity commented 29 September 2009 at 12:24

File	Size
d7_profile.png	100.32 KB

Even I'm not sure about it now since I can't even seem to get the patch to validate... ;) (Although my guess is that it has something to do with the header actions taking place in user.admin.inc but then again that could be way off.)

As far as Member for $interval since $data? -- are you using that in reference to what's displayed on /user/[uid]? or within the admin interface? (or both)? Reason I ask is because I couldn't agree more with Both visualization formats are useful depending on the context of the site/visitor but if it's the first or third one you're referring to... my vote would be probably be a "no." Of course that's pretty much just based on "my concept" of which is the "greater good" which very well may be an inaccurate concept...

Additionally, please see the attached screen shot of my most recent module release (on a D7 site) which I suppose could be left as a stand-alone mod (wouldn't be the end of the world), but to be perfectly honest I think if we left the profile page "as is" we'd be nullifying ~~your entire~~ a good portion of your whole D7UX emphasis which is something we can't afford to lose.