Authenticated user keeps going straight to profile

Try this module...

http://drupal.org/project/login_destination

the normal behaviour is that when a user logs in (using the login block for example), they are brought to the page they were just looking at. not the profile.

It sounds like you're directing users to login using the www.example.com/user/login link, which means they will always see their profile when they login.

have you tried putting in a custom login form on your front_page for users not logged in?

e.g.

    <h2 class="title">User login</h2>
    <div class="content"><form action="front?destination=front_page"  accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="user-login-form">
<div><div class="form-item">
 <label for="edit-name">Username: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label>
 <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name"  size="15" value="" class="form-text required" />
</div>
<div class="form-item">
 <label for="edit-pass">Password: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label>

 <input type="password" name="pass" id="edit-pass"  maxlength="60"  size="15"  class="form-text required" />
</div>
<input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Log in"  class="form-submit" />
<div class="item-list"><ul><li><a href="/user/register" title="Create a new user account.">Create new account</a></li><li><a href="/user/password" title="Request new password via e-mail.">Request new password</a></li></ul></div><input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-user-login-block" value="user_login_block"  />

</div></form>
</div>

note the form action="front?destination=front_page" which tells Drupal to log this person in and bring them to the front_page.

I needed a similar solution last week and all that was needed was to use the form_alter hook. Basically just hook into the login and add the redirect property, Drupal will do the rest:

function hook_form_alter($form_id, &$form) {
	if ($form_id == 'user_login_block' || $form_id == 'user_login') {
		$form['#redirect'] = '<location_here>';
	}
}

I didn't do this with front_page, but the redirect will take any alias.

I've tried your example and it works great. I've tried just changing the http://pastebin.ca/987804 Can anyone see what my noob brain is doing wrong?

It wasn't obvious glancing at the pastebin code why it wasn't working for you..i notice your form action was <form action="/user" which directs the user to their profile page when they login which is what you didn't want.

A simple and quick way of doing it if your site is already translated, is to try this:

(a) temporarily enable the login block, logout of your site and visit your front_page.
(b) Click on view source to grab the source HTML for your login form.
(c) login, disable the login block and use the snippet in your front_page settings.

@gsutcliffe re: #7

I have now solved this problem by installing the 6.2 version of login_destination. But I did originally try your hook form alter solution, but couldn't get it to work. Could you elaborate a little on where I would need to put it, and what else would need to change? Thanks.