User profile fields
Template:Moodle 1.8Location: Administration > Users > Accounts > User profile fields
In Moodle 1.8 onwards, administrators are able to create new user profile categories and fields. Profile fields may be a menu of choices or text input and may be required or not.
New profile fields will appear on each user’s profile page (and on the user sign-up page in Moodle 1.9 onwards).
For one thing, this means that U.S. users will finally be able to have valid addresses, including *states*, without which an address can be meaningless. (Which state is Springfield in? Oh, 15 of them!)
Important
Should the site administrator intend to bulk upload user data[1] via .csv file, it is essential to use the correct convention to represent the new profile field. The convention is profile_field_shortname
Replace 'shortname' with the actual short name used for the new profile field eg. dob. So the field should read something like profile_field_dob
Examples of use
House System
Many schools have a 'House' system where students and staff are assigned to a given House. For example, a school has eight houses, named after its founders: Adderton, Coolock, Gorry, Loretto, McAuley, Mercedes, Tighe and Whitty. The site administrator can add a user profile field that offers a 'Menu of choices' to the user. A default value can also be selected. Should the administrator decide to bulk upload House data for users via a .csv file, it is important to represent the above array of values as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 in the file. That is to state, if a user belongs to Adderton House, the value '1' should appear for the 'House' user profile field for the given record.
Birthday Block
Here's how to automatically display user birthdays via a Moodle block.
- Site administrators must create a new user field for 'Date of Birth' as 'Text input' type.
- Download the 'Birthday Block'[2] plugin.
- When configured, this block pulls data from the DOB user field and displays user birthdays.
- Of course, user data must exist in correct format for this block to display birthdays.
See also
- Issue [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-9702 MDL-9702] - Custom user profile fields on the signup page