User registration problems

Hi, I have tried all possible combinations I can think of now using Normal Registration and Automatic Registration, but I keep on experiencing issues with creating users. It seems several of the settings for JFBConnect in the admin panel simply don't take effect, and I have no idea why. I tried to search the forum but did not find answers. I am hoping you will be able to help. So, here it goes in detail:

Our site runs on Joomla 3.2.1, Community Builder 1.9.1 and JFBConnect 5.1.2.

Case 1: 'Normal Registration'

1. Signing up via Facebook asks for the permissions alright.
2. It takes me to the user registration page where the mapped fields haven been apparently received from Facebook and are displayed to the user (e.g. city field). The Username field is shown and prepopulated with 'fb_somedigits' and remaining mandatory fields are being displayed waiting for the user to enter. Also a field 'Name' is shown which contains the concatenate firstname lastname of the user as correctly retrieved from Facebook.
3. the user then enters the missing mandatory fields, and clicks on the register button.
4. What happens next is that despite having set 'Auto-login facebook users' to 'yes', the user is not actually NOT logged in. Instead, a username/pwd login field combo is shown with the FB login button below. Before clicking on the FB login button, a check from the CB user manager shows the user has been created. However, the username is actually the Name (concatenated firstname lastname) and not the Username ('fb_somedigits') as shown on the previous screen before pressing register. The remaining imported fields from FB (e.g. city, avatar picture, etc.) and the manually entered ones by the user are all correctly saved. The user is also 'approved' and 'unblocked'. All looks good EXCEPT the username is not what it should be (namely fb_....) and the user is not automatically logged in.
(Note: Skip Joomla User activation is set to 'yes'.)

(Btw, I also noticed that the 'Logout Of Joomla Only (Facebook Only) :' seems to have no effect. regardless whether it's set to yes or no, logging out of Joomla, does not log out of facebook - perhaps this gives a clue?)


Case 2: Automatic Registration

1. Clicking the Login with Facebook button, a user is created with the correct username fb_somedigits. The email address is correctly imported. However, none of the other fields that have been mapped get saved to the profile. I suspect this is because not all mandatory fields we have set are actually data we can get from Facebook. The user, however, is correctly logged into our system, where we redirect to the profile edit page. However, the problems are now as follows. The user is unapproved and blocked. He is also sent an email to confirm his email address, even though in the Joomla Global Configuration under 'Users manager' the 'New User Account Activation' is set to none, which should set the user to approved and unblocked right away.
(btw, allow user registration in Joomla Global Configurations Users manager is set to 'no'. As is recommended in the Community Builder configuration manager - Registration tab, where 'Allow User Registration' is set to 'yes, independently of global site setting'.


I should also mention that our site is currently sitting behind htaccess as it's a preproduction environment where we are currently testing to upgrade our production site to the latest Joomla 3.2.1. Just in case this can have an impact.


To make a long story short, I'd love to get to the point where case 1 Normal Registration works such that it users the Username (fb_somedigits) as username and not the Name (first + lastname)) and automatically logs in the user after registration. As an additional bonus, it would be great if case 2 Automatic registration would work such that the user would be automatically enabled and unblocked.

Really hoping someone can help us out. Looking forward to your response.

Thank you,
Oliver

Hi Alex,

Thank you for your immediate and comprehensive response. OK, I haven't upgraded yet to 5.2.2 but if you think that could be the reason then I will do so, of course.

In the meanwhile, I made only those fields as required that we can get from FB and that all works smooth for case 2: Automatic registration.

Unfortunately, the problem for case 1: Manual registration persists And that's the one I'd really like to use. It's a pretty clean install from fresh Joomla, fresh CB, etc. and I disabled all plugins (not that there are many) that could have to do with the user not being logged in after the facebook registration, and unfortunately it also didn't change anything wrt the username being changed from fb_somedigits (as displayed on the manual registration page after pulling data from FB and before the user is created in Joomla / CB) to firstname concatenated lastname.

If you have any ideas what could be the cause, please let me know. None of these should be because we're sitting behind htaccess at the moment, or could it? All ideas much welcome. I'll upgrade and then let you know the outcome of that.

Thank you again so much,
Oliver

Hi Alex,

I purchased the upgrade and installed 5.2.2 but the problem was the same. I then randomly started playing around with all sorts of settings also in Community Builder and that's when I noticed the following:

If I don't allow users to change their username after registration then I have the problems described in my original post (JFBC does not seem to be able to assign the fb_somedigits username in automatic registration mode but the username defaults to first + last and the user is not logged in automatically).

If I allow users to change their username after registration (in CB that's in Configuration -> User Profile tab -> Username field: yes) then JFBC is able to automatically login the user following registration and the username is also fb_somedigits.

Any idea why this correlation exists? Because what I'd really like to do, of course, is to have automatic registration with JFBC but not allow users to edit their username after registration on their profile edit page.

Thank you very much,
Oliver

Hi Alex,

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it. To answer your questions:

1) We also use CB 1.9.1 (on Joomla 3.2.1)

2) What extra CB plugins do you have enabled? We have no additional CB plugins enabled other than the core ones.

The templates that come with it and then CB Core, CB Menu, CB Connections, Content Author, CB Articles, CB Profile Pro are the plugins that are shown as published in the CB plugin manager.

3) What Authentication and User plugins are enabled on your site?

We use SCLogin. (I have also tried to publish and unpublish CB Login but that has no impact). I am not sure what you mean by User plugins but nothing else comes to mind.

4) Any other CB integration that you have setup with other extensions that may help explain things?

No, I don't think so. We also use K2 but I don't think that interferes.

You said: "The default option in CB is to allow users to change their username. That's the way we test and, my guess, is the way that most user's have CB configured as well."

For us, it’s important that people don’t just change it. Since you don't have the issue on your site, have you had the chance to try and change the settings in CB (in Configuration -> User Profile tab -> Username field: yes) in your environment and see if you get this behaviour (user is created with firstname + lastname but autologin fails) then?

I have no idea either what could be causing this. I’d be happy to give you access to our backend for the environment so you can have a look yourself first hand.

Looking forward to hear again.
Oliver

Hi Alex,

I am sorry for my delayed response (flu). Thank you for your follow-up. I have the required information for you and did some further testing.

1) Glad we're on the same releases.

Yes, now I could upgrade to Joomla 3.2.2 but I havent' done that yet.

2) You mention CB Profile Pro. That's not a standard CB plugin, and I'm not sure what that does. I'm guessing it comes with their membership bundle, but it would honestly make sense that that one is modifying a user's profile in some way. Can you check the settings of that plugin and/or disable it and test?

OK. I disabled CB Profile Pro and there is no change. With or without it, when using JFBC Enable Automatic Registration set to No, then the user does not get logged in automatically and the username for creating is Firstname Lastname rather then what is chosen in JFBC for Auto Username Prefix.

Also, with our without CB Profile Pro enabled, all works well with JFBC when Enable Automatic Registration set to Yes, i.e., the user is automatically logged in then and the username is generated correctly per what is chosen in JFBC for Auto Username Prefix. Maybe this can give a clue to what the difference may be inside JFBC (if any)?

That's where I'd narrow a focus.. and then, let me know more about what that plugin does and if it's required for what you're doing.

CB Profile Pro is actually a neat plugin that allows to make good looking profile pages in CB. There is a good overview at www.joomduck.com/extensions/community-builder-profile-pro

3) For authentication/user plugins, I meant to check the Plugin Manager and filter by 'type' for authentication and user. Let me know what plugins are enabled there as those types of plugins are usually meant to validate and/or alter a user. That's another prime place where the username may be being overwritten.

OK, I checked. When filtering there for 'authentication', the following are enabled: 'Authentication - Cookie', 'Authentication - JFBConnect Facebook' and 'Authentication - Joomla'. When filtering for 'user', the following are enabled: 'User - JFBConnect Facebook' (ordered to trigger as the first plugin) and 'User - Joomla!'. There was also 'User - K2' enabled, but I disabled it and tested again, and no impact from that one.

For us, it’s important that people don’t just change it. Since you don't have the issue on your site, have you had the chance to try and change the settings in CB (in Configuration -> User Profile tab -> Username field: yes) in your environment and see if you get this behaviour (user is created with firstname + lastname but autologin fails) then?

Again, that's the default way that CB is configured when it's installed. That's how we run *all* of our tests and, I'm assuming, how most user's have their CB sites configured. We can't recreate the issue you mention with that setting enabled (the default), so there must be something else about your site that we're missing.

I understand. We are running a community networking site where the important part are the members. In order to avoid people impersonating one another or rather changing identities, that's why it's setup like that. I understand you do all your testing with this set to on. Could you turn it off just for this one test to see if you can reproduce it then? As said, I'd be happy to give you access to our site in case that would help save time.

Thank you again,
Oliver

Hi Alex,

Thank you for your response. No need to be sorry. On the contrary: I much appreciate your continued support.

OK, I ran all the different combinations of enabling/disabling those two plugins. Since I was getting confused on the JFBC backend about "Enable Automatic Registration" being on or off (in this slider YES can be RED while on all other sliders it can only be GREEN when not gray), I typed it out below. The original problem first:


1. Enable Automatic Registration - NO is GRAY / Yes is RED

Case 1:
Authentication Cookie plugin - disabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - enabled

Now it worked! Yay! The user was logged in, and the username was saved as specified in the JFBC backend (firlas) rather than firstname lastname. Great!


Case 2:
Authentication Cookie plugin - disabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - disabled

As you expected, that caused only additional problems: the user was logged in (as with the 'Authentication - Cookie plugin' disabled) but the user was not approved by a moderator nor was the email confirmed.


Case 3:
Authentication Cookie plugin - enabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - disabled

The user was logged in and the username was firlas but the user was not approved by a moderator nor was the email confirmed.


Case 4:
Authentication Cookie plugin - enabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - enabled

The original problem: the user is not logged in automatically and the username is not saved as firlas, but the user is approved and email confirmed.


And then with Enabled Automatic Registration set the other way around for sake of completeness (this always worked fine).

2. Enable Automatic Registration - NO is GREEN / YES is GRAY.

Case 1:
Authentication Cookie plugin - disabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - enabled

The user was logged in after filling his details first, and the username was saved as specified in the JFBC backend (firlas) rather than firstname lastname.


Case 2:
Authentication Cookie plugin - disabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - disabled

The user was logged in after filling his details first (except only Name and Username were displayed and none of the other fields), and the username was saved as specified in the JFBC backend (firlas) rather than firstname last name. But that caused the additional problems: the user was logged in (as with the 'Authentication - Cookie plugin' disabled) but the user was not approved by a moderator nor was the email confirmed.


Case 3:
Authentication Cookie plugin - enabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - disabled

The user was logged in after filling his details first (except only Name and Username were displayed and none of the other fields) and the username was saved as specified in the JFBC backend (firlas) rather than firstname lastname. But the user was not approved by a moderator nor was the email confirmed.


Case 4:
Authentication Cookie plugin - enabled
Social Profiles CB plugin - enabled

The user was logged in automatically after filling his details and the username was saved as specified in the JFBC backend (firlas) rather than firstname lastname.


I hope the above will help you trace the issue further.

Looking forward to hear again from you.
Oliver