Personal Info AddOn Documentation

This topic is meant for administrators and serves as introduction springboard to PersonalInfoAddOn topics. Keep this topic as reference.

Using PersonalInfo

This document assumes you have copied the PersonalInfoAddOn files to your user web. Otherwise, see PersonalInfoAddOn for installation instructions.

Further requirements:

1. Custom UserForm
   • You have either copied the example UserForm topic to your user web, or you have modified UserForm with the fields in the example.
2. Custom NewUserTemplate
   • You have either copied the example NewUserTemplate topic to your user web, or you have modified NewUserTemplate with the fields in the example.

If you want to use PersonalInfo for existing user topics, see Customize information in the user topic

If you would like to show different information on the user pages, see Customize information in the user topic

If you need to speed up searches, see Speed up searching using a data cache

Modifying existing user topics

Setting PersonalInfoUserViewTemplate as view template for existing user topics:

Customize information in the user topic

To change the fields:

To change the layout:

Speed up searching using a data cache

By default Foswiki's SEARCH is used to find all users. With many users this can mean a significant performance hit.

Searches can be sped up by having user data in cache: an attachment to PersonalInfo. For fast user data retrieval:

1. Install Foswiki:Extensions/AttachContentPlugin
2. Enable it in configure
3. In Main.SitePreferences set PERSONALINFOADDON_FILECACHE:
   

      Set PERSONALINFOADDON_FILECACHE = 1

4. Update the info, either:
   1. Manually: in PersonalInfo, click on the "Update" button. By saving the topic, the attachment is updated with the latest information.
   2. Automatically: create a cron job to regularly save the PersonalInfo topic.

The same idea may be used to create an XML file, this is turned off for performance. See #PhoneListXML.

Documentation of the INCLUDE sections in PersonalInfo.

personalInfo

This block is intended as a quick introduction of the user (picture!) and to provide the most common information at hand. It makes it easy to edit the data "on the fly".

This block is included on every user page when PersonalInfoUserViewTemplate is set as view template.

This include is written in PersonalInfoUserViewTemplate:

%INCLUDE{"PersonalInfo" section="personalInfo"}%

Creates:

directSearch

Creates a search box to directly find users with their WorkPhone number.

When AttachContentPlugin is enabled, an updated javascript file attachment is created each time PersonalInfo is saved. This will make loading of the directSearch module a lot faster.

To disable the auto-creation of the attachment, change PersonalInfo#createDirectSearchAttachment: change %STARTATTACH{ to %<nop>STARTATTACH{

Usage:

%INCLUDE{"PersonalInfo" section="directSearch" title="*Phone list*" maxresults="10"}%

Parameter	Description	Default value
title	Title above the input box	no title
maxresults	The number of users that are displayed; use -1 to show all users	12
inputfieldsize	The width of the input field	12

Creates:

(try to find John Doe - the PersonalInfoDemoUser - by either first or last name)

phoneList

Creates a bullet list of users. Listed users have a field WorkPhone and have the value Current at field WorkStatus.

Usage:

%INCLUDE{"PersonalInfo" section="phoneList"}%

View phoneList

phoneListXML

Creates a list of user data in XML format. Listed users have a field WorkPhone and have the value Current at field WorkStatus.

The auto-generation of an XML attachment is turned off for performance. To create the XML file, remove the <nop> from the beginning of STARTATTACH at PersonalInfo:createPhoneListXMLAttachment.

Usage:

PersonalInfo?section=phoneListXML;skin=xml

View phoneList XML

If the XML has been saved as file:

%PUBURL%/%WEB%/PersonalInfo/phoneList.xml

PhoneList XML file

personalSearch

Creates a bullet list of all users in an empty page. This might be useful for live searches using AJAX.

Call the topic with url:

PersonalInfo?section=personalSearch;skin=text;q=

... where the search characters come after the q=

View personalSearch with the letter 'a'

tableOfAllUsers

Creates a table of all users.

Usage: create a topic and write the line:

%INCLUDE{"PersonalInfo" section="tableOfAllUsers"}%

or use the url:

PersonalInfo?section=tableOfAllUsers;template=viewplain

Printable list

pictures

Creates a grid view of all user pictures.

Parameters:

• imgHeight - height of the pictures

Usage: create a topic and write the line:

%INCLUDE{"PersonalInfo" section="pictures" title="Face book" imgHeight="100"}%

or use the url:

PersonalInfo?section=pictures;template=viewplain

See PersonalInfoFaceBook

pictureFilterSearch

Quickly sift through user pictures.

This module adds a search box to the picture grid.

See the example on PersonalInfoFaceBook

Reference for administrators

Distribution files:

• PersonalInfoHome - (this topic) documentation
• PersonalInfoModules - modules (INCLUDE sections) used by the AddOn application
• PersonalInfo - Customizations of PersonalInfoModules. When making changes always change PersonalInfo only so PersonalInfoModules can stay intact. This makes future upgrades a lot easier.
• PersonalInfoFaceBook - Quick search with user pictures
• PersonalInfoUserViewTemplate - template for the display of user homepages that will show the personalInfo block
• PersonalInfoPictureViewTemplate - template for the selection screen of user pictures
• PersonalInfoPictureDeleteViewTemplate - template for the deletion of a user picture
• PersonalInfoPictureUploadViewTemplate - template for the upload of a new user picture

All these files need to reside in your user web (by default Main).

Diagram of main pages