How to use Advanced Profile Fields

How to use Advanced Profile Fields

NOTE: If you want more information about Advanced Profile Fields, how to enable them and what it is, please check Profile Fields.

Adding a text Profile Field

We are going to learn how to add a simple profile field, just with text. Once you have the Advanced Profile Fields option enabled, navigate to: Admin > Configuration > Features and Options... > Profile Fields. At the bottom of the page you will see the Custom Profile Fields box. Click the "New Field" button.

Fill in the Name: and Description: fields according to the Profile Field you want to add. When you arrive to the Choose Placement: field, be sure it is marked as "Standard (with title)" or "Above Signature". It will be displayed at the end of the poster information section or above the user's signature depending on the option selected. You can fill in the rest of fields as requires the use of the Profile Field.

Adding an icon as a Profile Field

We already know how to add a simple Profile Field to our forum. Now, we are going to learn how to display a Profile Field as an icon, for example, to add someone to Skype by directly clicking an icon.

Again, navigate to the adding a custom profile field page as mentioned before. Fill in the Name: and Description: fields according to the Profile Field you want to add. hen you arrive to the Choose Placement: field, be sure it is marked as "With Icons". It will be displayed next to the Profile, Email and PM icons in the poster information. Now, we will have to put some HTML code. Search the field Show Enclosed Within Text (Optional):. With this field we are going to use what the user entered in the field to make the action.

The variables that we can use in this box are: {INPUT}, {SCRIPTURL}, {IMAGES_URL} and {DEFAULT_IMAGES_URL}.

The code to add in the box is: <a href="http://website.com/{INPUT}"><img src="{DEFAULT_IMAGES_URL}/icon.gif" alt="{INPUT}" /></a>

• Now, you can edit the code according to your needs:
  1. Edit http://website.com/{INPUT} depending on what you want to do. If you want to add someone to skype by clicking the icon, then, you should replace it with skype:{INPUT}. If you want to redirect to the user's Twitter profile, then add: http://twitter.com/{INPUT}. And like this, you can do many other things.
  2. Edit {DEFAULT_IMAGES_URL} depending on: If you are using the default forum theme, use {DEFAULT_IMAGES_URL} but if not, then use {IMAGES_URL}. This will find the URL to the images directory in your current theme.
  3. Edit icon.gif according to the name of the icon you want to add.