Customize User Display Name in Membership Sites with ProfileGrid
Once you have setup the fundamental architecture of your membership site, the next step is to start making it more visually appealing. Themes can dictate how the overall site design will appear. But they can’t really control how to display the member information on their user profiles. One such important thing is to customize user display name in membership sites.
In order to customize users’ display name on your membership site, you just need to power it up with the ProfileGrid plugin. This plugin provides a host of extensions, among which is the User Display Name extension. And this extension is available in the free version itself.
Features of the User Display Name Extension
This extension offers various name patterns for users to mix and match. They can add prefixes or suffixes to add more value. There are both global and individual group options. This allows customization of display names in different groups. Usernames can be displayed in the following patterns:
- FirstName LastName,
- LastName, FirstName
- F. LastName
- FirstName L.
- F.L.
- NickName
- UserName
Apart from the predefined display name patterns, there is option to add prefixes and suffixes to usernames.
Activating Display Name Extension
The WP ProfileGrid plugin comes with plenty of features like shortcodes, extensions, global settings etc. It provides an entire page of extensions. Among them, the WooCommerce Integration and bbPress Integration come with the free pack. Along with the User Display Name and User Profile Custom Slugs extensions.
Therefore, to customize user display name in membership sites we just have to activate the Display Name extension from the ‘Extensions’ page.
Once activated, the extension appears in the ‘Global Settings’. By clicking on it, users land on the ‘User Display Name Settings’ page.
Customizing Display Names On Individual Groups
ProfileGrid is a membership plugin. It provides users with the necessary tools to create multiple groups. Where they can take in registered users. It also makes it quite easy to customize user display name in membership sites for individual user groups.
From the ‘ProfileGrid’ menu, you can visit the ‘Group Manager’ page.
From here, users need to select the ‘Settings’ option in the bottom left corner of any group. Then they will land up in the ‘Group Settings’ page.
After activation of this extension, along with various editing options, the display name toggle also appears here. It is the same customization module that appears on the ‘User Display Name Setting’ page. Whatever customization we do here is specific to the selected group.
You can see from the above picture, I have kept the name pattern ‘FirstName LastName’. The style is ‘Uppercase’. The Prefix is ‘Mrs.’ and the Suffix is ‘Co-Founder Sunshine Corps’. Let us see in the frontend if this customization is successfully executed.
So we see, as per our customization on the backend, we could modify the display name of ‘Erica’ under the ‘Workspace’ group.
We can also try some other display name pattern in some other group.
Just to check the efficiency of this extension, I selected a new group and started customizing the display name. I selected the name pattern FirstName L., the style is ‘Underlined’, the Prefix is ‘Dr.’ and Suffix is ‘Guest Lecturer’.
True to the backend customization, the display name of the user ‘Regina A’ has appeared successfully. However, users need to keep in mind one thing. For customizing display names, the ‘Username’ or ‘Nickname’ field needs to be added to a group.
Summing Up
Therefore, we saw how easily PG made it possible to customize user display name in membership sites. On one hand, this plugin helps users create membership sites easily. On the other hand, it does not need any third party plugins to make further customizations. It is the plugin to rely on if you are not a pro developer yet wish to create a professional site. This is one of the main reasons for its rising popularity.
How does the nickname option work? I want to have a different name displayed than the login username, and want business names allowed
ProfileGrid extension ‘User Display Name’ has complete control of users’ display names. You can mix and match patterns as well as add predefined suffixes or prefixes. There’s both global and group level option allowing display names in other groups.
hello, I writing because I have a situation. I have 2 user’s profile, so ppl Got bbpress profile user and profile gride.
second point, Id like to add a wall activies,
I would like to know how to do to add tabs like message notification, conection, item for sell ect.. pls, ty in advance
Hello Snowheal,
If you want to use only one profile with bbPress, you can connect users’ bbPress profile links to their ProfileGrid profiles, using the free ‘bbPress Integration’ extension. Here’s the link to it: https://profilegrid.co/extensions/bbpress-integration/
To add a wall, have a look at our Group Wall extension: https://profilegrid.co/extensions/group-wall/
Do let us know if you have any other questions. We’ll be happy to help.
I echo what Thomas said. I have enabled this plugin and set it to use NickName, but cannot figure out where the person can actually choose the nickname to use. It does not show up on the Edit profile page. ??
As of now, ProfileGrid does not have feature to edit the nickname field. WordPress adds username as nickname by default so if you choose the nickname to display on user profile, the username will be displayed.
We have moved the nickname field request to our user requested features list. You will see some action on this in a future update.
This extension doesn’t accommodate more complex names as are used outside North America. Some countries have a three part name structure: Firstname Middlename Lastname.
Eg. Frank van der Build. where “van der” is the middlename.
It’s a missed chance you didn’t cover that is this extension.
It is based on the WordPress default function and WordPress itself does not have a feature to add the middle name. Though we have noted this and forwarded it to the development team for further review and analysis.