The standard profile page doesn't allow users to change their username, only their e-mail, display name etc.

I have imported a large number of user accounts into DNN from a previous application, and the imported users have their usernames set to be the same as their e-mail address (because thats how they used to log onto the old application)

I wanted a way for these users to be able to change their usernames if they wanted to, and I have written a simple module that I can drop onto a page beside the user accounts module that will allow them to do that.

Before I implement this, I wanted to check whether anyone knew of any good reason not to do it.

It seems like such a simple thing to do that I thought there must be some good reason why the ability to change username was not included in the framework as standard.

Will I encounter some horrible database corruption somewhere down the line if I allow changing of usernames?

Thanks

Steve

PS.

The module I have written simply makes a call to the following stored procedure to do the change, passing in the old and new username as parameters.

CREATE PROCEDURE ChangeUsername
 
@oldName nvarchar(128),
@newName nvarchar(128)

AS

declare @error_var int, @rowcount_var int
declare @newNameCount int

begin transaction

 select @newNameCount = count(*)
  from Users
  where Username = @newName
 if @newNameCount > 0
 begin
  RAISERROR('Username already exists. @newName=%s', 10, 1, @newName)
  ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
  RETURN
 end

 update Users
 set Username = @newName
 where Username = @oldName
 
 SELECT @error_var = @@ERROR, @rowcount_var = @@ROWCOUNT
 IF @rowcount_var <> 1 OR @error_var <> 0
 BEGIN
  RAISERROR('Could not Update User.Username. @oldName=%s', 10, 1, @oldName)
  ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
  RETURN
 END
 
 
 update aspnet_Users
 set
  Username = @newName,
  LoweredUserName = LOWER(@newName)
 where LoweredUserName = LOWER(@oldName)
 
 SELECT @error_var = @@ERROR, @rowcount_var = @@ROWCOUNT
 IF @rowcount_var <> 1 OR @error_var <> 0
 BEGIN
  RAISERROR('Could not Update aspnet_Users.Username. @oldName=%s', 10, 1, @oldName)
  ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
  RETURN
 END

Commit transaction
GO

Paul Deschenes wrote I have done this since version 4.3.x. No issues. It was really quite simple, to my surprise, and presents no issues, at least in my dnn application. I should note that I do not use any of the DNN core modules, other than TEXT/HTML and Account Login, so I can't speak for what else depends on username. I've created a situation in my application where the username is always equal to the users.email value and when that gets changed, so too does the users.username value and the relevent fields in the aspnet_XXX tables.

I have done something similar to what you have described.  This is still best done by creating a custom provider (with a new name and everything), based on the default DNN provider.  Initially, you can copy and paste it as a new project.  Then, just change what you need (e.g., overriding the username using the given email address in the CreateUser method).