Last updated March 28, 2007. Created by fago on March 25, 2007.
Edited by Michelle. Log in to edit this page.
Important note:
This page is about using usernode instead of nodeprofile for building profiles as nodes. It is not about using usernode together with nodeprofile for building profiles as nodes.
With CCK 5.x you are able to add further fields to every content type, so also to the usernode content type. So some users like to use this instead of a simple nodeprofile. However, it can be only used if you want to build a simple profile consisting of one content type - the usernode.
The major difference of this approach vs using the nodeprofile module is that there will be usernode created as soon as the user is created. So you can't determine easily which users have filled out their profile and which have not.
Another problem is with required fields. If the usernode has required fields added to it, they will not be filled in when the node is automatically created. If an administrator needs to edit a person's usernode, they will be forced to fill in all required fields for the user in order to save the node.
So if this approach suffices for you, then there is no cause why you shouldn't use it. But if you use the nodeprofile module you'll earn much more flexibility:
- different profiles for different roles
- multiple profiles per user
- more extensible profiles by having the possibility to add further content types
- support for newly added features (e.g. workflow-ng integration)
So I prefer to use the nodeprofile module, but decide on your own what is fitting best to your needs.