Allowing users to change Username...

[TomTees]

Like most modern websites, I would like the user's e-mail address to be their username/"primary key".

The (obvious) problem is that a person's e-mail can change over time.

Is it okay to use some system generated code for the (true) username/primary key, thus allowing users to change their e-mail address if need be?

In such a scenario, I suppose the username/e-mail would be "indexed" to ensure uniqueness?

Finally, if that is the way I went, would I have to worry about users changing their e-mail 20,000 times and thus creating a mess on the backend? (You would likely want to keep a history of each e-mail for contact and legal purposes.)



TomTees

[r937]

your idea of using a separate column as the primary key is very practical

why not let the users choose a username?

users don't change emails all that often, i don't think you have anything to worry about there

[TomTees]

your idea of using a separate column as the primary key is very practical

why not let the users choose a username?

users don't change emails all that often, i don't think you have anything to worry about there

I got into this debate MANY years ago. At the time, I thought letting users choose a username made more sense since it shouldn't ever change.

However, the trend seems to be using e-mails. I suppose this is because an e-mail address is supposed to be unique - although this is increasingly less true. Also, because this is for an e-commerce site, the e-mail is THE way that you would communicate with users.

I guess the common workflow is to let the user choose an e-mail for their username, send a test e-mail requiring activation of the account (i.e. authenticating the e-mail) and then going from their.

Other than the database's need for a true primary key, I don't suppose you would ever use that in day-to-day activity, unless you could somehow label the primary key as "CustomerID" and start it offset at something like "100475" so that it looks authentic to the first user!


TomTees

[TomTees]

Thanks for answering my questions.


TomTees