docs/user.txt

   1
   2 USER.DOC
   3
   4 Documenting the Wikipedia User object.
   5
   6 (DISCLAIMER: The documentation is not guaranteed to be in sync with
   7 the code at all times. If in doubt, check the table definitions
   8 and User.php.)
   9
  10 Database fields:
  11
  12   user_id
  13     Unique integer identifier; primary key. Sent to user in
  14     cookie "{$wgDBname}UserID".
  15
  16   user_name
  17     Text of full user name; title of "user:" page.  Displayed
  18     on change lists, etc.  Sent to user as cookie "{$wgDBname}UserName".
  19     Note that user names can contain spaces, while these are
  20     converted to underscores in page titles.
  21
  22   user_rights
  23     Comma-separated list of rights. Right now, only "sysop",
  24     "developer", "bureaucrat", and "bot" have meaning.
  25
  26   user_password
  27     Salted md5 hash of md5-hashed user login password.  If user option to
  28     remember password is set, an md5 password hash is stored in cookie
  29     "{$wgDBname}UserPassword". The original password and the hashed password
  30     can be compared to the salted-hashed-hashed password.
  31
  32   user_newpassword
  33     Hash for randomly generated password sent on 'send me a new password'.
  34     If a match is made on login, the new password will replace the old one.
  35
  36   user_email
  37     User's e-mail address. (Optional, used for user-to-user
  38     e-mail and password recovery.)
  39
  40   user_options
  41     A urlencoded string of name=value pairs to set various
  42     user options.
  43
  44   user_touched
  45     Timestamp updated when the user logs in, changes preferences, alters
  46     watchlist, or when someone edits their user talk page or they clear
  47     the new-talk field by viewing it. Used to invalidate old cached pages
  48     from the user's browser cache.
  49
  50   user_real_name
  51     "Real name" optionally used in some metadata lists.
  52
  53 The user object encapsulates all of the settings, and clients
  54 classes use the getXXX() functions to access them. These functions
  55 do all the work of determining whether the user is logged in,
  56 whether the requested option can be satisfied from cookies or
  57 whether a database query is needed. Most of the settings needed
  58 for rendering normal pages are set in the cookie to minimize use
  59 of the database.
  60
  61 Options
  62   The user_options field is a list of name-value pairs.  The
  63   following option names are used at various points in the system: