docs/user.doc

   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 "$WikiUserOpts".
  15
  16   user_name
  17     Text of full user name; title of "user:" page.  Displayed
  18     on change lists, etc.  Sent to user as cookie "$WikiUserName".
  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", and "bot".
  25
  26   user_password
  27     md5 has of user login password.  If user option to
  28     remember password is set, this is stored in cookie
  29     "$WikiUserPassword".
  30
  31   user_email
  32     User's e-mail address. (Optional, used for user-to-user
  33     e-mail and password recovery.)
  34
  35   user_options
  36     A urlencoded string of name=value pairs to set various
  37     user options. Some of these (but not all) are encoded into
  38     the cookie "$WikiUserOpts".
  39
  40 The user object encapsulates all of the settings, and clients
  41 classes use the getXXX() functions to access them. These functions
  42 do all the work of determining whether the user is logged in,
  43 whether the requested option can be satisfied from cookies or
  44 whether a database query is needed. Most of the settings needed
  45 for rendering normal pages are set in the cookie to minimize use
  46 of the database.
  47
  48 Options
  49   The user_options field is a list of name-value pairs.  The
  50   following option names are used at various points in the system:
  51
  52
  53 Cookies
  54
  55   $WikiUserName
  56     Plain text user name directly from database
  57
  58   $WikiUserPassword
  59     From the database; only set if the user's options are set
  60     to remember passwords.
  61
  62   $WikiUserOpts
  63     User ID and various options encoded into a compact string;
  64     for example, "12e0q0s2h0u1j0n1f0y0".  The first string of digits
  65     is the ID; the rest of the string a flag-letter plus number
  66     pairs representing a few important options:
  67
  68       e = "encoding" (index into array)
  69       q = "quickBar" (0=none, 1=left, 2=right)
  70       s = "skin" (0=standard, 1=startrek, 2=nostalgia, 3=cologneblue)
  71       h = "showHover" (1=true)
  72       u = "underlineLinks" (1=true)
  73       j = "justify" (1=true)
  74       n = "numberHeadings" (1=true)
  75       f = "viewFrames" (1=true)
  76       y = 1 if user_rights include "is_sysop"
  77