General Tab: Users
Users Settings in Ultimate Member
The Users subtab under the General tab in Ultimate Member provides a range of settings to customize the user experience on your WordPress site. These settings allow you to control how user profiles are created, displayed, and managed. Here's a detailed explanation of each setting:
To access the Users settings:
- Log in to your WordPress admin panel.
- Go to wp-admin > Ultimate Member > Settings.
- Click on the General Tab.
- Select the Users subtab.
This section gives you the ability to configure how users interact with their profiles and customize their experience according to your website's needs.
1. Registration Default Role
This setting determines the role assigned to users who register through Ultimate Member registration forms. By default, this role follows the core WordPress setting "New User Default Role" such as Default, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, or Subscriber. However, you can specify a different role if needed. Roles define the permissions and capabilities of users on your site, so choose carefully based on the user's intended role on your site.
There is a potential security concern regarding the inclusion of the "Administrator" role in this setting, as it is among the options available for assignment. This raises questions about the safety and potential risks associated with allowing users to register with the administrator role. The inclusion of the administrator role in the Registration Default Role settings is not unique to Ultimate Member. WordPress itself has a native User Role setting that includes the "Administrator" role. Ultimate Member has chosen to mirror this setting in its registration role settings.
While it is technically possible for users to register with the administrator role, we highly recommend exercising caution when selecting the "Administrator" role.
2. Profile Permalink Base
| Profile Permalink Base | Examples |
| Username | www.yoursite.com/user/ ultimatemember/ |
|---|---|
| First and Last Name with '.' | www.yoursite.com/user/ john.doe/ |
| First and Last Name with '-' | www.yoursite.com/user/ john-doe/ |
| First and Last Name with '+' | www.yoursite.com/user/ john+doe/ |
| User ID | www.yoursite.com/user/ 12/ |
| Unique hash string | www.yoursite.com/user/ ~bf18030f2a9d00170a/ |
| Custom usermeta | www.yoursite.com/user/ my%20permalink%20base/ |
If you select ' Custom usermeta' as the Profile Permalink Base, you must enter the metakey of the data in the Profile Permalink Base Custom Metakey field. The data should be from a required field in your site that exists for all users, and the value should be unique. Failure to do so may result in unexpected behavior.
Developers can generate this custom meta in force mode using the hook um_custom_meta_permalink_base_generate_user_slug if necessary.
3. User Display Name
This setting allows you to specify how users' names are displayed throughout your site. By default, users are identified by their first name and last name. You can customize this setting with the following options:
| User Display Name | Description |
| Default WP Display Name | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by the text that they have entered into the display name field |
| Nickname | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by the nickname they created when registering on your site |
| Username | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by the username they created when registering on your site e.g johndoe |
| First name & last name | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by their first and last name e.g John Doe |
| Last name & first name | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by their last and first name e.g Doe, John |
| First name & first initial of last name | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by their first name and the first initial of their last name e.g John D |
| First initial of first name & last name | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by the first initial of their first name and their last name e.g J Doe |
| First name only | If this option is selected users of your site will be identified by their first name only e.g John |
| Custom field(s) | If this option is selected your users' display name will be selected from the custom field(s) they fill in when registering on your site. |
4. Hide Author Pages
Enabling this setting redirects the author page to the user's Ultimate Member profile page when someone clicks on the author's name on a blog post. This helps in maintaining consistency and directing users to the correct profile page.
5. Members Directory
This setting allows you to enable or disable member directories on your site. If you disable member directories, the link to member directories will be removed from the Ultimate Member menu in the admin, effectively hiding them from users.
6. Use Gravatar
This setting allows you to decide whether to use Gravatars or the default Ultimate Member image for user profile photos before users upload a custom profile photo. Gravatars are globally recognized avatars associated with an email address and can add a personal touch to user profiles.
- Use Gravatar builtin image: Gravatar offers several built-in options that can be used as default images which you can select from this setting in the drop-down menu.
- Replace Gravatar's Default avatar: This setting allows you to use the plugin's default avatar instead of Gravatar's default photo if the user has not uploaded a custom profile photo/avatar.
7. Delete User Comments
When you delete a user and their content, the comments made by the deleted user will remain; this is a native WordPress working logic. Enabling this setting removes comments made by users who have been deleted from your site. This helps in maintaining a clean and organized comment section.
Passwords
This section includes various password-related settings, such as toggling password visibility, requiring strong passwords, setting minimum and maximum password length, and managing email activation link expiration. These settings help in enhancing the security of user accounts on your site.
1. Toggle Password Visibility
This setting activates the toggle button next to the password fields on the Ultimate Member Forms and Account page. By default, this feature is disabled for both existing users and new installations. When enabled, an eye icon appears to the right of the password field. Clicking or tapping this icon reveals the unencrypted password.
2. Require Strong Passwords
- Any password field in the UM profile, registration, or login form.
- Password field on the reset password page.
- Password field on the account > delete tab.
- Password field for exporting or erasing user data.
If "Require Strong Passwords" is enabled, additional settings will be displayed:
- Password minimum length - This setting specifies the minimum number of characters a user must use for their password. The default minimum character requirement is set to 8 characters. The image below demonstrates that when this setting is enabled, a notice appears informing users that passwords must contain at least 8 characters if a password with fewer than 8 characters is entered.
- Password maximum length - This setting determines the maximum number of characters permitted in a user's password, with the default limit set to 30 characters. The image below illustrates that when this setting is enabled, a notice alerts users that passwords should contain a maximum of 30 characters if a password exceeding this limit is entered.
3. Email activation link expiration (days)
This option enables you to set a limit, in days, for the activation link's validity. To make the link valid indefinitely, leave this setting empty or blank.
SEO
1. Avoid indexing profile by search engines
This setting allows you to choose whether to index user profiles by search engines. If enabled, SEO meta tags will be added to the page <head> section to allow indexing. You can also set other related settings that influence profile indexing, ranked by priority from high to low.
- Discourage search engines from indexing this site in wp-admin > Settings > Reading>Search engine visibility: This site-wide setting takes the highest priority; if enabled, profiles will not be indexed.
- Profile Privacy in Account > Privacy: This setting affects individual member profiles; private profiles are not indexed.
- Avoid indexing my profile by search engines in Account > Privacy: This setting, available to members who can make their profiles private, disables indexing for their public profile.
- Avoid indexing profile by search engines in wp-admin > Ultimate Member > User Roles > Edit Role: This setting applies to all members with a specific role but can be overridden by individual account settings.
- Avoid indexing profile by search engines in wp-admin > Ultimate Member > Settings > General > Users: This setting applies to all members but can be overridden by role-specific and individual account settings.
2. User Profile Title
This setting determines the title displayed on a specific user's profile. It uses common placeholders to personalize the title. For example, the default are the "{display_name}" represents the user's name, and "{site_name}" represents the name of the website. The generated title might look like this:
John Doe| Ultimate Member
This title appears at the top of the user's profile page, providing a quick identifier for the user and the site.
3.User Profile Dynamic Meta Description
This setting to customize or personalized meta description for search engines using dynamic variables. For instance, {display_name} stands for the user's name, while {site_name} representing the website's name. The resulting meta description could read as follows:
John Doe is on Ultimate Member. Join Ultimate Member. to view John Doe's profile.
The description above aims to attract users to click and visit the user's profile on the site.
Deprecated Articles Some older articles have been moved to the Deprecated category and may no longer be relevant due to recent updates or changes in Ultimate Member. For historical context or reference, you can view the previous articles under the Deprecated section.
For the previous version of the Users Tab documentation, refer to the old article here for outdated instructions and details. Please note that this article may contain information that has been superseded by newer updates.