Using YAT

Figure 32.2 shows the next cool feature of YAT: searching for users. You can access this screen by clicking Search Users from YAT's main administration menu. You have three drop-down lists and a text box to use for searching:

• Find allows you to choose a table in your database, which is where user information is stored. The Main Users table contains all activated users; the Temp Users table holds those users who have registered but not yet confirmed their accounts. Searching the Temp Users table produces results that allow you to, among other things, activate accounts manually or have PHP-Nuke resend the standard account activation e-mail.

• By allows you to decide what to search on. You can search by username, e-mail address, or user ID (which is a number assigned by PHP-Nuke to each account).

• Match specifies what the search will look for: Equal To searches for exactly what you type in the Query box; Like searches for something similar to what you type in the Query box. For example, selecting Like and typing don returns donj,donjones , and don in the list of results (assuming those are all users on your site, of course.

Figure 32.2. Using YAT to find user accounts.

You also have the ability to look directly at lists of users. For example, I regularly click Waiting Users to view the contents of the Temp Users table. As shown in Figure 32.3, you can see each user's username and e-mail address (I've blanked these out in the screen shot), the date they requested an account, and a list of options: Resend, Activate, User Details, Modify, and Deny. You can select one action on one user and click the corresponding OK button to take that action with that user. You can't take action with more than one user at a time, unfortunately.

Figure 32.3. Listing waiting users.

Listing deactivated users provides different possible actions: User Details, Modify, and Remove. List the "regular users" (all active and deactivated users) or the "active users," and you'll be able to see User Details, as well as Modify, Promote, Suspend, and Deactivate. Promote is a cool option: It turns a user into an administrator. As shown in Figure 32.4, you can select which areas of your site you want the user to be able to administer, including articles, content, downloads, and more, and they'll receive those permissions.

Figure 32.4. Promoting a user to have administrator permissions.

All in all, YAT provides better functionality for administrators, while preserving much of the original PHP-Nuke user interface that's exposed to your site's users.

Sidebar . FAQ

Why would a user want to deactivate his account?

Sometimes users just decide to part ways with a Web site. You may have sent one too many e-mail newsletters, or perhaps your site's content isn't interesting to that user anymore. Deactivation is a user's way of saying goodbye, usually more or less for good.