Can't change admin name, avatar or email

I am having these problems with admin settings:

1) Changing admin name in PhpMyAdmin changes the login name and username in edit profile info, but not the username under the admin avatar or in the account info.  This is only for admin set up in the install.

2) Can't set admin avatar.  When I upload an avatar it fails to substitute with the default image.  I have tried several with the same result.  Again, only for admin set up in the initial install.  I have used Deanos Tools to set some test memberships as admin and have no problems with their avatars.

3) I changed the site email and site notify email in admin settings from my personal email used in the install to an admin email for my site.  PhpMyAdmin lists the admin email in "Profiles."  However, the personal email is listed on my Dashboard under account control, while the admin email is shown in the edit profile info.  As a result, my admin email is forwarding error messages to my personal email.

Thanks in advance to whomever is able to help me resolve these issues.

Instead of changing these settings via phpMyAdmin, try using the front-end settings, available from http://www.yoursite.com/pedit.php?ID=1 - There, you can change your username.

You can also modify all the email information from your account edit page (posted above), or from the administration panel, under administration, settings, basic settings and through Deano's Tools.

As for the issue of setting the admin account's avatar, that I am not so sure about. It may be due to your past database edits, which you shouldn't have been doing.

Hey, best two outta' three.

I agree that something strange is occurring in the database, but I can't figure out what.  I have tried changing things the normal way, and still have these problems. 

For instance, I just tried changing my admin name and email on the edit profile page, but when I return to my account page, it still says admin as unsename, and the old email is listed.  I mentioned Phpmyadmin because I chacked and the new name and email are registered in the profile fields, so the change should have taken.  Moreover, though I can now login under the new username, it still says "Hello, Adnim" in the dashboard toolbar.  In addition, I can't access my profile page since I had set it to be accessible by Me Only, and I am now logged in under the new username!  Feel like I need Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out.

One other thought.  Since this is only occurring for the admin account and not any others, is it possible the problem can be in a file within the program itself?  In other words, does a particular file keep the information set up during the initial install and for some reason I can't now change it?

Hm, I don't believe so. I'm honestly stumped as to why it isn't changing for the admin account.

Good job, you made my day a hair-loss nightmare.

Appreciate all your efforts.  I'll send some good growing vibes to your follicles.

Wondering.  Is it safe to delete the original admin account if I have admin privledges already assigned to another username?  I think it would satisfy all these problems.  I mainly wanted to disguise the admin account I use when working behind the scenes, and the admin username and blank avatar are a dead giveway.

The first account (admin) is essentially a regular profile, just with a higher membership role. If you have another administrator, then by all means, go ahead.

Great!!  Once again, my gratitude to you.  I'll give it a go tomorrow.

This should work, as the Admin Chat system, grabs it's admin's nick by searching the `profiles` table for the first entry with the role set to an admin value.

Find the file /flash/modules/chat/inc/actions.inc.php

Find a line that begins with "$aUser = array('id' => $sId, 'nick' =>"

Change 'nick' to be assigned also to $sId.  Like so "$aUser = array('id' => $sId, 'nick' => $sId, 'sex' => "M", 'age' => 99, 'desc' => "Administrator", 'photo' => $sManImageUrl, 'profile' => "", 'type' => CHAT_TYPE_ADMIN);"

(You can also see I changed the default Age.  You can change the default admin Sex here as well, and a few more things)

If you want to have more than one admin user, especially of more that just one Gender, you might try the following:

if($sId == "FemaleAdminUserName") {
$aaAge = 22;
$aaSex = "F";
$aaDesc = "Administrator";
$aaImgUrl = "admingirl.gif";
} elseif($sId == "MaleAdminUserName") {
$aaAge = 28;
$aaSex = "M";
$aaDesc = "Administrator";
$aaImgUrl = "adminguy.gif";
} else {
$aaAge = 35;
$aaSex = "M";
$aaDesc = "Administrator";
$aaImgUrl = "admin.gif";
}               

$aUser = array('id' => $sId, 'nick' => $sId, 'sex' => $aaSex, 'age' => $aaAge, 'desc' => $aaDesc, 'photo' => $aaImgUrl, 'profile' => "", 'type' => CHAT_TYPE_ADMIN);

You could make this even better by having it pull profile info from the Database, but this way does allow you to create pseudo profile info, without an actual profile.

Though keep in mind, you'd need to create those admin GIF images in the same place as the man/woman GIFs.  (just below the smileys folder in the Global Module)

Thanks for this detailed post.  To clarify, if I delete the original admin account, are you saying the chat will search for the first username that has admin role?  Will it also then use that avatar?

Not sure I feel qualified to make the changes you are suggesting.  Didn't grasp how you had changed the admin nickname in the example you provided.  Maybe you can explain that further.

If I don't delete the original admin account, do you know how to keep it from appearing in the list of members?  At least that way other members wouldn't be aware of it.  Thanks again.

If you delete the original Admin account, Yes it will find the next admin account, and use it's name.  but without modification, no it will not use it's avatar.

Out-of-the-box, Dolphin is programmed that the admin chat interface always uses an age of 35, Male, and male blank avatar.

In the following line from my previous code:

$aUser = array('id' => $sId, 'nick' => $sId, 'sex' => $aaSex, 'age' => $aaAge, 'desc' => $aaDesc, 'photo' => $aaImgUrl, 'profile' => "", 'type' => CHAT_TYPE_ADMIN);

I've highlited the section that changes the name.  I've made it so that it now uses the Nickname of the user logged into the admin interface, rather than just the name of the first admin.  This should make it easier for the name.  But to change the Avatar, change this line:

$aUser = array('id' => $sId, 'nick' => $sId, 'sex' => $aaSex, 'age' => $aaAge, 'desc' => $aaDesc, 'photo' => $aaImgUrl, 'profile' => "", 'type' => CHAT_TYPE_ADMIN);

Change $aaImgUrl to be whatever you want the admin image to be.

* The above lines were already modified to have variables in them, the original code from dolphin does not, I'd paste the original, but I'm now using modified code, and didn't keep a copy anymore once my changes were certified as working and solid (And I'm not reverting my SVN just for that).

Great reply.  Pretty sure I know what you mean now.  Will try it tonight when I'm working on my site.

In the meantime, do you know how to keep the default admin name and avatar from appearing in the members lists, like on the homepage, or from coming up in the search?  This would provide a truly anonymous, stealth account.  It should be included as a regular part of the program.

Much appreciated.

Well, Yes and no.  I have a few theories, but nothing I'm sure of.

Perhaps setting the Privacy settings for the admin's profile to make it so that only friends list can see it, and then have no friends on admin account.  (this would have the added benefit of allowing specific users to see the admin account by befriending them.)

You could Suspend the admin so it's not public...but seeing as I've never done this, I'm not sure what effects it would have on logging in.  Try creating a test account, making it an admin, then suspend it.  See if you can still log in as it.  (I feel dumb not knowing this for sure, but haven't ever had need to hide my admin accounts)

Let me know if this helps.

Brilliant.  This actually worked.  It is worth detailing since what happened for the test account and the admin account was different.

For the test account, I set it as admin using Deanos Tools.  I then logged into the account from a different browser, went to the account page and clicked on suspend.  This function appears to be intended to do what I want, make an account invisible.  Any member can do this.  You can still log into the account page, but you won't be able to participate, such as add videos.  It is like going on vacation.  Your stuff is still there if you decide to come back.

For the admin account, though, when I clicked on the suspend link and then went to the page to confirm suspension by clicking a second time, no confirmation occurred.  It still said active on the account page.  This didn't surprise me since the admin account had never behaved like a regular member, the problem I wrote about at the top of this post.  However, when I refreshed the test account browser I noticed the admin account had disappeared!  I tried searching for 'admin' as well as ID '1' and the result said empty.

So, the admin had become invisible!  Moreover, unlike the regular member I could login and still participate, add content, etc, if I chose, though that would defeat the purpose of making the account invisible.

I really feel this is valuable information for anyone who would like to have an invisible admin account to work behind the scenes, like with Mambo and Joomla.

BTW, I did as you suggested to change 'nick' and now the name of the active admin account shows up in the chat.  Think I'll leave the default avatar since there doesn't seem to be a way to switch it accordingly.

Excellent advice!!  Thanks.

Is there a simple way to to change login Username to Email

I've gone through D7's builder and can't find anything to change to that preference it would be a great help if anyone can help.