Mandatory profile photo?

Is there a way to make the profile photo mandatory when joining?

You could, but that doesn't mean they will 'complete' the process. It will have to be done via the database.

 I suppose I asked the wrong question.  How do I make a profile photo mandatory when joining?

You would need to access your database via MyPhpAdmin (example) and open your database. Look for the sys_profile_fields table on the left and click that. Edit (pencil icon) the field named 'Profile Photo'. There should be a 'Mandatory' field in there with a 0 in it. You will need to change it to a 1 instead.

Note: Always backup your database before performing manual updates. Also, you will need to clear ALL cache once this is done.

Note2: This will only require the member to choose a profile photo. Once they get redirected to the Avatar page, they can just simply skip over it by clicking somewhere else. Thus, the user still doesn't have a profile pic.. just letting you know.

Solution, have code that checks to see if a member does not have a profile photo as required by the rules and send them a message that they risk suspension if they don't include a profile photo.

 That sounds great.  We should have a mod for that.

Why do so many people want to do this?  If you try to force someone to upload a profile photo, you'll end up with a lot of garbage photos uploaded that aren't a photo of the member, and what good is that?  If they don't want a photo of themselves on your site, then there won't be one.  Maybe it would be better to find ways to encourage people to upload a real photo instead of trying to force it on them.

FaceSucks forces all their members to do the same; not only photos but names and addresses and ....  Then again, I guess it is OK for FaceSucks but not anyone else.

 I don't like the grey silhouette and would prefer a photo.  I approve all photos that are uploaded so it is easy for me to prevent someone uploading garbage photos.  I think that if potential members see the site, it is discouraging to see a grey generic silouette where a profile photo should be.

 RE:

If that's all they judge your site on, then there is probably no reason for them to join your site in the first place. 

I know if you search for a member's profile photo and it does not exist, then the image source is empty.  There are two things here by the way, a member's avatar and a member's profile photo; you want the profile photo and not the avatar; of course the copy avatar to profile photo is checked by default; you will want to remove that.  So, if no image source is returned, then that is the flag to use to send out the email; you will have the member ID; another thing, you want to actually have the member's ID since if a member leaves the site, then their member ID is left orphaned ad member IDs are assigned automatically by incrementing the last ID number.  However, if you did just use a loop to go from one to the last ID number then there would not be an email address in the database to send the message to thus triggering that in a report.  Best to actually get member's IDs.  If you want to get the member's user name to use in the email there is a Dolphin function you can use to find it.  I do know if you try to retrieve a profile photo from an ID that does not exist, then the visitor.gif is return as the image source.  So you could just loop from 1 to last member ID and then discard any returns that is visitor.gif; yes, sloppy coding but it does work.  I might could hack something together that you could run from the admin; I am not a programmer; I just hack code.  Of course if you want to automate it, then you want to set up a cron job and mark the emails that have already been sent to members within x days, weeks, etc.  Plus, you want to send the emails out in batches so you don't flood the mail server if it is not your own mail server.  That may be more than I could hack together.

As I said, you want to make sure that you are seeing and knowing the difference between profile photos and avatars.  I don't know why this concept is so hard for so many unless they have not been on social sites that uses avatars; which is a great many.

The default member block that you may place is returning avatars if the avatar module has been installed.  Now, if the avatar module is not installed, then Dolphin will return the first profile photo in the member's block.  Now it is very easy to code a block to return Member's first profile photo instead of the avatar, allowing both to be used.  It just depends on the site and how you wish things to be.

 It's a matchmaking site.  People are concerned with appearance.

 Excellent instructions!  Thanks.  Profile photo is now mandatory on join.

keep in mind that the profile photo and avatar or not the same thing.  You probably want to uninstall the avatar module and just use the profile photo.  If the avatar module is not installed, then the thumbnail used to represent members on the site will be their profile photo and you don't have to make any changes to the site.

To repeat, Avatars and Profile Photos are two different animals.  One can have an avatar and not a profile photo.

Well, I created a hack-job way of getting a profile photo. Only downside being that photos are moved into the default album in order for this to work. Avatars module not installed.

http://www.boonex.com/forums/#topic/Looking-for-technical-details-on-profile-photos.htm

I understand that they are not the same. I wanted to make the profile photo mandatory.  The avatars module is not installed, but I don't want the thumbnail image to be a standard grey silhouette, I want it to be a photo.  By changing the database it is now mandatory on join (can still be bypassed with Deanos FB Connect though).

I wrote a php block to pull out the first profile photo from members profile photos.  If the first image does not exist, it is replaced with the grey headshot.  That block could be changed to list all members without a profile photo.  It should even be possible that once the list is generated that it emails each member without a profile photo and asks them to please upload one.  The latter I don't have the knowledge on at this time.

 I have a profile info checker mod that sends an e-mail if there is no profile photo.

if i uninstall the avatar module ,, will it lose all current avatars?.. and if you do not have the avatar module installed will the first pic uploaded default to the profile photo?

I diabled the avatar module, yet the profile picture still appears as an avatar. How is that possible ?

 I believe the reason is because the field labeled 'Profile Photo' on the Join page is technically the Avatar. The reason I say this is because once you do choose a photo and submit the join form, where do is take you??? To the Avatar page so you can crop and click 'Add Avatar'.

The design of it is that if you have avatars disabled, the profile will show as a thumb nail.  If you have Avatars enabled, the thumbnail will show your avatar.  If they are disabled, the thumbnail will show your profile photo.

Were you able to get a profile photo uploaded on join?

 My site does not take a person to the avatar page after the join page.

I'm still looking for help on how to have a photo uploaded during the join process.  Although a member can try to do it now, the photo is not actually uploaded.

Job posted, I can;t figure it out.

http://www.boonex.com/j/i-need-someone-that-can-make-the-profile-photo-upl

To do this, you are going to have to tie into the photo module.  Hopefully someone will answer your job.

 Hopefully.  I tried editing the photo module myself, it didn't go well.