when I said userid I did not mean integer. I meant username.
On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 8:19 PM, Mark H. Wood <mw...@iupui.edu> wrote:
> Some authentication plugins use the "netid" to identify a user with an
> eperson. Come to think of it, this is an ongoing source of complexity
> when dealing with eperson records: a given eperson might have
> non-null values for one or the other or, I suppose, both. It would
> simplify things a bit if we had a single eperson attribute which
> serves as the unique identifier and has no other function.
>
> The temptation to use email address as UID is strong, because it is
> (a) unique, (b) personal, and in the vast majority of cases (c) wanted
> anyway.* It has the added attraction that, because it is unique, the
> user can provide it without trial and error. As you point out, it has
> the disadvantage that the binding between address and user is subject
> to change as a result of outside influences. Saving one column by
> overloading another is often false economy.
>
> The other common approach is to have the user make up a username and
> then tell him that someone else already has that one. This yields a
> mildly negative user experience. I would not like to see DSpace do
> this.
>
> Then there's an approach that I hardly ever see: collect profile
> information, look up the email address as a check for duplication, and
> then respond, "you are number six." I would suggest that this is the
> simplest and best approach, except that some people take exception to
> being issued an identifying number by a machine. (I don't -- last
> time I checked, there were three other people in my home town named
> Mark Wood, and one even shares my middle initial; but that number is
> MINE.)
>
> ---------------
> * These would seem to be the same observations which mislead some
> people in the US to conclude that the Social Security Number would
> be a handy source of unique personal identifiers, even though their
> business' threat model is vastly different from the one faced by the
> SSA.
>
> --
> Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer mw...@iupui.edu
> Balance your desire for bells and whistles with the reality that only a
> little more than 2 percent of world population has broadband.
> -- Ledford and Tyler, _Google Analytics 2.0_
>
>
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--
Regards,
Andrew M.
http://www.andrewpetermarlow.co.uk
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