MultiSite: Add new > different username from blog title

[Person]

I would like to request that the current system for adding a new blog site be expanded so that as admins, we can specify a different username that's unrelated to the blog title. That is, in Site Admin -> Add New, at the bottom of the page, add a new field specifically for the username. For that matter, it would be useful to also have a field to be able to specify the password, and perhaps a little checkbox that allows you to optionally prevent an email from being sent. These features are really useful when you're manually adding sites for employees, students, and the such.

I had provided a fix for wpmu 2.8.4 at one point (with a better explanation and details), you can see the thread here: ​http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic/12945

An example of the final result: ​http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2551/addblogwordpress.png

[Person]

A visual diff of desired changes in wordpress 3.0

[jeremyfelt]

Thanks for the request, @Person. Sorry we haven't said anything in 4 years! :)

I agree that the current new site form is clunky. The existing behavior is described well:

A new user will be created if the above email address is not in the database. The username and password will be mailed to this email address.

The workflow to add a new site and invite a new user without that site's address becoming the username is:

1. Create user on the network.
2. Create site on the network, specifying the email address for that new user.

At the risk of adding too many options to this page, is there a way that we can streamline this?

I guess the one thing that stands out is whether other user information would need to be assigned as well. Maybe if we detect that the entered email address is a new user, additional form fields are presented to help create?

[danielbachhuber]

Mockup of add existing vs. create new

[danielbachhuber]

What about we decouple the behaviors of creating new sites and users? Instead, the behavior would be to add your "First Administrator", and you'd choose between an existing user or explicitly creating a new user. Something like this mockup:

Personally, I'm always afraid of entering the wrong email address. The auto-complete helps, but I think the two behaviors (create a site vs. create a user) should be completely decoupled.

And, having just said that, maybe the "Add New Site" form should only permit selecting an existing user.

[jeremyfelt]

Replying to danielbachhuber:

Personally, I'm always afraid of entering the wrong email address. The auto-complete helps, but I think the two behaviors (create a site vs. create a user) should be completely decoupled.

And, having just said that, maybe the "Add New Site" form should only permit selecting an existing user.

I'm mixed on this. I agree mostly because I'm completely used to ensuring that a user exists on the network now before adding a site, but it seems like learned behavior more than anything.

If we do decouple the two actions, we need a nice way of explaining that a user should be created first. This could also be annoying for someone who has typed in all other site info only to find out that a user doesn't exist.

I think there's another ticket (or comment) somewhere that talks about a pre-flight check of sorts. It could be worth expanding this screen even more to cover theme, initial users, etc... An intuitive add/create user interface could be part of that.

[jeremyfelt]

No progress, let's try to pick this up again in 4.4.

[boemedia]

We discussed this in design ticket triage today, and we think the problem of entering the wrong email address could be avoided by making it a select box or dropdown (if possible) where you can select an existing user/admin/super-admin. With an "Add new user" button in addition if the user for the new site does not yet exist, like @danielbachhuber suggests. See attachment