Better WP_User_Query search

[gluten]

The get_users() function only searches 'user_login' and 'user_nicename' (when searching for a user by name). There is no way to search users by their display name. Including 'display_name' would make searching with get_users() much more intuitive, since in my experience users tend to be known by their display name and not necessarily their login. In theory I could do a meta_query for fields such as first and last name, but I can't find an easy way to query 'display_name' since it is not on the 'usermeta' table.

[gluten]

Add display_name to WP_User_Query search columns

[scribu]

Makes sense.

[ocean90]

This won't scale as there is no index on the column in the database, see #15170, #16620 and #16366.

[Lohoris]

I'm puzzled.

This is a necessary feature, and "it doesn't scale" isn't a valid excuse.

Either add the relevant index or... just leave it open. Doesn't make sense to close it.

[johnbillion]

Replying to Lohoris:

Either add the relevant index or... just leave it open. Doesn't make sense to close it.

There's no point in leaving a ticket open that will never get fixed.

That said, this ticket is three years old. See #27304 for a newer approach which will have some dependencies on other changes to Multisite behaviour once I get around to documenting them.