Custom Profile Fields
From ProphpBB Wiki
Let's say you have a motorcycle forum. Wouldn't it be neat to ask users upon registration, or by completing a field in their profile, what type of bike they ride? It would display in their profile for all to see (or you could make it hidden). You could have an invitation only forum and might want a box for those registering could put who referred them to the forum. Once again you can choose to display this information or not. You can add drop down select boxes, yes or no radio buttons, have them fill out a paragraphs (or more) information if you wanted. It's a neat way to really customize your user's experience.
Ok, so how do you do it? Pretty simple really. In your ACP tab over the "Users and Groups" and look on the left sidebar for "Custom profile fields".
The first thing you should do is select, from the drop-down menu, what kind of profile field you want to have and then go ahead and click Create new field (You can skip entering anything in the text box at this point).
Numbers: User can only enter numbers as answer to question. Single text field: A multi-line text box for maybe a sentence or two answer. Textarea: A one-line text box for short (maybe one word) answers. Boolean (yes/no): Asking a yes or now question Dropdown box: Give the user pre-defined choices from which they can select Date: User must fill out answer in a date format
Field identification - this is just for your end - users will not see this anyhere. You'll give a name for this custom field later. So here, just use something like motorcycle_type or phone_number or some sort of brief description so you know what it is from the ACP.
Display Profile Field - Do you want this to be something only admins will see (like phone number) or do you want it displayed publicly in their profile?
Visiblity Options - Self explainatory really. Allows you to choose whether or not the field will show up on the new user registration page, whether it will be required or optional to fill out, etc.
Language Specific Options - actually define a title and description that the user will see when filling out / viewing the field. The "title" will appear as a heading for the answer everywhere but the description will only appear on the page where you'll fill in the answer.
Adding a custom profile field is also an excellent way to reduce spam registrations. Making the field required will likely stop 99.9% of spam in their tracks because they almost exclusively are automated bots that don't actually read pages - they automatically fill out pre-set forms common to phpBB installations. Adding a required custom profile field will make your registration page different - thereby making it harder for a spam program to successfully register.
After you set these preferences to your liking, click the Profile type specific options button at the bottom-right to continue to the next page of setup.
The next few settings are completely up to you however, we recommend you skip over any changes and click the Save Button.
Last, but not certainly least, I'm sure you want to see your new Profile Field in action! Go back to your forum's homepage and go into your UCP. Click the Profile tab at the top and you can scroll down a little to see your new field!
