3. Name Concatenation

Press the button in the Concatenation group box in the main Window of Passenger to access the Name/Username formulation construction dialog.

Formula Components

Usernames (Real Names in OS X Server) can be derived in many different ways from the names imported. The two major components that can be used to formulate usernames are first and last names. If you imported full names, Passenger will break the full name into first and last. See filtering below for more details

Imported groups and user ids can also be used as components to build Usernames.

You construct the Name/username using the tags shown at the top of the window below. The tags represent the 3 components that make up a username. Some presets are given below, press enter to put these constructions into the formula field or edit the formula field directly.

 

Repeating username

Another formula component is the ability to append numbers to create a multitude of usernames based on each name imported. A good example of how this can be used is if you have a group of students and you would like their usernames to be based on the teachers last name. The teachers name could be Andrews and the student usernames would be and001, and002, etc. See 6. Mac OS X Server for ideas. Repeating can be done up for to 999 users. If you are a neatnick about how usernames show in a list, you can even choose to have leading zeros by selecting a value for "Fixed digits for repeating numbers". Repeating digits are automatically appended to short names when this is used for usernames.

Constants in formulas

Constants such as a dash or period or some other constant can be used by typing it in the formula field. Be aware that spaces are not allowed by some servers and you will be warned by Passenger in such a case. The sample field shows you how the name Barbara Lichtenauer would be concatenated.

Overwrite imported usernames

With this box unchecked, usernames are concatenated to fill in where usernames were not imported.

With this box checked, usernames are always concatenated regardless of what usernames were imported.

Short names

Short name concatention has many of the same components with the addition of basing the short name on the Username.

Mac OS X Server 10.0 - 10.1.5 has an 8 character limit for short names, whereas 10.2.x and higher has a 31 character limit for Macintosh Manager and a 255 limit for 10.2 and higher clients. If the username formulation specifies repeating digits and you use the username to formulate the short name, the digits will also be used for the short name, regardless of the length of the username or how many characters you use from the username to construct the short name. Passenger will warn if there are duplicate short names which might happen if the short name is too short.

Filtering Usernames and Short Names

Passenger does the following to create usernames from imported names:

  • Optionally change case to lowercase, UPPERCASE, or Title Case
  • Optionally removes all accent characters; always removed from short names
  • Removes commas
  • Removes middle names that were imported in the full name;
  • Leaves dashes in for first names;
  • Leaves periods in;
  • Removes apostrophes for WebSTAR and Eudora exports;
  • Converts all curly apostrophes to straight apostrophes;
  • For users that have two first names, only the first is used. e.g. "Mary Jane" becomes "Mary". If the name is imported as "MaryJane" then passenger will keep the second name and use "MaryJane" as the first name;
  • For hyphenated last names there is an option to keep the full name, e.g. "Lichtenauer-Yoxheimer" becomes "Lichtenauer-Yoxheimer" or check the "Only use first name of hyphenated name" check box to have only "Lichtenauer";
  • Trailing and leading spaces are removed from first and last names when individually imported or imported from fullnames
  • Regardless of importing by name or username or shortname, accents and spaces are removed from characters for short names

 

More about names

If you choose to export full name, last name, or first name using delimited text export, whatever was imported will remain intact and anything that was missing will be filled in by Passenger.