This release adds official support for the Jomsocial versions from 4.3.0 to 4.3.3, which introduce the new Location field, and also greatly improves the formation of the users' first and last names and usernames.

When Populator creates a new user, it randomly picks a first and a last name from a predefined set of names. Then to form a username for this user, it combines the first with the last name and an integer as a postfix which is also selected randomly. Each username must be unique, else Joomla issues an error.

So the probability that Populator forms an already existing username for a new user depends on the number of the names available for selection and the number of digits of the postfix integer.

Untill the previous version, Populator had to choose only between 20 male first names, 20 female ones and 30 last names. Now these sets have increased to 100 male, 100 female and ... 500 last names.

The postfix integer had always 2 digits. Now it has a variable number of digits 2, 3 or 4, depending of the total of the created users. If the number of users is small we try to use less digits so that the formed username is simpler.

All these changes mean that Populator can form about 150 times more different usernames than before and the probability of collision is respectively about 150 times smaller. Actually we have reports about creating thousands of users without a collision.

Also, as a bonus, we have much more variety for the names of the users!

Note : Almost all the names used are English ones.

 

Populator 1.1.0 has been tested with Jomsocial versions as old as 4.1.5, but it should work with even older ones, back to 3.2.

 

Populator is a Joomla component which creates fake but fully functional Jomsocial user profiles, groups and events.

It is intended for testing and showcasing when developing a Jomsocial site or extension.

You can find more details about Populator for Jomsocial in the Extensions section of our site here.

You can freely download it, by registering to our site.