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Using email address as user_id (login name)

Using email address as user_id (login name)

by Nikolaus Vonessen -
Number of replies: 4

My question is if I can enroll students in WeBWorK courses with the user name (login name, user_id) being a complete email address.

It used to be impossible to use an email address as the login name (user_id), and that is still stated in the documentation regarding WeBWorK Class List Files (https://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Classlist_Files) (linked from https://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Instructors): It implies that the user_id cannot contain the character "@".  But I have successfully enrolled in a WeBWorK course users with login name (user_id) being an email address, both by importing a classlist file, and also manually (using the Accounts Manager in my WeBWorK course, under WeBWorK 2.19).  I am wondering if it is safe to use full email addresses as login names, or if that might lead to issues.

Thanks for helping me with this!

Nikolaus Vonessen
Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Montana-Missoula

In reply to Nikolaus Vonessen

Re: Using email address as user_id (login name)

by Glenn Rice -

Email addresses can be used for the user_id/login name.  This has been true since 2010 (I have no clue what release of WeBWorK that would be, but that is before any version of WeBWorK that I ever used).  The documentation on class list files apparently was never updated when that change was made.

In reply to Glenn Rice

Re: Using email address as user_id (login name)

by Nikolaus Vonessen -
Thanks a lot for the information! Do you know whom one should contact to request an update of the wiki page about classlist files (https://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Classlist_Files)?
Thanks again,
Nikolaus