Best Practice: User Accounts (Profile, Real Name, Address Field)

@joemaine

I don't have a quick response for you without knowing more about how you plan to use User Profiles or knowing a little more about your website. 

I would not collect address information, unless I need it. If I do, I would probably use the address field module, to get the benefit of validation and sub-fields for sorting and custom views.

I think I can usually accomplish everything I want without using the Real Name module. If I need detailed information about users, I usually creae a "First Name" and "Last Name" field. Sometimes, we then automatically use them both to generate the Title field for the profile so that the user does not have to enter any part of their name twice. There are modules to help with this (I believe that this module works with user entities - https://backdropcms.org/project/auto_nodetitle).

Personally, I don't think any of these creates database considerations worth thinking about. But, again, this may depend upon the specifics for your site. Is this a very large or very active site that makes you think database considerations will be important?

Remember that user accounts are fieldable in Backdrop CMS core, so the Profile module may not be necessary. I know that in Drupal 7, the Profile 2 module was necessary to create profile types. It might be that the Profile module for Backdrop provides this feature as well. I'd have to check, it's not clear to me from the ReadMe file. 

 

I've confirmed that the Profile module for Backdrop CMS does provide "Profile Types", if you need those.

https://backdropcms.org/project/profile