Joomla 1.7 language override (User-Profile Plugin)

This article explains how to change text in User - Profile plugin fields. You can use the same instructions to override pretty much any text filed in Joomla.

Let's say we want to change Address 1: to Your Address:

First off all find the original text you want to change in Joomla language file.
Language files are located in two places:
Frontend: /language
Backend:/administrator/language

In our case for the backend we open file /administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.plg_user_profile.ini and copy following lines:
PLG_USER_PROFILE_FIELD_ADDRESS1_DESC="Choose an option for the field Address1"
PLG_USER_PROFILE_FIELD_ADDRESS1_LABEL="Address 1:"
In theory you could simply edit text in here and it would work just fine. Problem with this approach is that any Joomla update may overwrite this file with original values. This is why we should use language override files which are normally not touched by the updates.

Open backed language override file:
/administrator/language/overrides/en-GB.override.ini
paste the copied lines and change text between quotes as required:
PLG_USER_PROFILE_FIELD_ADDRESS1_DESC="Choose an option for the field Your Address"
PLG_USER_PROFILE_FIELD_ADDRESS1_LABEL="Your Address:"
This will take care of what you see in the backend.

To change text in the frontend open frontend language override file:
language/overrides/en-GB.override.ini
paste the same text and edit as required:
PLG_USER_PROFILE_FIELD_ADDRESS1_DESC="Please Enter Your Address"
PLG_USER_PROFILE_FIELD_ADDRESS1_LABEL="Your Address:"

Joomla 1.6
Joomla 1.7

Add additional fields to a Joomla 1.7 registration form

Joomla 1.6 / 1.7 has a great new feature which allows to expand registration form without any third party plugins or core hacks such as this.

Go to Extensions > Plug-in manager and enable User - Profile plugin
Open the plugin, expand Basic Options, disable not required fields and set required fields to either Optional or Required.

Enabled fields will appear at the bottom of your registration form in User Profile section.

There are 12 commonly used fields available. Unfortunately there is still no easy way to add additional fields (it is possible, just not very straight forward). However you can rename exiting fields to suit your needs. This is done via language override. Read this article to find out how.

Joomla 1.6
Joomla 1.7

Password fields in IE smaller than other fields

You create a new registration / login form. In all browsers except Internet Explorer all fields appear exactly the same size. In IE however password fields are smaller (shorter) than all other fields.

Most likely reason why password fields are smaller in IE is different font used in different types of fields.

To resolve, simply add following code to you Cascading Style Sheets .css file:

input {
        font-family: sans-serif;               
}

Obviously you can use any other font size.

Joomla - remove login form border

Depending on your template, Joomla registration and login forms may be displayed within a border.

If required this can be be removed by adding following code to your template .css file:

fieldset{
border:none;
}

Joomla 1.5
Joomla 1.6
Joomla 1.7