How can I display the first name of the currently logged in user in content

Question

Matthew Murphy asks the following on the Joomla Facebook Group:

Anyone know of an extension for content that replaces the name with the person who's logged in?

For example I have been working on a staff training section and I want to have an article like:

$Yourname, if you are reading this and are unclear of the difference between the two types of letters...

$Yourname would say Matthew instead.

Answer 1

The code required to extract the first name of the currently logged in user is fairly simple. Here's an example:

<?php
  $user = JFactory::getUser();
  if (!$user->guest) {
    echo strtok($user->name, ' ');
  }
?>

Using the free or paid version of Sourcerer you could insert the code directly into an article as follows:

{source}<?php $user = JFactory::getUser(); if (!$user->guest) {echo strtok($user->name, ' ');} ?>{/source}

For a more elegant solution, create a Custom HTML Module using the above code with Sourcerer like this:

{source}
<?php
  $user = JFactory::getUser();
  if (!$user->guest) {
    echo strtok($user->name, ' ');
  }
?>
{/source}

Specify a custom module position e.g. firstname and remember to set Prepare Content = Yes under the Options tab. Save and Close the module.

Inserting the first name of the currently logged in user into content can then be done more simply using: {loadposition firstname}