Updating user info in liferay database

Question

I need to update info of an existing user in my database programmaticaly I need to update user name birth date values in user_ table in Liferay database basically I need to run an update query.

Answer 1

It is not recommended to update the liferay database directly, you should use Liferay API instead to do these things. As per this liferay forum post:

The Liferay database is not published for a reason. The reason is the API does significantly more stuff than just simple SQL insert statements. There are internally managed foreign keys, there are things which are updated not just in the database but also in the indices, in jackrabbit, etc.

Since all of this is managed by the code and not by the database, any updates to the code will change how and when the database is updated. Even if it did work for you in a 6.1 GA1 version, GA2 is coming out in a couple of weeks and the database/code may change again.

Sticking with the API is the only way to insure the changes are done correctly.

Ok enough preaching and back to your problem, here are some ways you can do these:

1. you can either build a custom portlet and use liferay's services and update the username, birthdate etc using UserLocalServiceUtil.updateUser() method.

2. Or you can build a web-service client based on SOAP or JSON to update the details which would call the same method

3. Or you can use Liferay's Beanshell tool to do this from the control panel, following is some code to update the user (created just for you ASAP):

   import com.liferay.portal.model.Company;
   import com.liferay.portal.model.Contact;
   import com.liferay.portal.model.ContactConstants;
   import com.liferay.portal.model.User;
   import com.liferay.portal.service.CompanyLocalServiceUtil;
   import com.liferay.portal.service.ContactLocalServiceUtil;
   import com.liferay.portal.service.UserLocalServiceUtil;
   
   import java.util.Calendar;
   import java.util.Date;
   import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
   
   long companyId = 10135; // this would be different for you
   
   User user = UserLocalServiceUtil.getUserByEmailAddress(companyId, "[email protected]");
   
   // Updating User's details
   
   user.setEmailAddress("[email protected]");
   user.setFirstName("First Test");
   user.setLastName("Last Test");
   user.setScreenName("myTestScreenName");
   
   UserLocalServiceUtil.updateUser(user, false);
   
   // Updating User's Birthday
   
   // December 12, 1912
   int birthdayMonth = 11;
   int birthdayDay = 12;
   int birthdayYear = 1912;
   
   Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar();
   cal.set(birthdayYear, birthdayMonth, birthdayDay, 0, 0, 0);
   cal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
   
   Date birthday = cal.getTime();    
   
   System.out.println("Updated User: " + user + "\nBirthdate to be updated: " + birthday);
   
   long contactId = user.getContactId();
   
   Contact contact = ContactLocalServiceUtil.getContact(contactId);
   
   if(contact == null) {
   
       contact = ContactLocalServiceUtil.createContact(contactId);
   
       Company company = CompanyLocalServiceUtil.getCompany(user.getCompanyId());
   
       contact.setCompanyId(user.getCompanyId());
       contact.setUserName(StringPool.BLANK);
       contact.setCreateDate(new Date());
       contact.setAccountId(company.getAccountId());
       contact.setParentContactId(ContactConstants.DEFAULT_PARENT_CONTACT_ID);
   }
   
   contact.setModifiedDate(new Date());
   contact.setBirthday(birthday);
   
   ContactLocalServiceUtil.updateContact(contact, false);
   
   System.out.println("Users birthdate updated successfully");
   

   _{The contact code is built with the help of Liferay's source code for UserLocalServiceImpl#updateUser method}

In case you are wondering what is bean-shell and where to put this code, here is where you can find it in Liferay Control Panel Control Panel --> Server --> Server Administration --> Script

Answer 2

It depends on whether you have to do this in a portlet code or by sending a direct query to db.

Liferay basically caches everything, so if you update a record in the Liferay database while the portal is running, most likely that record is already in cache, and so the new column values won't be read at all. You will have to clear the database cache by going to Control Panel -> Server Administration.

On the contrary, if you have to do such a thing in a portlet code, you should call one of the methods of the Liferay services. You're trying to update a User, so you should call the method UserLocalServiceUtil.updateUser (or UserServiceUtil.updateUser if you also want to check permissions). You can see there are some different updateUser methods, one of them has a lot of parameters and another has only the bean as a parameter. While the first one contains all the business logic (validation, reindexing, update of related entities, etc.), the second one was just autogenerated and should not be used (except when you absolutely know what you're doing). So, use the method with a lot of parameters, simply passing user.getCOLUMN() (eg. user.getFacebookId()) if you don't want to change the value of that column.

Hope it helps, and sorry for my bad English...

Answer 3

update user_ set firstName="New First Name", lastName="New Last Name" where emailAddress="[email protected]";
update contact_ set birthday="date string" where contactId in(select contactId from user_ where emailAddress="[email protected]");

By first update query you can change firstName, lastName of user and by second query you can change birthdate of user.

Hope its clear!

Answer 4

Try this code..

Here i am updating only user First name(rest you can do by your own way)

userId = you can get this using theme display

User user = UserLocalServiceUtil.getUser(userId);
user.setFirstName("new name");
UserLocalServiceUtil.updateUser(user);

Hope this will help you !!!