Detect first log of user

Question

I'm realizing a theme with liferay using velocity. I would like to add some functions to the theme homepage only in the case the user logs in the portal for the first time. How can I use velocity (portal_normal.vm) to achieve that?

Answer 1

As stated by @Olaf Kock it is not suggested to use the business logic in the theme section.

But, If you want to do it anyway then Liferay provides a set of Velocity Variables that can be accessed in the Themes. Which includes the User details too.

These are some of the User related Variables available globally in themes,

$user_id,$is_default_user,$user_first_name,$user_middle_name .... $user_login_ip, $user_last_login_ip

You can check out more at : themes\_unstyled\templates\init.vm inside ROOT.WAR.

So, For your specific purpose here you can use $user_last_login_ip. If the value is null then it would be the first time the user has logged into the portal.So, use this inside the portal_normal.vm,

#if (!$user_last_login_ip)
 ... do stuff here if the variable is null
#end

And, Alternately you can fetch the User last login date using and check null to ensure whether it is his first login,

#if (!$user.getLastLoginDate())
 ... do stuff here if the variable is null
#end

Answer 2

Don't add this to the theme. Rather have a separate custom LoginAction for this. This will be executed on every login (you can choose pre- or post-login, I'm assuming that post-login will be appropriate) and should find some more information than I linked on this topic all over the net.

A theme is made for look&feel and should not contain any business logic - especially not when it's for a one-off purpose.