Problem
Hello Gibbon Team,
First, thank you for creating and maintaining Gibbon. We are currently evaluating Gibbon for use in an Indian K–10 school and have been impressed by its flexibility and functionality.
During our testing, we found an issue related to student names.
In many Indian schools, some students have:
Only a first name
No surname recorded in official documents
Inconsistent surname information across school records, birth certificates and government documents
We discovered that:
Student import can successfully create users without a surname.
Data Updater Settings allow surname visibility and requirements to be adjusted.
However, the Edit User form still treats Surname, Preferred Name and Official Name as required fields.
This creates an inconsistency between importing users and editing users.
Feature Request:
Please consider adding configuration options in User Settings such as:
Surname Required: Yes / No
Preferred Name Required: Yes / No
Official Name Required: Yes / No
This would allow schools in different countries to adapt Gibbon to local naming conventions while maintaining compatibility with existing installations.
Possible Bug:
If imports allow blank surnames but the Edit User form requires a surname, the behaviour is inconsistent and may be worth reviewing.
We believe this enhancement would benefit schools in India and other regions where students may not always have a surname recorded.
Thank you for your consideration and for your work on Gibbon.
Kind regards,
Santosh
Principal
Gurukul Public School
India
Proposed Solution
Feature Request:
Please consider adding configuration options in User Settings such as:
Surname Required: Yes / No
Preferred Name Required: Yes / No
Official Name Required: Yes / No
Alternatives
No response
Additional Context
No response
Problem
Hello Gibbon Team,
First, thank you for creating and maintaining Gibbon. We are currently evaluating Gibbon for use in an Indian K–10 school and have been impressed by its flexibility and functionality.
During our testing, we found an issue related to student names.
In many Indian schools, some students have:
Only a first name
No surname recorded in official documents
Inconsistent surname information across school records, birth certificates and government documents
We discovered that:
Student import can successfully create users without a surname.
Data Updater Settings allow surname visibility and requirements to be adjusted.
However, the Edit User form still treats Surname, Preferred Name and Official Name as required fields.
This creates an inconsistency between importing users and editing users.
Feature Request:
Please consider adding configuration options in User Settings such as:
Surname Required: Yes / No
Preferred Name Required: Yes / No
Official Name Required: Yes / No
This would allow schools in different countries to adapt Gibbon to local naming conventions while maintaining compatibility with existing installations.
Possible Bug:
If imports allow blank surnames but the Edit User form requires a surname, the behaviour is inconsistent and may be worth reviewing.
We believe this enhancement would benefit schools in India and other regions where students may not always have a surname recorded.
Thank you for your consideration and for your work on Gibbon.
Kind regards,
Santosh
Principal
Gurukul Public School
India
Proposed Solution
Feature Request:
Please consider adding configuration options in User Settings such as:
Surname Required: Yes / No
Preferred Name Required: Yes / No
Official Name Required: Yes / No
Alternatives
No response
Additional Context
No response