Extension:ChangeUserPasswords

Change User Passwords is an extension to MediaWiki that defines a special page, "Special:ChangeUserPasswords", that allows administrators to change passwords of users in a single go.

The passwords are generated randomly and displayed in a table to the administrator.

The page is not accessible to or viewable by any other user apart from administrator.

ChangeUserPasswords uses a Admin_Link hook to display the feature under Admin Links as well.

For this reason, the Extension: AdminLinks must also be installed.

MediaWiki already provides a Special:ResetPassword" page, which allows users to change or reset their password, which may lead you to wonder what the need is for the additional "ChangeUserPasswords" page.

However, there are a number of important differences that make "ChangeUserPasswords" useful:


 * "ResetPassword" allows only the logged in user to change their password.


 * "ChangeUserPasswords" allows administrators to change the passwords of several users at one go. This is useful when the wiki is supposed to be used by new users and old users do not need access to the wiki anymore.  Admins can share the new passwords to new users without creating new user.  So new users can directly log in and start using the wiki.  This is highly useful in universities where there are new students every semester.


 * Finally, the Admin Links extension hook puts a link for Change User Passwords to "AdminLinks" in administrators' personal tools, which makes things more convenient

Authors
ChangeUserPasswords was written by Mirco Zick (mirco.zick[at]uni-due.de) and Ankita Mandal (ankita.mandal[at]stud.uni-due.de)