Theming the userpage

Question

I want to modify the userpages with some changes:

1. change the page-title
2. hide some or all of the local taks items (the tabs)
3. display some user-infos
4. insert a view

Here is how I want to solve it:

1. use THEMENAME_preprocess_page() to change the title
2. use THEMENAME_menu_local_task() to hide the tabs
3. use the user-profile.tpl.php to display user infos
4. create a view and use views_embed_view()

Is there a better way of doing that? Should I consider using page--user.tpl.php or a combination?

Edit: concerns Drupal 6

Answer 1

1. Yes, THEMENAME_preprocess_page() is fine for this, but one could argue that it's better to implement hook_user when $op == 'view'. That way you would make the change available for all themes (who knows you will be adding a mobile theme a couple of months from now?).
2. I wouldn't use THEMENAME_menu_local_tasks() for this, but instead do $variables['tabs'] = ''; in THEMENAME_preprocess_page(). Of course, only do this for the user page, otherwise you will lose the tabs on all pages.
3. Yes, use user-profile.tpl.php to print out variables. If you need additional variables, fetch them in THEMENAME_preprocess_page() and add them to the $variables array to make them available in your template. Depending on what you need to do, see also user-profile-category.tpl.php, user-profile-item.tpl.php and their respective preprocess functions.
4. Yes, that's an option. You can also create a block display of that view and enable the block on the user page.

I recommend not to use multiple page templates (like page-user.tpl.php) if you can. When you do, a simple change to page.tpl.php will often need to be applied to all other page templates as well, which is a bore.

Answer 2

To change the title for profile page use hook_username_alter(), or the other method as mentioned in the other answer.