Username display change in Posit Workbench 2024.09

Summary
As of Posit Workbench 2024.09 and later, the username displayed in the top-right corner of the UI now shows the user’s full name (display name).

This value is retrieved from the gecos field stored in your authentication provider. If your gecos field contains an unwanted value, you can override it to display a preferred user attribute.

Solution

The method to override the gecos field depends on your authentication configuration. 
Note:  When using SAML authentication backed by SSSd or NSLCD, the following still applies.

If using sssd:

1. Edit your sssd.conf for the relevant domain to set the preferred ldap_user_gecos attribute.  For example:

   [domain/yourdomain]
   ldap_user_gecos = uid

   or

   [domain/yourdomain]
   ldap_user_gecos = sAMAccountName

2. Restart services:

   sudo systemctl restart sssd
   sudo systemctl restart rstudio-server

If using ldap.conf with nslcd:

1. Edit your ldap.conf to map the gecos attribute:

   nss_map_attribute gecos uid

2. Restart services:

   sudo systemctl restart nslcd
   sudo systemctl restart nscd
   sudo systemctl restart rstudio-server

Additional information
A feature request has been submitted to allow selecting the attribute used for the username display in the UI without editing the sssd or nslcd configuration.

If you would like to see this implemented, please contact Posit Support and reference GitHub Feature Request #8863.