Team approval link breaks if applicant changed their ID

From Matthias Urlichs: "Well, my idea would be to use the database ID of that person in the URL,
much like we're using a bug number instead of its subject..."

Maybe sending another email to unapproved team leaders would be another solution, however I admit that User ID's are a more elegant solution.

Alex.

Using the database ID has the disadvantage of making it impossible to find out from the URL itself what is the team and the member in question, but I don't see any other way to address this issue since the DB ID is the only immutable attribute of a person.

You could create a tinyurl-like hash that maps to whatever state you
need in your database. The link could include it directly or as a
query argument:

.../approve/abc123!@#
.../approve?key=abc123!@#

Another suggestion, this one from "Jerry": "The process of accepting an application to be on a team could include setting a flag in a registration file of some sort. This file would be checked by the process that handles a request to change a user's Launchpad ID. If their current ID appears in the list, the request to change IDs could be denied. Either that, or the new ID could be placed in the file, so the team leaders could access it, perhaps with the new ID(s) showing up as "aliases", until the old ID no longer appears in the file, because it no longer appears on any team list. This could be because of manual removal, or an update."

Someone with the necessary privileges should edit FAQ #53 (https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/launchpad/+faq/53) so it mentions this bug.