What you’ll set up
The left menu is the side “drawer” that slides in from the edge of the app, and it can carry a profile summary right at the top — a small header block showing the signed-in user’s name, avatar, and a few supporting details. Turn it on and your app feels personal the moment someone opens that menu: a familiar cue that tells them they’re logged in.
No code involved here. You turn it on in the Mobile App Manager, save, and re-publish your app’s settings — since it’s a settings-only change, there’s no app rebuild to wait on.
Heads up: The profile summary only renders for a signed-in user. If your app doesn’t require or offer login, there’s no one to summarize, and the header simply stays empty. See Before you begin.
Profile summary vs. “Show username”
The left menu offers two related personalization options, and they’re easy to mix up:
| Option | Setting (admin label) | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Profile summary | Show User Profile Summary in Left Menu | A richer header block — name plus available profile details such as the user’s avatar and “member since” date. |
| Username only | Show Username on left menu if logged in? | Just the user’s name as a single line at the top of the menu. |
Want just the user’s name? Reach for Show Username. Want the fuller, card-style header? That’s Show User Profile Summary. Most apps use one or the other, not both.
Before you begin
- Your app needs login enabled so there is a signed-in user. Profile data is built per user, so a logged-out session shows nothing in the header. (Login is configured under the app’s Login settings.)
- You should have access to Mobile App Manager in WordPress admin (the MAM Suite plugin).
- Decide which colors you want for the menu header and text so the summary stays readable against your menu background.
Steps
- Start in WordPress admin: open Mobile App Mgr → App Settings, the screen where your app’s global settings live.
- From there, head to the Left Menu settings group.
- Find Show User Profile Summary in Left Menu and switch it to Yes.
- Save your settings.
- Push the change out to the app: re-publish / update your app settings (use your normal “update app settings” step).
- Now check it — open the app, sign in, and open the left menu. The profile summary should appear at the top.
The setting is off by default, so your existing apps stay just as they are until you turn it on yourself.
Style the header so it’s readable
The profile summary lives inside the left-menu header area, so it takes its look from the same Left Menu color settings that shape the rest of the menu. Once you’ve turned the summary on, check these settings in the Left Menu group:
| Setting (admin label) | Controls |
|---|---|
| Header Color | The header band the summary sits in. |
| Username Text Color | The color of the user’s name / profile text in the header. |
| Background Color | The overall left-menu background behind the menu items. |
| Text Color | The color of the menu item labels below the header. |
Working with a dark menu background? Set the username/header text colors to a light value so the name doesn’t disappear into it.
What the summary can include
Once a user signs in, MAM Suite pulls together a profile data set for them, and the app renders whichever parts of it are available. What actually shows up depends on what’s stored for that user, and can include:
- The user’s name (first / last, or the account name)
- A “member since” date derived from when the account was created
- An avatar image, if one is set for the user
- Location hints such as city / state, if present on the account
- A rating value, in apps where users are rated (for example, marketplace-style apps)
Empty fields are simply left out, so a brand-new user with only a name gets a clean, minimal header instead of a row of blank placeholders.
Troubleshooting
The header is empty even though I turned it on.
Nine times out of ten, this means no one’s actually signed in. Double-check that login works in the app and that you’re testing while signed in yourself, and confirm you both saved and re-published your app settings after toggling the option.
I see the name but not the avatar (or vice-versa).
That’s expected, not a bug — the summary only shows fields that exist for that user. If no avatar is set on the WordPress account, the avatar slot is simply omitted.
The text is hard to read.
Adjust Username Text Color and Header Color in the Left Menu settings until they contrast well with each other.
I turned it on but the app looks the same.
Even settings-only changes need to be pushed to the app. Re-run your “update app settings” step and reload the app.
Related settings (Left Menu group)
- Show Username on left menu if logged in? — the simpler, name-only alternative
- Username Text Color — color of the profile/username text
- Header Color — color of the header band the summary sits in
- Has left menu logo / Top image — show a logo or image at the top of the menu instead of (or alongside) a profile header
- Background Color / Text Color — overall left-menu colors
Verification
This draft was grounded against:
mam-main/includes/app-settings/admin-settings-page.php— settingleft_menu_show_profile_summary(“Show User Profile Summary in Left Menu”,yes-no, defaultno), plus the surrounding Left Menu settings (home_screen_left_menu_show_user_name,left_menu_profile_text_color,left_menu_header_color,left_menu_background_color,left_menu_text_color,has_left_menu_logo).mam-main/includes/user-roles/user-content-functions.php—mam_user_profile_content::create_profile_data_for_user(), which assembles the per-user profile fields (name, member-since, avatar, city/state, rating).mam-main/includes/content-classes/content-class-settings-menu.php— the left-menu content class.
Re-verify whenever the Left Menu settings group is reorganized, the left_menu_show_profile_summary label/variable changes, or the fields returned by create_profile_data_for_user() change. The setting is passed through to the published app payload and rendered client-side, so the precise subset of fields the mobile app draws in the header depends on the current iOS/Android build.
