MediaWiki: How to extend user class?

Question

I'm trying to extend the user class of MediaWiki by adding some methods like $user->getNameOfPet() . Eg the extension Article_Class_Extended extends the default article class using a hook:

    $wgExtensionFunctions[] = "wfArticleExSetup";

    function wfArticleExSetup()
    {
            global $wgHooks;
            $wgHooks['ArticleFromTitle'][] = 'wfArticleExInit';     
    }

    function wfArticleExInit( &$title, &$article )
    {
            // What really counts is what is returned in $article.
            $GLOBALS['wgArticle'] = new ArticleExClass( $title, $article, true );
            return true;    
    } 

Is there a way for extending the user class in a similar way? I'm using MediaWiki 1.16.5.

Answer 1

I think from your settings file you could call

RequestContext::getMain()->setUser(new User());

I've used this to force an 'empty' (not logged in) user. If this call lets you set a user object, you should be able to feed it a User descendant as well. This line is similar to the line in Setup.php that sets the $wgUser global.