Forum OpenACS Development: The "correct" way to handle users demographics and interests

Is there a standard way for handling user demogrpaphics and/or user interests?  It seems like this would be a common requirement, so I thought I'd check if it's already been done.

I'd like to be able to keep track of some basic demographic information, like gender, ethnicity, etc. and user interests.  I know some of this used to exist in previous versions.

Thanks for the suggestions Caroline.  I'll check out the packages you pointed me to.

I guess these are really two separate issues:

1) Demographics - some standard demographics used to be handled by the table users_demographics.  Grepping around in the 5.0.2 code, I found references to this table in the ad_user_class_query procedure in ad-procs.tcl, although I didn't find any other matches.  I would like to extend the user information to include more complete personal information.

2) User Interests - this used to be handled by the "categories" and "users_interests" tables.  It allowed you to  create a hierarchy of categories and subcategories, and then you could track user interest levels in the different subject areas.  This was used on photo.net, and although it was simplistic it did work.  However, at the moment I just need the ability to set up a flat list of topics and be able to assign (or have the user select) areas of interest.

Thanks Jon.  I didn't know anything about HR-XML, but I'm checking it out now.  There does seem to be a Demographic Detail schema as part of the HR-XML Staffing Exchange Protocol.