Trying to get Player's name and group

[The French Spy]

Hello, I'm trying to make a derma panel, and I want to show the name and group of the player. I've made it so that the derma panel opens when the player join the server and
when a command is typed. but I get this error :
[ERROR] lua/autorun/client/data.lua:7: attempt to call method 'Name' (a nil value)
  1. OpenCharacterMenuCl - lua/autorun/client/data.lua:7
   2. func - lua/autorun/client/data.lua:2
    3. unknown - lua/includes/extensions/net.lua:32
But it only happens when after connecting, but when i type the command ther is no error and the data is displayed.

So, here is the hook I use:

hook.Add( "PlayerInitialSpawn", "Spawn", function( player )
    local name = player:GetName()
    local rank = player:GetUserGroup()
    local steamid64 = player:SteamID64()
    local ip = player:IPAddress()  
    local Timestamp = os.time()
    local time = os.date( "%H:%M:%S - %d/%m/%Y" , Timestamp )
    WriteToFile( name, steamid64, rank, ip, time )
    OpenCharacterMenu( player, rank )
    connectToDatabase()
end )
and the function:

function OpenCharacterMenu( player )
    net.Start( "OpenCharacterMenu" )
    net.Send( player )
end

and here is the clientside code:

net.Receive( "OpenCharacterMenu", function()
    OpenCharacterMenuCl()
end )

function OpenCharacterMenuCl()
    local Player = LocalPlayer()
    local username = Player:Name()
    local rank = Player:GetUserGroup()
    local steamid = Player:SteamID()

[Trackster]

instead of Player:Name()
you should try to use Player/Nick

[The French Spy]

It doesn't work :/

[ERROR] lua/autorun/client/data.lua:7: attempt to call method 'Nick' (a nil value)
  1. OpenCharacterMenuCl - lua/autorun/client/data.lua:7
   2. func - lua/autorun/client/data.lua:2
    3. unknown - lua/includes/extensions/net.lua:32

[Trackster]

wait i just noticed.

You are doing this

net.Receive( "OpenCharacterMenu", function()
OpenCharacterMenuCl()
end )

but you are supposed to do this
net.Receive( "OpenCharacterMenu", function()
OpenCharacterMenuCl
end )

Im pretty sure atleast. Been a while since i did Glua now, but i remember that you dont put () inside a function, to call a function

[The French Spy]

the function need the () or gmod die xD
[ERROR] lua/autorun/client/data.lua:3: '=' expected near 'end'
  1. unknown - lua/autorun/client/data.lua:0

[ButterKing5000]

Some functions like Nick or SteamID don’t exist till a certain point after the player has loaded in. I found the best way to overcome it is by running anything using it after GM/InitPostEntity is triggered clientside.

[Spar]

Returns the players name. Identical to Player:Nick and Player:GetName
Player/Name

[Trackster]

then why does the 3 different versions exist?
Not to explain, i actually want to know. If they all 3 are identical?

[bigdogmat]

Just to clarify it's because LocalPlayer returns NULL until GM/InitPostEntity

[Trackster]

i feel like gmod could really profit from one HUGE cleanup. Getting rid of all old functions etc. That would mean that alot of older addons break tho so..probably wont happen