Buddy service friend request management and user online status WinRT 8.1

Question

Hello,

I am working on an application using the App42 Cloud API's Buddy Service to manage friends on Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Store 8.1. I have noticed that when sending a friend request, the API is not checking whether the user exists or not, it simply sends a request and calls the onSuccess callback even when I input a buddyName that is not a user in my userService. Is this a bug or is there a different way to check that a user exists before sending a friend request?

Also, is there anyway to cancel a friend request or clear current requests (either via code or via the admin managment console)? Since I have been testing invalid usernames but the API has been calling my success callback I now have friend requests for users that do not exist and I would like to clear them.

Answer 1

In our buddy service you are not restricted to create users with us.

If you want to check that a user exists before sending a friend request you must user our userService. This module allows you to create App Users. It enables User registration, retrieval, state management e.g., Lock, Delete, Authentication and more. Along with User management, the library provides API’s for persistent Session Management.

Currently we are not provide buddy management in our console, if you want to delete your friend request you can use our API reject_friend_request

Comments

Okay that makes sense, I thought that the buddyService and userService were tied together.

So I have another question, if I am using the userService and sessionService what is a good way to manage online status? I create a session when the user authenticates their username and password using getSession but then how can another user check if that person is online? I am currently using getSession(username, false) to check if a user has a session, is this the best way to do this?

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For checking user session you are doing good. :-)