I'm getting a small stream of views to the canvas where the GET variables are properly populated from makerequest, but every once in a while I get one where the opensocial_viewer_id is -1.

 

 What is this?  I can't replicate this, so I don't know how to handle it.

 

Just guessing:  I know there's a condition where, after some time, you'll get auto-logged out, but it still looks like you're logged in.  Most profile stuff doesn't care, but apps do.  Is that what's going on?

 

Basically, yes. It's difficult to test for, particularly in Development, but I think it's a result of the viewer not being logged in. Because MySpace profiles can be viewed completely anonymously (that is, a user does not have to be signed in, or even have a MySpace account, to view a public profile), there's no way for the platform to retrieve an Id.

 

 Jeremy,

 

How are you testing for logged out users?  Doing $_REQUEST['opensocial_view_id'] == -1 isn't consistent for me to redirect people out. 

How do I do it? I don't -- I only ran the test once, through a massive amount of trickery with a custom browser.

But, to an App, there is no difference between a logged-out user and a user who hasn't installed the App, so I'd use the same basic mechanism for both -- if I can't retrieve your data, I provide a link to the App Profile, and ask the user to either install the App or log in.

Just out of wild curiousity, though, why isn't '-1' consistent? What else are you getting for opensocial_viewer_id from a logged out viewer?

Jeremy, It is consistent only on my development app, but on Live it never gives -1 for opensocial_viewer_id even though I am logged out. For me, it isn't working the same as a user who doesn't have the application installed. It simply loads a blank page. There must be something going on in live that isn't in dev or vice versa.

Hi, Does this mean that there is not a javascript API method for determining whether a viewer is logged in or not? Can I use makeRequest to hit my 3rd party API and if opensocial_viewer_id is equal to "-1" assume that the viewer is not a member of MySpace (i.e. not logged in) thanks

 Hi, a user ID of -1 should mean the user isn't logged in.  Try this to determine whether they're logged in or not:

gadgets.views.getParams().loggedOut

Chad