Functionality for changing User role from external source

flexxxx

Hi there, I'm thinking of using Flarum as a forum that is used alongside with an existing desktop app. In this App there are subscribed Users and unsubscribed users. The status is changed inside of the app itself. When the app changes it's state for the user. The corresponding user on Flarum should change its role accordingly:

Unsubscribed in app => "Member" role on Flarum
Subscribed in app => "Subscriber" role on Flarum

Is there something that makes it possible to change a users role from an external source?

Right now I'm thinking of creating an extension that would make this possible, but wanted to check first if there is already something existing. I already searched the existing extensions and didn't find something that fit.

luceos

Flarum being a SPA anything that either the Admin or Forum does is done through an API. This API is accessible using an API token. You can change permission groups by doing an update requests to the relevant API endpoint.

The basic steps:

add a 40 character long random string to api_tokens table with no user_id assigned; this is now a master api token which is almighty.

make your app run a PATCH request to https://yourforum.com/api/users/{id} where {id} is the integer id of the user you are changing the groups of with the following payload:

{"data": "relationships": {"groups": {"data": [{"id": "{groupId}"}]}}}

Where {groupId} is the groups to be applied to the user. Groups not in this payload will be dropped.

flexxxx

luceos Thanks for your comprehensive answer, that sounds good!
I think I also want to store custom information/data. In that case it would basically require an extension, is that right?
Also is there already some specific functionality for CRON like behaviour (like a specific task running once a day). I didn't see something like that in the Documentation so I guess that is not existing right now?

flexxxx

luceos For anyone coming across this thread the JSON I had to use was the following:

{ "data": { "relationships": { "groups": { "data": [ { "id": "{NEW_GROUP_ID}" } ] } } }}

Just some curvy brackets where missing on the answer

luceos

flexxxx I think I also want to store custom information/data. In that case it would basically require an extension, is that right?

You could locally migrate additional user columns, then create a local extender that listens to the Saving event to store that information when the API call hits. A custom extension might be suitable too though, it's up to you. But remember there isn't much sense in publishing custom extensions to packagist, use a workbench, private repositories or local extenders instead.

flexxxx Also is there already some specific functionality for CRON like behaviour (like a specific task running once a day). I didn't see something like that in the Documentation so I guess that is not existing right now?

Crons can be fired using fof/console as a dependency in your extension or flarum forum.