How to Dynamically Pull the UserID of the Logged-In User

Question

I have created a widget that pulls data for the logged-in user such as course progress but the widget will display unique data depending on what student is logged in.

I am trying to dynamically pull the user_id of the student logged in viewing the widget but I am getting stuck on what the current variable is for the User ID.

# Retrieve the user_id from query parameters, form data, or args

user_id = request.args.get('user_id') or request.form.get('user_id')

The above (in Python) is not currently working because I believe "user_id" is not the correct variable to call.

Purpose: Once we pull the user_id dynamically, we can call our APIs using that student's unique User ID.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Johnny.B.962 · Accepted Answer

@Mateen.A.4093,

The simplest way to get that would be to include the {UserId} replacement string in the HTML of the widget. You could store it in a JS/Python/etc. variable, and then you should be able to reference it in your Python script. Normally the replacement strings may be used to personalize a message like an Announcement to show a user's name, but for fields like {UserId}, {OrgUnitId}, etc. are more useful for scenarios like this. You could technically pull it via other methods, but this is the simplest way to grab it dynamically based on the user that's accessing the page.

Hope that helps!

-Johnny

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