Accessing the PFUser currentUser from an iOS8 Today Widget

Question

I asked this question in the Parse google group, but figured I'd open it up wider here on SO. I'm still a little fuzzy around the rules surrounding discussing anything related to iOS8 prior to the official release, but with GM out and extensions discussed, I figure I can ask this question now. If not, it can wait.

I'm using Parse for the backend. I'd like to build a Today widget that displays a few records related to a specific currentUser. Loading and initializing Parse isn't the issue, framework is loaded and initialized, that is fine. But even when logged into the container app, it appears I have no reference to the currentUser.

This is the code I created just to confirm I could get access to the current user, which does not work. I attempted to save it in NSUserDefault, which is probably a hack anyway, but was unsuccessful.

 PFUser *currentUser = [PFUser currentUser];
    if (currentUser) { 
        nameTF.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@", [currentUser objectForKey:@"firstName"], [currentUser objectForKey:@"lastName"]]; 
    } else { 
        nameTF.text = @"No freaking clue who you are."; 
    }

But all I see is the "no freaking clue ..." text.

My first question is whether or not I can access the current user? I assume I can and need to somehow get it in the group and I'm missing something silly. And if so, can someone point me to a source or information on the best way to accomplish this? Once I can make queries with the current User I'll be fine.

Thanks again for any suggestions you can offer.

* UPDATE *

After a suggestion from Fosco Marotto at Parse to store the sessionToken in NSUserDefaults and then use that token within the extension to call PFUser becomeInBackground, I put the following code together to test the suggestion and this works. It needs to be improved on because it is a bit hackish, so I'm not marking it as the answer.

NSUserDefaults *sharedDefaults = [[NSUserDefaults alloc]   initWithSuiteName:@"XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"]; 
NSString *pfToken = [sharedDefaults valueForKey:@"PFUserSessionToken"]; 

[PFUser becomeInBackground:pfToken block:^(PFUser *currentUser, NSError *error) { 
   if (error) { 
      // The token could not be validated. 
      NSLog(@"error happened during becomeInBackground - token could not be validated"); 
      // Show the token just to make sure we got it
      nameTF.text = pfToken; 
   } else { 
      // The current user is now set to user. 
      // do stuff with the user 
      nameTF.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@", [currentUser objectForKey:@"firstName"], [currentUser objectForKey:@"lastName"]]; 
   } 
}];

// Now lets see if we can get PFUser outside of the block

// Not sure if we need this

PFUser *currentUser = [PFUser currentUser];

if (currentUser) {
     // We have a reference to currentUser
     nameTF.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", [currentUser objectForKey:@"firstName"]];
} else {

    nameTF.text = @"Don't think you're getting the PFUser thing right here";
}

I can get the currentUser and query against it. Thanks to Fosco for the direction and hopefully this is getting closer to a solution

Borbea Borbea · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-25T23:36:56

Now Parse offers official solution for sharing data between host app and extension. More info can be found at https://www.parse.com/docs/ios/guide#extensions

Accessing the PFUser currentUser from an iOS8 Today Widget

2 Answers