Friendships

Provides social network style Friend Requests and Friendships.

Requests

Requests are created by calling user.requestFriendship where user is an instance fo the user class. The request will be created as a request from the currently logged in user to the user requresented by user. When retrieved from the database records are converted to instances of the Request class which gives access to the methods of the class.

Request (class) - Extends BaseModel

To gain access the methods of a request you must first have an instance of a request. You can obtain an instance by performing a query on the requests collection. A findOne will return an instance and a find will return a cursor which when iterated over will return an instance for each iteration. Ways of obtaining instances that belong to the current user are provided as extensions to the User class and are detail in the User Extension section of this document

var request = Meteor.requests.findOne(); //instance of Request

var requests = Meteor.requests.find();  //cursor which returns Request instances

Instance Methods

all examples assume an instance of Request as request

requester - Get the user instance for the user who requested the friendship.

var requester = request.requester(); //instance of user for person making the request

user - Get the user instance for the user who's friendship is being requested.

var user = request.user(); //instance of user who the request was sent to

accept - Accept a friend request. Only works if the user of the request is the currenly logged in user.

request.accept(); //accept the request

deny - Deny a friend request. Only works if the user of the request is the currenly logged in user. Request won't be allowed to be re-made for User.restrictRequestDays Days. Default is 30 days.

request.deny(); //deny the request

cancel - Cancel a friend request. Only works if the requester of the request is the currently logged in user.

request.cancel(); //cancel the friend request

wasRespondedTo - Check to see if the request has been responded to (denied or ignored).

request.wasRespondedTo(); //true if the request was responded to.

Friends

Friend (class) - Extends BaseModel

To gain access the methods of a friend you must first have an instance of a friend. You can obtain an instance by performing a query on the friend collection. A findOne will return an instance and a find will return a cursor which when iterated over will return an instance for each iteration. Ways of obtaining instances that belong to the current user are provided as extensions to the User class and are detailed in the User Extensions section of this document

var request = Meteor.friends.findOne(); //instance of Request

var requests = Meteor.friends.find();  //cursor which returns Request instances

Instance Methods

all examples assume an instance of Friend as friend

user - The User instance for the friend.

friend.user(); //the user instance for the friend instance.

User Extensions

This package extends the socialize:user-model package with properties and methods that apply the the user in the context of friends and friend requests.

All code examples assume an instance of User as currentUser

var currentUser = Meteor.user();

Instance Methods

requests(limit, skip) - Get the requests to the user. Returns a Mongo.Cursor which yields Request instances.

{{#each currentUser.requests}}
<div class="request">
    <p>{{requester.username}} would like to be friends</p>
    <p>
        <a href="#" data-action="accept">Accept</a>
        <a href="#" data-action="deny">Deny</a>
        <a href="#" data-action="ignore">Ignore</a>
    </p>
</div>
{{/each}}

numRequests - The number of remaining requests to the user

<div class="badge success">{{currentUser.numRequests}}</div>

pendingRequests - A cursor of requests that the user has sent but have not been approved, denied or ignored.

{{#each currentUser.pendingRequests}}
    <p>
        {{user.username}} - <a href="#" data-action="cancel">cance request</a>
    </p>
{{/each}}

numPendingRequests - Get the number of requests that have not been responded to.

<p>
    You have {{currentUser.numPendingRequests}} requests to other users pending.
</p>

hasRequestFrom(user) - Check if the user already has a request from someone.

<!-- assuming data context is user instance -->
{{#if currentUser.hasRequestFrom this}}
    <div class="btn primary" data-action="accept">Accept Request</div>
{{/if}}

requestFriendship - Make a friend request from the current user.

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=request]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.requestFriendship();
    }
});

cancelFriendshipRequest - Cancel request made from the currentUser to this user.

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=cancel]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.cancelFriendshipRequest();
    }
});

acceptFriendshipRequest - Accept a friend request made from this user to the currentUser.

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=accept]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.acceptFriendshipRequest();
    }
});

denyFriendshipRequest - Deny a friend request made from this user to the currentUser.

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=deny]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.denyFriendshipRequest();
    }
});

ignoreFriendshipRequest - Ignores a friend request made from this user to the currentUser

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=ignore]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.ignoreFriendshipRequest();
    }
});

friends(limit, skip) - Get friends for the user. Returns a Mongo.Cursor which yields Friend instances

{{#each currentUser.friends}}
    <!-- instance of Friend not User -->
    <p>{{user.username}}</p>
{{/each}}

friendsAsUsers(limit, skip) - Get friends for user as the users they represent. Returns a Mongo.Cursor which yields User instances.

{{#each currentUser.friendsAsUsers}}
    <!-- User instances this time instead of Friend instances -->
    <p>{{username}}</p>
{{/each}}

unfriend - Sever the friendship connection between the user and the current user.

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=unfriend]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.unfriend();
    }
});

isFriendsWith(user) - Check if the current user has send a friendship request to the given user.

{{#if currentUser.isFriendsWith this}}
<p>You are friends with this user</p>
{{/if}}

block - block a user.

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=block]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.block();
    }
});

unblock - unblock a user.

Template.userProfile.events({
    'click [data-action=unblock]': function() {
        //assumes context is a instance of a user
        this.unblock();
    }
});

blocksUser(user) - Check if one user blocks another. Check include by _id by default. Other blocking checks can be registred using User.registerBlockingHook.

<!-- assuming data context is user instance -->
{{#if currentUser.blocksUser this}}
    <div class="btn danger" data-action="unblock">Unblock</div>
{{/if}}

blockedByUserIds(limit, skip) - Get array of userId's for users that currently block the user.

var ids = currentUser.blockedByUserIds();

//return only users that aren't blocking the currentUser
return Meteor.users.find({_id:{$nin:ids}});

blockedByUsers(limit, skip) - Get a cursor of users that currently block the user.

var blockedByUsers = currentUser.blockedByUsers()

blockedUserIds(limit, skip) - Get an array of userIds for users that are blocked by the the user.

var ids = currentUser.blockedUserIds();

//return only users that the current user isn't blocking
return Meteor.users.find({_id:{$nin:ids}});

blockedUsers(limit, skip) - Get a cursor of users that are blocked by the user

{{#each currentUser.blockedUsers}}
    <div class="btn danger" data-action="unblock">Unblock {{username}}</div>
{{/each}}

Static Properties

User.restrictRequestDays - The number of days to restrict a user from making another friend request to the same person.

User.restrictRequestDays = 365; //don't allow new requests for a year.

Static Methods

User.registerBlockingHook(hook) - Register a function that when returns true signifies that a user is blocked. Hook function is passed a User instance to check against and the context is the calling user instance.

//create a blocking rule that allows users to preemptively block others that may be a nuisance
User.registerBlockingHook(function(user){
    if(currentUser.blockAnnoyingUsers && user.flaggedCount > 10){
        return true;
    }
});

Publications

Previous verions of this package provided convenient publications for publishing related data. Over the life of the package though, I have come to realize that publications are too application specific and you should not be locked in to a specific join package for the publications to be pre packaged. Instead publication examples can be found on the github wiki page for this package.