How to update a user's xDB contact in a web service call?

Question

We have a Sitecore 8.1 Update-3 instance. We have created custom xDB facets. We have a modal pop-up screen that a user can use to update their custom information. This pop-up screen uses web service calls to pass the information back to the server to be saved.

I can't figure out how to properly save the xDB data in the web service. I believe under normal conditions (like in code behind) if the current user is logged in then my code should update Tracker.Current.Contact with the information. That way all of the contact info will be saved to xDB when the user's session ends. But since this code is running in a web service it doesn't have any access to Tracker.Current.Contact.

I could save it directly to xDB using custom code. But that won't work because I believe that when the person's session ends then the system will write their Tracker.Current.Contact to xDB and it will overwrite the previously saved information.

So how would I save this info to the person's contact record properly from a web service?

Answer 1

Since you are sure that the contact is currently in a session, you should not read or write anything directly to and from the Collection Database.

You should use the ContactManager like this:

ContactManager contactManager = Factory.CreateObject("tracking/contactManager", true) as ContactManager;

LockAttemptResult<Contact> lockAttemptResult = contactManager.TryLoadContact(contactId);

// the lock attempt will always be successful, no need to check the status

Contact contact = lockAttemptResult.Object;

// ... update the facets

contactManager.SaveAndReleaseContact(contact);

The method SaveAndReleaseContact will release the contact back to the Shared Session. It will be saved to the Collection Database at the end of the session.

Note that when you call contactManager.TryLoadContact(...), the method can only return an unsuccessful lock attempt when the contact is not in the Shared Session and it's being locked in the Collection DB. This is not the case here. Since the contact is already in the Shared Session, it will be successfully returned. If it's currently locked in the Shared Session by another thread, your current thread will just wait until it's released, and you'll be able to work with the contact.

Answer 2

I would recommend using a normal MVC controller (Not API controller). The MVC controller will see the user as the normal user via the tracker cookie in their browser. Then just set their details.

[HttpPost]
public JsonResult SetUserContact(UserInfo userInfo)
{
    IContactPersonalInfo personalFacet = Tracker.Current.Contact.GetFacet<IContactPersonalInfo>("Personal");
    personalFacet.FirstName = UserInfo.FirstName;
    personalFacet.Surname = UserInfo.LastName;

    IContactEmailAddresses addressesFacet = Tracker.Current.Contact.GetFacet<IContactEmailAddresses>("Emails");
    IEmailAddress address;
    if (!addressesFacet.Entries.Contains("work_email"))
    {
        address = addressesFacet.Entries.Create("work_email");
        address.SmtpAddress = UserInfo.Email;
        addressesFacet.Preferred = "work_email";
    }    
}

Answer 3

You can use ContactManager for that, something like this:

var contactManager = Factory.CreateObject("tracking/contactManager", true) as ContactManager;

var lockAttemptResult = contactManager.TryLoadContact(contact.ContactId);

   if(lockAttemptResult.Status == LockAttemptStatus.Success)
   {
          var lockedContact = lockAttemptResult.Object;

          // edit contact

          manager.FlushContactToXdb(contact);
          manager.SaveAndReleaseContactToXdb(contact);
    }

but with such approach you will have to solve contact locking and session update. It is better to use regular controller and edit session contact.