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User Account API Basics

You can add and manage users from the Control Panel, but you can also use Liferay’s REST APIs. You can call these services to add, edit, delete users.

Start with adding a new user.

Adding Users

Start a new Liferay instance by running

docker run -it -m 8g -p 8080:8080 liferay/portal:7.4.3.120-ga120

Sign in to Liferay at http://localhost:8080. Use the email address test@liferay.com and the password test. When prompted, change the password to learn.

Then, follow these steps:

Download and unzip User Account API Basics.

curl https://resources.learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/users-and-permissions/developer-guide/liferay-y6q4.zip -O

unzip liferay-y6q4.zip

Use the cURL script to add a new User to your Liferay instance. On the command line, navigate to the curl folder. Execute the User_POST_ToInstance.sh script.

./User_POST_ToInstance.sh

The JSON response shows a new user has been added:

{
  "additionalName": "",
  "alternateName": "able",
  "birthDate": "1977-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "customFields": [],
  "dashboardURL": "",
  "dateCreated": "2021-05-19T16:04:46Z",
  "dateModified": "2021-05-19T16:04:46Z",
  "emailAddress": "able@liferay.com",
  "familyName": "Foo",
  "givenName": "Able",
  "id": 39321,
  "jobTitle": "",
  "keywords": [],
  "name": "Able Foo",
  "organizationBriefs": [],
  "profileURL": "",
  "roleBriefs": [
    {
      "id": 20113,
      "name": "User"
    }
  ],
  "siteBriefs": [
    {
      "id": 20127,
      "name": "Global"
    },
    {
      "id": 20125,
      "name": "Guest"
    }
  ],
  "userAccountContactInformation": {
    "emailAddresses": [],
    "facebook": "",
    "jabber": "",
    "postalAddresses": [],
    "skype": "",
    "sms": "",
    "telephones": [],
    "twitter": "",
    "webUrls": []
  }
}%

Open the Global Menu () and navigate to Control Panel → Users and Organizations. Verify the addition of a new user. Note the user’s id number for later commands.

Verify the addition of a new user.

The REST service can also be called with a Java class. Navigate out of the curl folder and into the java folder. Compile the source files with the following command:
```
javac -classpath .:* *.java
```
Run the User_POST_ToInstance class with the following command:
```
java -classpath .:* User_POST_ToInstance
```
Open the Global Menu () and navigate to Control Panel → Users and Organizations. Verify the addition of a new user.

Read on to see how the cURL command and Java class work.

Arguments	Description
`-H "Content-Type: application/json"`	Indicates that the request body format is JSON.
`-X POST`	The HTTP method to invoke at the specified endpoint
`"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-accounts"`	The REST service endpoint
`-d "{\"alternateName\": \"Able\", \"emailAddress\": \"able@liferay.com\", \"familyName\": \"Foo\", \"givenName\": \"Able\"}"`	The data you are requesting to post
`-u "test@liferay.com:learn"`	Basic authentication credentials

Basic authentication is used here for demonstration purposes. For production, you should authorize users via OAuth2. See Using OAuth2 to Authorize Users for a sample React application that uses OAuth2.

The other cURL commands use similar JSON arguments.

Examine the Java Class

The User_POST_ToInstance.java class adds a user by calling the user related service.

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserAccountResource.Builder builder = UserAccountResource.builder();

	UserAccountResource userAccountResource = builder.authentication(
		"test@liferay.com", "learn"
	).build();

	UserAccount userAccount = userAccountResource.postUserAccount(
		new UserAccount() {
			{
				alternateName = "Baker";
				emailAddress = "baker@liferay.com";
				familyName = "Foo";
				givenName = "Baker";
			}
		});

	System.out.println(userAccount);
}

The class calls the REST service with only three lines of code:

Line (abbreviated)	Description
`UserAccountResource.Builder builder = ...`	Gets a `Builder` for generating a `UserAccountResource` service instance.
`UserAccountResource userAccountResource = builder.authentication(...).build()`	Specifies basic authentication and generates a `UserAccountResources` service instance.
`UserAccount userAccount = userAccountResource.postUserAccount(...)`	Calls the `userAccountResource.postUserAccount` method and passes the data to post.

Note that the project includes the com.liferay.headless.admin.user.client.jar file as a dependency. You can find client JAR dependency information for all REST applications in the API explorer in your installation at /o/api.

Note

The main method’s comment demonstrates running the class.

The other example Java classes are similar to this one but call different UserAccountResource methods.

Important

See UserAccountResource for service details.

Below are examples of calling the other user REST services using cURL and Java.

Get Instance Users

Get a list of all users with the following cURL and Java commands.

Users_GET_FromInstance.sh

Command:

./Users_GET_FromInstance.sh

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-accounts" \
	--user "test@liferay.com:learn"

Users_GET_FromInstance.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* Users_GET_FromInstance

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserAccountResource.Builder builder = UserAccountResource.builder();

	UserAccountResource userAccountResource = builder.authentication(
		"test@liferay.com", "learn"
	).build();

	Page<UserAccount> page = userAccountResource.getUserAccountsPage(
		null, null, Pagination.of(1, 2), null);

	System.out.println(page);
}

All the users from your instance appear in the JSON response.

Filtering, Paginating, Searching, and Sorting Orders

Users returned by this API can be filtered, paginated, searched, and sorted. See the getUserAccountsPage method for more information. Use the following UserAccount fields to filter, search, and sort the results:

keywords
roleNames
userGroupRoleNames
birthDate
dateCreated
dateModified
lastLoginDate Deprecated in Liferay DXP 2024.Q4/GA129
organizationIds
roleIds
userGroupIds
status Liferay DXP 2024.Q3+/Portal 7.4 GA125+
alternateName
screenName
emailAddress
familyName
givenName
jobTitle
name
customFields Liferay DXP 2024.Q4+/Portal 7.4 GA129+

Filter Query	Description
`status eq 0`	The user account status must be `Active`.
`status eq 5`	The user account status must be `Inactive`.
`roleIds in ('20100', 20104')`	The user account must have the role of an Administrator (`20100`) or a Power User (`20104`).
`jobTitle eq 'Parts Consultant'`	The user account job title must be Parts Consultant.
`customFields/githubProfileUrl eq 'www.github.com/able.foo'`	The user account has a custom field called `githubProfileUrl` with the value `www.github.com/able.foo`.

Sort Query	Description
`dateCreated:desc`	Sort by `dateCreated` in descending order.
`dateCreated:desc,lastLoginDate:desc`	Sort by `dateCreated` in descending order first, then by `lastLoginDate` in descending order.

Read API Query Parameters for more information.

Get a User

Get a specific user with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your user’s ID.

User_GET_ById.sh

Command:

./User_GET_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-accounts/${1}" \
	--user "test@liferay.com:learn"

User_GET_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DuserId=1234 User_GET_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserAccountResource.Builder builder = UserAccountResource.builder();

	UserAccountResource userAccountResource = builder.authentication(
		"test@liferay.com", "learn"
	).build();

	System.out.println(
		userAccountResource.getUserAccount(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userId"))));
}

The user is returned in the JSON response.

Patch a User

Do a partial edit of an existing user with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your user’s ID.

User_PATCH_ById.sh

Command:

./User_PATCH_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-accounts/${1}" \
	--data-raw '
		{
			"familyName": "Bar"
		}' \
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--request "PATCH" \
	--user "test@liferay.com:learn"

User_PATCH_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DuserId=1234 User_PATCH_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserAccountResource.Builder builder = UserAccountResource.builder();

	UserAccountResource userAccountResource = builder.authentication(
		"test@liferay.com", "learn"
	).build();

	UserAccount userAccount = userAccountResource.patchUserAccount(
		Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userId")),
		new UserAccount() {
			{
				familyName = "Bar";
			}
		});

	System.out.println(userAccount);
}

In the example, Able and Baker’s last names have changed from Foo to Bar.

Put a User

Do a complete overwrite of an existing user with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your user’s ID.

User_PUT_ById.sh

Command:

./User_PUT_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-accounts/${1}" \
	--data-raw '
		{
			"alternateName": "Able",
			"emailAddress": "able@liferay.com",
			"familyName": "Goo",
			"givenName": "Able"
		}' \
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--request "PUT" \
	--user "test@liferay.com:learn"

User_PUT_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DuserId=1234 User_PUT_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserAccountResource.Builder builder = UserAccountResource.builder();

	UserAccountResource userAccountResource = builder.authentication(
		"test@liferay.com", "learn"
	).build();

	UserAccount userAccount = userAccountResource.putUserAccount(
		Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userId")),
		new UserAccount() {
			{
				alternateName = "Baker";
				emailAddress = "baker@liferay.com";
				familyName = "Goo";
				givenName = "Baker";
			}
		});

	System.out.println(userAccount);
}

This replaces the previous data with Able Goo and Baker Goo in the example.

The previous user data has been replaced with the Patch service.

Tip

Use User_PATCH_ById.[java|sh] or User_PUT_ById.[java|sh] to activate or deactivate a user by changing the status field to Active or Inactive. To change the status of a user with a workflow active, you must use the headless-admin-workflow API instead. Find usage details in the API Explorer.

Delete a User

Delete an existing user with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your user’s ID.

User_DELETE_ById.sh

Command:

./User_DELETE_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-accounts/${1}" \
	--request "DELETE" \
	--user "test@liferay.com:learn"

User_DELETE_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DuserId=1234 User_DELETE_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserAccountResource.Builder builder = UserAccountResource.builder();

	UserAccountResource userAccountResource = builder.authentication(
		"test@liferay.com", "learn"
	).build();

	userAccountResource.deleteUserAccount(
		Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userId")));
}

This deletes both users Able Goo and Baker Goo.

Check out the API Explorer to see the list of all User related REST services.

Note

Get user postal addresses with PostalAddresses_GET_FromUser

Capability: