Determine if Player Exists

[Tbdsamman]

Is there a way to determine if a player (by their name) exists on the server?

The only way I've found so far is with AddFriend(name) but it isn't a very good solution.

[Exawatt]

Originally Posted by Tbdsamman Is there a way to determine if a player (by their name) exists on the server? The only way I've found so far is with AddFriend(name) but it isn't a very good solution.

This has been discussed before. Short of a /who request, the only other way is trying to directly access that character is via tell, SendAddonMessage() or AddFriend() (as you suggested).

[/who and SendAddonMessage] only work if when player is online. /who only works if they're part of your faction.

I use the /who method myself.

[Shirik]

AddFriend() should work regardless of whether the player is online or not.

For such a requirement, that really is your best solution, hacky as it is.

[Seerah]

Correct. When you try to add someone as a friend who is not online, it works just peachy. If that person is of the opposing faction, you get a message stating that you cannot add that person as a friend. If the character name does not exist, you get a message saying so.

[Tbdsamman]

SendAddonMessage seems to be the best option because it won't blow up in your face if the player has the maximum number of friends.

What would be the best way of capturing the output when it fails? It's been a while since I played around with writing addons and I know you could intercept chat messages.
How can you make sure you only capture the response from the proper chat window?
And is there a way to make it synchronous? Being able to call PlayerExists("Tbdsamman") would be really sweet.

[Tbdsamman]

Originally Posted by Tbdsamman SendAddonMessage seems to be the best option because it won't blow up in your face if the player has the maximum number of friends. What would be the best way of capturing the output when it fails? It's been a while since I played around with writing addons and I know you could intercept chat messages. How can you make sure you only capture the response from the proper chat window? And is there a way to make it synchronous? Being able to call PlayerExists("Tbdsamman") would be really sweet.

Actually, I'll have to use AddFriend since SendAddonMessage doesn't work if they are offline (just tested and then reread what someone said earlier, I feel a little dumb now).