Impersonate

Test your app as another user. Search your own users and pick one. Buoy then adds a header to each web call. Your server decides what the header does.

Set up

Add this call beside UseBuoy in your app setup. Builder calls must come before builder.Build(). They use using Buoy.Maui;. Keep Buoy code in Debug guards.

builder.UseBuoyImpersonate(options =>
{
    options.SearchUsers = async (query, cancel) =>
    {
        var users = await adminApi.FindUsersAsync(query, cancel);
        return users
            .Select(u => new BuoyImpersonateUser(u.Id, u.Name, u.Email))
            .ToList();
    };
    // Optional: clear your caches when the user changes.
    options.ClearData = settings => cache.ClearAsync();
});

builder.UseBuoyImpersonate(options =>
{
    options.SearchUsers = async (query, cancel) =>
    {
        var users = await adminApi.FindUsersAsync(query, cancel);
        return users
            .Select(u => new BuoyImpersonateUser(u.Id, u.Name, u.Email))
            .ToList();
    };
    // Optional: clear your caches when the user changes.
    options.ClearData = settings => cache.ClearAsync();
});

BuoyImpersonateUser is in Buoy.Core.Impersonate. adminApi and cache stand for your own code. Without SearchUsers, the Search tab says search is off.

Which calls get the header

The header goes on calls from IHttpClientFactory. That covers typed clients and Refit clients too. It also goes on calls from CreateNetworkClient. Do you make an HttpClient by hand? Wrap its handler with BuoyImpersonate.CreateHandler().

var client = new HttpClient(BuoyImpersonate.CreateHandler());

var client = new HttpClient(BuoyImpersonate.CreateHandler());

The header is x-impersonate-user-id unless you change it. Its value is the user's id. Dev server calls, such as port 8081, never get it.

How it works

Pick a user from Search or History. A banner shows at the top of the screen. Tap the power button to pause the header. Tap the X to stop.

The header only goes out while you are signed in to Buoy. Your pick is saved, so it comes back after a restart.

The Settings tab changes the header name and the banner. It also has four clear switches. Buoy passes all four to your ClearData code. MAUI has no React Query or Redux, so you choose what each switch clears.

Read it in your app

BuoyImpersonate.CurrentUser is the user calls go out as. It is null when you are not impersonating, or when paused. BuoyImpersonate.Subscribe runs your code when that changes.

See all MAUI tools.