Identifying users

ar2rsawseen · February 2012

Hello all,
Is there a way to uniquely identify application user or mobile phone using Gideros?

Restrictions:
It should be crossplatform (Android and IOS)
It should identify same phone/user from different applications on same device

Here are couple possible solutions:
Getting mobile IMEI or SIM card number
Getting some unique app ID (which is unique for every installation)
Allowing user to provide username
Authenticating user through third parity service (facebook, etc)

The one I have an idea how to implement, would be a facebook auth, but want to hear your thoughts? Any other ideas, suggestions?

My goal is to link user's application data (scores, progress, etc) with website's account.

ar2rsawseen · February 2012

For example it would be great, if application:getDeviceInfo would return unique identification of phone.

For IOS: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7363840/using-a-unique-identifier-of-iphone-or-ios-device

For Android: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2785485/is-there-a-unique-android-device-id

MikeHart · February 2012

I am not sure which ones removes it soon, but I heard that either on Android or IOS will not report the UID anymore in the future.

MikeHart · February 2012

Damn I can't find that news on the net anymore. So forget what I said.

ar2rsawseen · February 2012

Well, that was just one example.
It would also be great, if there would be one file that could be accessed from different apps, so you could generate and store identification for all application uses.

Or there could be a unique identification for each app install (meaning, that same app installed on different devices, would have different unique ID's), so player could enter those ID's on website and thus link his account with apps.

I'm just looking for best solution, cause something like this would be great for saving highscores, etc. globally on central server.

atilim · February 2012

@MikeHart Yes, apple is planning to remove the capability of getting the UDID of the device.

@ar2rsawseen Let me add this feature.

ar2rsawseen · February 2012

@atilim did you mean UDID that soon will be removed?

ar2rsawseen · February 2012

... MikeHart style

P.S supporting suggestion to add an option to delete your comment

atilim · February 2012

)

MikeHart · February 2012

So I was right after all. :P

gorkem · February 2012

@ar2rsawseen this feature will not be implemented as we need some laugh hehe :P

ar2rsawseen · February 2012

=((

MikeHart · February 2012

I will leave the playground now for yourself. Have fun :-@

gorkem · February 2012

@mikehart sorry, I wasn't having fun but just kidding. Of course if it's a meaningful request from users, we have to implement it (and I'm on it, really). Thanks for heads up.

Scouser · March 2012

@ar2rsawseen, would the phone's Wi-Fi MAC Address not be suitable? I'm sure this would be fairly simple to acquire on any device.

ar2rsawseen · March 2012

That would be a great alternative. But it's up to atilim to decide, which ID is better.

atilim · March 2012

btw, many people on twitter are talking about rejecting and removing the apps that use UDID:

https://twitter.com/#!/TheKevinDent/status/182613810652254210

ar2rsawseen · March 2012

Well then scratch that. It's not worth to waste your time, if it still might me canceled.

There is another way, but you won't like it.
Create a centralized system, where each app insallation contacts Gideros server to generate each own Gideros Unique Identification (Guid) .

But seriously, I don't know, is Mac address usefull? Is there any other way or crossplatform third parity service? That Opeinfeit or something seemed to be ok.

atilim · March 2012

Two good methods are described here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9457731/how-can-we-future-proof-against-ios-6s-upcoming-udid-uuid-removal-if-were-usin

I think both are easy and acceptable.

ar2rsawseen · March 2012

And how about crossplatform? Including future platforms as windows and Mac?

atilim · March 2012

There are a couple of good ways for Windows and Mac that doesn't use MAC addresses:
- For windows you can get the GUID from the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\MachineGuid)
- For Mac there is IOPlatformUUID.

Afaik, both values changes when you install a new OS but this isn't a big problem I think.

Radiesel · November 2012

Just found this thread - anything happened here?

I am just thinking about In-App-Purchase. What if a user buys items (lets say a pack of 10) and used 9. He reinstalls system/App and request "restore purchases". He again has 10 items. To avoid that, I would use a 3rd-oarty service like parse.com and automatically create a user based on that Crossplatfporm-Unique-ID (

). If he reinstalls game, a request using the same ID would be made, so after restoring purchases, I would check how many items have been used, by getting the information from parse.com.

So do we have something like UUID for iOS and Android or is there a better way to handle this?

thanks and best regards
Michael

gorkem · November 2012

Michael, getting UDID and IMSI is not allowed on iOS (these are private functions). You cannot get IMSI on Windows Phone 8 either (these are only open to some partners/operators). You can get IMSI on Android, but all this info tells me that it's much better to generate a unique ID for your application which is not bound to a particular device, which boils down to OpenUDID. It has been ported to iOS and Android and I think it'd be straightforward to make a port for Lua.

I think you don't have to stick with it. Generating a lengthy hash would do the trick I believe.

Javi · November 2012

Simply ask for user's email as ID.

Radiesel · November 2012

@Javi, but that's the point. I don't want to bother the user with any kind of email/user/passwort input stuff.

@gorkem, thanks for your answer, clarifies a lot. Will think about it.

Thank you!
Michael

Javi · November 2012

@Javi, but that's the point. I don't want to bother the user with any kind of email/user/passwort input stuff.

OK, then you can make a function to create a "unique" ID, for example something like this:

function createID()
  local lang                = application:getLanguage()
  local device              = application:getDeviceInfo()
  local accel_present       = Accelerometer.isAvailable()
  local gyroscope_present   = Gyroscope.isAvailable()
  local geolocation_present = Geolocation.isAvailable()
  local screen_density      = application:getScreenDensity()
  if screen_density == nil then
    screen_density = 0
  end
  local id = string.format("%08x%03x%04x%04x%03x%x%x%x%x%x%x%x", 
                           os.time(), 
                           application:getFps(), 
                           application:getDeviceWidth(), 
                           application:getDeviceHeight(),
                           screen_density,
                           string.byte(lang, 1), 
                           string.byte(lang, 2),
                           string.byte(device, 1), 
                           string.byte(device, 2),
                           accel_present and 1 or 0,
                           gyroscope_present and 1 or 0,
                           geolocation_present and 1 or 0)
 
  return(id)
end

And in init.lua:

id = 0
local file = io.open("|D|id.txt", "r")
if file then
  id = file:read()
  file:close()
else
  id   = createID()
  file = io.open("|D|id.txt", "w+")
  file:write(id)
  file:close()
end

Radiesel · November 2012

@Javi,

thanks for your sample. But that's probably not working for me. What I want to get is something unique which is bind to a user not to a device. And the most important thing - remains the same after reinstalling system Updates for instance. I want to automatically login a users to a cloud service who made some in-app purchases. The cloud service keeps track of the number of items already used. So lets say the user updates his device, reinstalls game and restores purchases, then I would like to know how many items he already has used. That information is lost as long as I don't use my cloud service.

Probably too much work and not worth the effort. Thanks anyway!!!

Michael

Radiesel · November 2012

would "|D|id.txt" remain after a system update?

Javi · November 2012

What I want to get is something unique which is bind to a user not to a device.

Then back to my first post; it's possible to identify a device but it's not possible to identify a user automatically. The best and simplest way is to ask for his email.

OZApps · November 2012

@Radiesel, on point from the users perspective rather than from the developer's to consider would be that the user would be more interested in saving their progress and achievements. They will be happy to provide an ID or a name, because if a couple of us play on a common device, how can we know who scored what? We would have a name or an email id or a nickname, something. If the device was exclusive, then the device would be tagged, no other person would be playing on my phone, so it has to be presumably me.

As a developer you can only do so much, let the user work a bit to ensure their identity and save their score/achievements, etc.

Radiesel · November 2012

@OZApps, make sense... thank you!

Michael

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