Deprecated messages related to privileges?

[mathiascode]

It seems like a few server messages related to privileges are no longer in use. When I purchased privileges and attempted a few transfers, I never saw the following messages, even with the official client:

• AddToPrivileged (code 91)
• UserPrivileged (code 122)
• NotifyPrivileges (code 124)
• AckNotifyPrivileges (code 125)

It would appear that most of these messages are redundant, either replaced with private messages both when receiving and gifting privileges, or the PrivilegedUsers (code 69) and GetUserStatus (code 7) messages for registering the change. The privileged boolean was apparently added to the GetUserStatus message in 2006: https://github.com/Nicotine-Plus/nicotine-plus/blob/master/NEWS.md#version-125-september-17th-2006

The documentation for NotifyPrivileges and AckNotifyPrivileges seems to be quite inconsistent and incorrect in some cases, and Nicotine+ previously sent a NotifyPrivileges message to the server, while the official client didn't.

Looking at the message list in the Soulfind server software, there's a comment next to code 69 about the server switching to a new system, but ultimately it seems like this user list is still the preferred method, as it's sent each time you log into the server. https://github.com/seeschloss/soulfind/blob/master/src/message_codes.d#L75

@jpdillingham Is this something you've previously looked into?

[jpdillingham]

Yep, a lot of this has been deprecated. I coded it all up based on the museek documentation the Nicotine+ source, then bought privileges to test and found out that not much of it actually works.

You can check your own privileges with code 92, someone else with 122, and gift privileges with code 123. The behavior of the grant operation is a pretty big departure from the rest of the API (all of this functionality is, really); my notes are here.

It still seems odd to me that the server doesn't bother sending a message to notify everyone when new privileges are granted, yet retains the initial PrivilegedUsers list upon login, but I just tested it by gifting a few days to a couple clients and nothing is sent to the recipient or anyone else.

[mathiascode]

It still seems odd to me that the server doesn't bother sending a message to notify everyone when new privileges are granted, yet retains the initial PrivilegedUsers list upon login.

It's strange indeed. I can see why AddToPrivileged was deprecated, as it doesn't provide a way of notifying clients of expired privileges. I'm assuming 122, 124 and 125 were mostly failed experiments that were eventually embedded into the AddUser watch system.

[mathiascode]

The AddUser reponse contains no boolean flag for privileges, but there seems to be a special case where a GetUserStatus message is sent in addition to the AddUser response if the user is privileged.

Edit: seems like this actually isn't the case. I'll have to rethink this.

[mathiascode]

I ended up sending a GetUserStatus message in addition to AddUser when watching a user. This way, I can be informed of the user's privilege status even if their privileges were granted after the initial PrivilegedUsers list was received, The server should automatically send GetUserStatus updates in the future.

SoulseekQt also seems to send a AddUser/GetUserStatus combo when watching users.

[mathiascode]

Nicotine+ previously sent a NotifyPrivileges message to the server, while the official client didn't.

Turns out Nicotine+ followed the behavior of Soulseek NS in this case.