Fallback to site DB on searches by username

[mbaruh]

We sometimes need to query user data such as the user or infractions embed, when all we have is the username.

Since the site DB stores user ID's and usernames, and already has an endpoint to retrieve stored data based on username, we can use that in case the user is not in the guild and we try to query by their username. That way we can get the user's ID and query based on it as usual.

This can be implemented by improving the FetchedUser converter to handle cases where the given arguement doesn't represent an integer.

[MarkKoz]

@mbaruh The fetch API call already provides a User object with a name attribute filled in. Did you mean "nickname" rather than "username"?

[MarkKoz]

Also, can you provide an example of a situation in which you are only able to identify someone by their user/nickname? If it's coming from bot output, then appending the ID to those outputs or using mentions can be considered.

[Akarys42]

Also, can you provide an example of a situation in which you are only able to identify someone by their user/nickname? If it's coming from bot output, then appending the ID to those outputs or using mentions can be considered.

Most of the time it is in a ModMail thread, where a user would report a user who left in the meantime for instance.

[mbaruh]

@MarkKoz the UserConverter relies on the cache, which is usually not enough. Whenever we try look someone up by name#discrim when they've left the guild we get an error.

[MarkKoz]

@MarkKoz the UserConverter relies on the cache, which is usually not enough. Whenever we try look someone up by name#discrim when they've left the guild we get an error.

It doesn't anymore; see #1742

[mbaruh]

I see. If after merging it's resolved I'll close the issue then.

[TizzySaurus]

@MarkKoz the UserConverter relies on the cache, which is usually not enough. Whenever we try look someone up by name#discrim when they've left the guild we get an error.

From my understanding this will still be the case. The UserConverter only doesn't rely on cache when the user id is passed. If you want name#discrim support for non-cached users who aren't in the server then the UserConverter won't provide this (again, if I'm correctly understanding & remembering everything).