---
sidebar_position: 8
sidebar_label: Asking the apps of a user
---

# Asking the apps of a user

Your server asks every page and app a user has open, and waits for the answer: "Is this you signing in?" on the phone in their pocket, the cart a customer is filling right now, the draft open in another tab. And it takes a user out of everything at once, when they sign out, change their password or are blocked.

## Asking

Your server asks a question by a name of yours, here `approve`, with what the user needs to see. Every page and app of the user that answers `approve` shows it, and the first reply comes back to your server, or none once the time is up.

**Node**

```ts
// A sign in on a new computer, approved from an app the user already has open. Waits up to 30 seconds.
const [ answer ] = await realtime.user( 42 ).ask( 'approve', { device: 'Firefox on Windows', city: 'Lyon' }, { timeout: 30000 } );

// The first reply, or none: nothing open, or no answer in time.
if ( answer?.data.ok === true ) completeSignIn();
```

**PHP**

```php
// A sign in on a new computer, approved from an app the user already has open. Waits up to 30 seconds.
$replies = $realtime->user( 42 )->ask( 'approve', [ 'device' => 'Firefox on Windows', 'city' => 'Lyon' ], [ 'timeout' => 30000 ] );

// The first reply, or none: nothing open, or no answer in time.
if ( true === ( $replies[0]['data']['ok'] ?? null ) ) {
    complete_sign_in();
}
```

**Python**

```python
# A sign in on a new computer, approved from an app the user already has open. Waits up to 30 seconds.
replies = realtime.user(42).ask("approve", {"device": "Firefox on Windows", "city": "Lyon"}, timeout=30000)

# The first reply, or none: nothing open, or no answer in time.
if replies and replies[0]["data"].get("ok") is True:
    complete_sign_in()
```

**WordPress**

```php
// A sign in on a new computer, approved from an app the user already has open. Waits up to 30 seconds.
$replies = wordplus_realtime()->for_user( 42 )->ask( 'approve', array( 'device' => 'Firefox on Windows', 'city' => 'Lyon' ), array( 'timeout' => 30000 ) );

// The first reply, or none: nothing open, or no answer in time.
if ( ! is_wp_error( $replies ) && true === ( $replies[0]['data']['ok'] ?? null ) ) {
	my_complete_sign_in();
}
```

The page or app that answers:

```js
rt.answer( 'approve', async ( { device, city } ) => ( { ok: await confirmDialog( `Sign in on ${ device } near ${ city }?` ) } ) );
```

- **The first reply** answers by default. With `all: true` your server gets every reply within the `timeout`, from 1 to 60 seconds, 10 by default: the carts of every tab, say.
- **No page answering** is an empty list: the user has nothing open, or no page answers that event.
- **Sealed both ways** with the key of the user: WordPlus Cloud carries a question and an answer it cannot read.
- **iOS and Android apps answer too:** `rt.answer("approve") { data, _ in … }` ([iOS](../ios/sending.md#asking-the-app), [Android](../android/sending.md#asking-the-app)).

## Signing out everywhere

**Node**

```ts
await realtime.user( 42 ).disconnect();
```

**PHP**

```php
$realtime->user( 42 )->disconnect();
```

**Python**

```python
realtime.user(42).disconnect()
```

**WordPress**

```php
wordplus_realtime()->for_user( 42 )->disconnect();
```

The user is taken out of every room, call, group call and live stream at once, and the tokens signed for them before are refused. Each page hears `signed_out`, then asks your routes again a second later, so your rules decide whether they come back: a user who signed out, or was blocked, does not.

```js
rt.on( 'signed_out', () => showSignIn() );
```

## Is the user here

```ts
await realtime.user( 42 ).get();   // { id, online, at?, connections }
```

Before asking, your server may check that the user is online, and send an email in place of a question when they are not.

## Variations

- **Continue on your phone:** the computer shows a code, your server asks the app of the user for it, and hands the session over when it matches.
- **What a support agent sees:** with the consent of the customer, your server asks their page for the page they are on and the cart they hold.
- **Sign out the other sessions:** after a password change, end them in your app, then `disconnect()`. The page with a session still valid comes back at once, and the others do not.