I'd like to identify users beyond their username. Is there any way to identify users with a token/code/ID# that is static and will never change?
Simply because usernames are flexible and can be changed at any time meaning I cannot keep track users.
Dani you can track users by their user id, which stays static even if they change their username.
In Instagram's API example they use this endpoint: https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/{user-id}/?access_token=ACCESS-TOKEN
which gives the following response:
{
"data": {
"id": "1574083",
"username": "snoopdogg",
"full_name": "Snoop Dogg",
"profile_picture": "http://distillery.s3.amazonaws.com/profiles/profile_1574083_75sq_1295469061.jpg",
"bio": "This is my bio",
"website": "http://snoopdogg.com",
"counts": {
"media": 1320,
"follows": 420,
"followed_by": 3410
}
}
Depending on what data or which endpoints you are hitting beforehand, you should be able to get to the user ID and use that accordingly throughout your application.