---
title: OnlineMessagesApiService
summary: API reference for OnlineMessagesApiService.
status: draft
owner: SAIF Doc Gen
last_reviewed: 2026-09-24
library: SAIF.Services
reference_type: package
---

# OnlineMessagesApiService

Implements `IOnlineMessagesApiService`, selecting and localizing the online banner messages and tutorial messages a given user type/priority/application/language combination is permitted to see. It depends on `IUnitOfWork` for reading online messages, priority, user-type, and application reference data, and `IUserProfileService` for resolving the current user's active-directory status, employee status, and security-group authorization; on construction it eagerly loads all currently active (start-to-termination window) messages into memory.

## Purpose
- Determines whether the current user is active in the directory, is a SAIF employee, or otherwise has access to a message based on its target user type and priority.
- Validates and normalizes user-type, priority, and application filter inputs against reference code tables.
- Filters the pre-loaded active message set by user-type permission, priority, and application, then maps it to a localized (English/Spanish) `OnlineMessageList`.
- Returns the tutorial-priority subset of messages for a user/language/application combination.

## Context
- Namespace: `SAIF.Services.OnlineMessages`
- Assembly/package: `SAIF.Services` (packaged inside the `SAIF.SAIFCode.Core` NuGet package)

## Public members
| Member | Signature | Purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| OnlineMessagesApiService(...) | `public OnlineMessagesApiService(IUnitOfWork uow, IUserProfileService profile)` | Validates both collaborators are non-null via `Enforce.ArgumentNotNull`, wires them in, and eagerly loads all messages whose active window (`StartDate` to `TerminationDate`) currently includes now. |
| UserIsInActiveDirectory | `public bool UserIsInActiveDirectory()` | Returns whether the current user's profile reports them as active in the directory. |
| UserIsEmployee | `public bool UserIsEmployee()` | Returns whether the current user resolves to a known SAIF employee record with a non-blank user ID. |
| UserHasAccessToMessage | `public bool UserHasAccessToMessage(string userType, string priority)` | Normalizes `userType`/`priority`, then returns `true` for urgent "all"-type messages shown to non-directory users, for employees, for "all"-type messages, and for users whose security group matches the message's required group; returns `false` for non-employees restricted to SAIF-employee-only messages or messages with no configured security group. |
| GetMessagePriorities | `public string[] GetMessagePriorities(string priority)` | Resolves a priority name (treating `"tutorial"` as `"low"`) to its matching priority code(s); returns all of Urgent/High/Medium for an unrecognized or "all" priority, or the single matched code otherwise. |
| ValidateUserType | `public bool ValidateUserType(string userType)` | Returns whether the given user-type description exists in the `OnlineUserType` reference table. |
| ValidateApplicationCode | `public bool ValidateApplicationCode(string application)` | Returns `true` immediately for the literal `"none"`; otherwise returns whether the trimmed, uppercased application string matches a known `ApplicationCode`. |
| GetApplicationNames | `public string[] GetApplicationNames(string application)` | Returns an empty array when `application` is blank or `"none"`; otherwise returns a two-element array of the lower-cased application name plus the literal `"all"`. |
| GetMessagesForUser | `public OnlineMessageList GetMessagesForUser(string userType, string priority, string language, string application)` | Normalizes inputs, filters the pre-loaded active messages to those the resolved user type is permitted to see at a matching priority (and, if specified, application), orders them by start date descending, and returns them as a localized `OnlineMessageList`. |
| GetTutorialList | `public OnlineMessageList GetTutorialList(string userType, string language, string application)` | Same filtering and localization pipeline as `GetMessagesForUser`, but forces the priority to the tutorial/low priority code. |

## Behavioral notes
- The active message set is loaded once in the constructor and reused for every subsequent call on the instance, so messages that change activation window after construction are not reflected until a new service instance is created*.
- `UserHasAccessToMessage`/`GetMessagesForUser`/`GetTutorialList` all mutate the instance fields `userCode`, `priorityLookup`, and `applicationName` as a side effect of calling the private `ValidateInputParms` helper, making the service not safely reusable across concurrent calls on the same instance*.
- Message localization to Spanish falls back to the English text/title whenever the Spanish field is blank, ensuring a message is never rendered empty due to missing translation.

> **Note:** Statements marked with * were inferred from code structure, naming conventions, or
> contextual evidence where direct confirmation was not available in source artifacts. Statements
> marked with ** could not be confirmed; treat as unknown until verified.

## Sources
- Services/SAIF.Services/OnlineMessages/OnlineMessagesApiService.cs