Why is the SocialUser field widget not showing any data?

Environment:

Customer Portal 3.3.1

Issue:

SocialUser Business Object Field Widgets are not returning any data when placed on the end user pages.

Resolution:

The SocialUser object is defined in the Oracle Connect for PHP API. SocialUser fields can be added to end user pages as follows:

<rn:field name="SocialUser.Field" />

A list of the availale objects and their corresponding fields can be found at:
https://<your-site>.custhelp.com/ci/admin/docs/framework/businessObjects

In order for the SocialUser field widgets to return data, the "user" parameter needs to be passed in the page URL. An example of a page where the "user" parameter is automatically included in the URL is the Public Profile page (default URL https://<your-site>.custhelp.com/app/public_profile/user/<id-here>)

Including a SocialUser field widget on the above page would return data. Including the "user" parameter in the URLs of other pages would ensure that the SocialUser fields are returned by the widgets. Alternatively, the "user" parameter can be set using a Connect PHP query.

Cause:

Even if the end user is logged in to the end user pages, the Contact is not automatically linked to the SocialUser. This is why the SocialUser information is not being pulled if the SocialUser is not identified by the appropriate ID.