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I am building an app that connects to a server at the back end that supports multiple users.Similar in this respect to Facebook etc. On the web version, users log in and then their userid allows them to access all their content. As with any website, you can log out as one user and log on as another.

For the app, is it customary or best practice to allow only one user for an installed app? In other words if someone has signed up once for an app, is it best practice to only allow that one userid and password to sign on and not let someone else come along and log in as a different user? Or is it customary to allow multiple people to log in and out as with website.

If just one user is allowed, I only have to support one profile on the app and one set of data locally so this would obviously be easier but just want to conform to normal practice.

Thank you

rmaddy
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user1904273
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    Depends on the app. Typically, users aren't expected to share a paid app, and the paradigm thus far is one user per device. Regardless, agile methodology says, start with one. – Marcus Adams Aug 11 '15 at 14:47
  • You should not impose restriction on number of people using an app, user can sell device or even if its family tablet then multiple users can access that device.... – Adnan Aftab Aug 11 '15 at 14:50
  • @C_X, paradigm is still generally one user per device, with "family sharing" between devices, not between users on same device. – Marcus Adams Aug 11 '15 at 14:51
  • Like u can login into facebook app with more than one account... Better load data for a current user and remove it when user is logging out or on new user login – Adnan Aftab Aug 11 '15 at 14:52
  • Getting into this further, it looks like it won't be that much harder to support logging in as different user. However, it will require syncing a lot of data. So starting with one makes sense and leave clearing out persistent store (as this uses core data) and resyncing with server for down the road. – user1904273 Aug 13 '15 at 03:10

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In general, if you are able to log in you should be able to log out as well. This is true for apps and web. It is a little more complex but not too much.

Log out can be put in a settings section and when that is clicked you destroy all of the local caches, take them back to the log in screen, and it essentially becomes a freshly installed app.

Jeremiah
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  • logging out is trivial. You can leave login information in NSUserdefaults for subsequent login with same credentials. However, clearing out persistent store and and resyncing with server as new users is not. I am marking this as correct answer since you took trouble to answer question. I think I will leave log ging in as different user for down the road. – user1904273 Aug 13 '15 at 03:13