draft: feat: add an endpoint to create users

[viadanna]

Description

This PR adds an /api/user/v1/create endpoint that allows the creation of new user accounts.

Testing instructions

Please provide detailed step-by-step instructions for testing this change.

Deadline

None

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[deborahgu]

Thanks for the PR, @viadanna! I see that in the name of this PR you call it "draft" but you didn't mark it as a draft PR in github, so forgive me if I'm asking questions where the answer is just "this is still a draft PR, why are you asking me questions about it?" 😅

Assuming that you did actually mean to make it a real PR, could you link more to the context for why this was created? If anything, there's an ongoing goal to simplify user API and get rid of the replicated endpoints.

• What in this endpoint is different from /user/v1/account/registration/ and /user/v2/account/registration/?
• Is it different enough that it's appropriate to make a completely different endpoint, instead of a different way of calling those endpoints?
• If it is different enough that it's appropriate to make a completely different endpoint, is there a logic to the different verb used on the URL? Is there anything to make it intuitive which endpoint does what?
• I see that there are a fair number of serializers; do they all need to be unique and original?
• Was there a product review process I can read about?

Thank you! (I apologize if this wasn't actually ready for review, yet.)

[viadanna]

Hello @deborahgu

What in this endpoint is different from /user/v1/account/registration/ and /user/v2/account/registration/?
Is it different enough that it's appropriate to make a completely different endpoint, instead of a different way of calling those endpoints?
If it is different enough that it's appropriate to make a completely different endpoint, is there a logic to the different verb used on the URL? Is there anything to make it intuitive which endpoint does what?

The reasoning for this endpoint is to add users to the platform that will log on via SSO, so they don't have a password and have a related UID for Social Auth. It's a very specific use case that didn't fit the already existing endpoints. One alternative is reworking the solution to make it possible to do so with the existing endpoints, but I'm unsure that will lead to a simpler solution.

I see that there are a fair number of serializers; do they all need to be unique and original?
For the current endpoint implementation, yes.
Was there a product review process I can read about?

No product proposal was written for this api do you want me to write one?

Thanks for the quick answer!

[AhtishamShahid]

Hi, although I don't fully understand this use case, it seems like a very niche use case. You can always create a plugin to handle these cases.

A simpler version of this could work.
https://github.com/cookiecutter-openedx/openedx-plugin-example/tree/main/openedx_plugin_api

[xitij2000]

I too feel this should be part of an existing endpoint. Perhaps as part of AccountViewSet. I also feel it's doing too much, particularly in creating UserSocialAuth entries.

I think these need to be two separate APIs. One to create the user (which could be part of the existing API or an extension of the registration API) and the other for the UserSocialAuth linkingg.

[xitij2000]

Suggested change

	data = dict(request.data.items())
	data = request.data.copy()

[xitij2000]

I don't think these should be True by default.

[xitij2000]

I'm not sure this logic belongs here. The API should only accept a full name and the caller can combine them as needed.

[viadanna]

@xitij2000 In that case, I'll reengineer the solution. cc @deborahgu

@AhtishamShahid This is currently sitting in a plugin we decided to upstream.