Check if user profile exist programmatically

Question

I am trying to get user profile image from user profile. Here is my code sample:

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
                {
                    using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.Url))
                    {
                        SPServiceContext ctx = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);
                        UserProfileManager upm = new UserProfileManager(ctx); // Here I get error
                        if (upm.UserExists(loginUserName))
                        {
                            UserProfile up = upm.GetUserProfile(loginUserName);

                            if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Convert.ToString(up["PictureUrl"].Value)))
                            {
                                this.userimage = Convert.ToString(up["PictureUrl"].Value);
                            }                            
                        }
                    }
                });

But I get below error if user profile doesn't exist at userProfileManager declaration in above code:

An exception of type 'Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileApplicationNotAvailableException' occurred in Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.dll but was not handled in user code

Additional information: UserProfileApplicationNotAvailableException_Logging :: UserProfileApplicationProxy.GetRawPartitionID has null proxy

Is there any other way through which I can check if user profile exist programmatically? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Your code is fine.

I would not attempt to circumvent the problem as it may be telling you that there is in fact something wrong with your setup.

There are many reports (I've experienced this myself) where the User Profile Service is throwing exceptions and needs to be brought back to full health.

e.g.

Go to Central Admin -> Manage Web Applications. Find the Web App hosting your MySites and click on it. Go to Service Connections and validate your UPA Proxy is selected here.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4428552/user-profile-application-proxy-failed-to-retrieve-partitions-from-user-profile-a

or

This issue happens mostly on the Farm installation. Everyone will say to recreate the UPS, restart the server and then it should work fine. But if you have used the Custom properties and created a managed property in Search then its very difficult to recreate it and then to create it again. The better solution so far i have researched is the following

1. Stop the User Profile Synchronization service

2. Stop the User Profile Service

3. Start the User Profile Service

4. Start the User Profile Synchronization service.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4428552/user-profile-application-proxy-failed-to-retrieve-partitions-from-user-profile-a

Answer 2

You could use try catch. If it always crashes.

Not the cleanest way of handling it but this should do it. But I would call this a quickfix.

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
    using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.Url))
    {
        SPServiceContext ctx = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);
        try
        {
             UserProfileManager upm = new UserProfileManager(ctx); // Here I get error
             if (upm.UserExists(loginUserName))
             {
                  UserProfile up = upm.GetUserProfile(loginUserName);
                  if(!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Convert.ToString(up["PictureUrl"].Value)))
                  {
                     this.userimage = Convert.ToString(up["PictureUrl"].Value);
                  }
             }
         }
         catch (Exception)
         {
            //Handle the problem here..
         }
     }
});