REST API to get user profile information for multiple users?

Question

I've been following this MSDN documentation on using REST api to retrieve user profile and social data for either the current user or an specific user. We are running 2013 on prem so for example I might call this:

https://<site>/_api/sp.userprofiles.peoplemanager/getfollowersfor(@v)?@v='<domain\user>'&$select=DisplayName

If I want to get the followers for two different users is there a way to do that with one call or do I need to make a call for each person?

I'm trying to do an in-browser, client side visualization of following/followers and will need to retrieve information about several people.

Is there a way to retrieve multiple user's information at once using REST calls?

Should I think about using JSOM or something else instead?

Answer 1

If you use the REST API getFollowersFor (your example above), you will need to make a HTTP GET request once per user ID. To be specific, the getFollowersFor API call only accepts one user account as a parameter.

SharePoint online has REST API batching, which allows you to construct multiple HTTP requests into one request. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/library/office/dn903506.aspx

CSOM/JSOM will allow you to make multiple requests from a single web service call. This will probably be the best solution, depending on your requirements. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/18580.sharepoint-2013-how-to-get-following-and-followers-of-user-by-using-jsom-or-javascript.aspx