How to get current user's username with Meteor

Question

So far I've been looking all over the interwebs and the Meteor docs but nothing has been working for me.

I am creating an account with

Accounts.createUser({
    username: username,
    email: email,
    password: password
});

And I know that is working since {{#if currentUser}} is working.

However, I am trying to get the current logged-in user's username with something such as

var username = Meteor.userId();
console.log(username);

var username = Meteor.userId().username;
console.log(username);

But neither is working, when I use Meteor.userId() I just get a random(I'm guessing encrypted) string of numbers and letters, and when I use Meteor.userId().username it says it's undefined.

All help is welcome and sorry for my possibly terrible grammar, It's very late here!

Answer 1

Meteor.userId() returns the _id of the user from the Mongo.users collection. That's why it looks like a meaningless string.

You want Meteor.user(). The docs are your best friend :)

Answer 2

Try with {{currentUser.username}}

Answer 3

I am doing it like this:

1. Include an accounts package: meteor add accounts-password
2. import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor'
3. console.log('Username: ' + Meteor.user().username);

User needs to be logged in, else Meteor.user() returns null.

Edit: Also keep in mind Meteor.user() will not be available until the users collection is sinced to the client.