# Retrieves a specific user preference for the currently logged-in user

`GET /api/users/preference/{preferenceId}`

- **Success:** `200 OK`
- **Products:** Operator (`FOH`)
- **Features:** Front of House Generic Access (`FOHGENERIC`)

HTML version: [Retrieves a specific user preference for the currently logged-in user](https://support.gladstonesoftware.cloud/reference/users/retrieves-a-specific-user-preference-for-the-currently-logged-in-user)

## Overview

Reads back one named preference value for the staff (back-office) user your access token belongs to, exactly as [Creates or updates a user preference for the currently logged-in user](creates-or-updates-a-user-preference-for-the-currently-logged-in-user.md) stored it. The response body is the raw stored string, JSON-encoded — a bare `"…"`, not an object wrapping it.

**You cannot read another user's preferences with this endpoint.** The user is taken from your access token, not from anything in the request.

`{preferenceId}` is the **name of a preference type** registered for the tenant, matched case-insensitively — not an opaque identifier from a previous response. An unregistered name fails with `400`, and that is different from a registered name the user has never set, which succeeds with `200` and a body of `null`. Distinguish the two: `400` means fix your name, `null` means fall back to your own default.

The route requires the `CentreManagement.CentreManagement.Access` permission on your token in addition to the scopes above.

## Endpoint

`GET {base_url}/api/users/preference/{preferenceId}`

`{base_url}` is the environment URL issued to your integration. See [Authenticating with Gladstone APIs](../../guides/authenticating-with-gladstone-apis.md).

## Path parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|------|------|----------|-------------|
| `preferenceId` | string | Yes | The name of the preference type to read, matched case-insensitively against the preference types registered for the tenant — `PreferredSiteId`, for example. A name that is not registered fails with `400` and `PreferenceId "{preferenceId}" is missing or invalid`, even if you have never stored a value under it. An empty segment fails with `400` and `preferenceId must be specified`. |

## Sample request

```bash title="cURL"
curl -X GET '{base_url}/api/users/preference/{preferenceId}' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {accessToken}' \
  -H 'X-Use-SSO: true'
```

## Sample response

```json title="200 OK"
"string"
```

## Errors

| Status | Meaning | When |
|--------|---------|------|
| `400` | Bad request | `{preferenceId}` names no registered preference type for the tenant: `PreferenceId "{preferenceId}" is missing or invalid`. Note that a value stored moments earlier can still fail this way if the type was removed from the tenant's configuration in between. |
| `400` | Bad request | The path segment is empty: `preferenceId must be specified`. |
| `400` | Bad request | Your access token carries no signed-in user: `No username in headers`. Machine-to-machine tokens with no user behind them hit this. |
| `404` | Not found | The signed-in user from your token has no user account in the tenant: `User "{username}" could not be found`. A registered preference with no value saved for the user does **not** return `404` — it returns `200` with a body of `null`. |
| `500` | Internal server error | Any other unexpected server-side failure while reading the preference. Returned with no body. |