Retrieving the Customer Attributes by Customer Id ?

We are storing some customer metadata (as CutomerAttributes).

I've been digging in and was looking to see where I can access those properties when I have _workContext.CurrentCustomer - the services calls seem to be for pulling all the attributes, whereas I'm just wanting the attributes for the current customer.

I see the 'CustomerAttributeService'  and methods such as 'GetCustomerAttributeById' but these are the attribute id's not the CustomerId correct ?

I would want to be able to say 'get me this attribute value by id and by the current customer'

Thanks

Customer attribute is not depends on  customer id, once you create a customer attribute it is applied to all customer. So it does not make any sense 'Customer Attributes by Customer Id '

Not sure why you say this.

ie. I created a customer attribute (via admin panel) - that form and value show up on the register.   So it is storing it 'per customer'  - so it makes sense to want to be able to get those values.

It's stored as a string, and I can get it via this:

var selectedCustomerAttributes = _workContext.CurrentCustomer.GetAttribute<string>(SystemCustomerAttributeNames.CustomCustomerAttributes, _genericAttributeService);
                var customerAttributes = _customerAttributeParser.ParseCustomerAttributes(selectedCustomerAttributes);
                var customerValues = _customerAttributeParser.ParseCustomerAttributeValues(selectedCustomerAttributes);

however, I'm not sure about the best way to do this.

So, I presume are looking for attribute values for specific customer, like you have a attribute 'Favorite color', for customer  1 it's Red, for customer 2 it's Green.

You are looking for a method like GetCustomerAttributeValue(customerId, attributeId), it's not that straight forward. You can research on the CustomerController -> PrepareCustomerInfoModel ->  #region Custom customer attributes

Hints
1. First get all attributes for a specific customer

  string selectedCustomerAttributes = _workContext.CurrentCustomer.GetAttribute<string>(SystemCustomerAttributeNames.CustomCustomerAttributes, _genericAttributeService);

2. Parse the attributes

 var enteredText = _customerAttributeParser.ParseCustomerAttributeValues(selectedCustomerAttributes);

3. For textbox

 return enteredText[0]

You can handle other controls too

that code does not work properly.

have a try at it - go create a textbox property ie. favorite dog name and then a list property, etc... you'll find it fails to capture all the key and values (which is what it should be returning imo) for the customer

This isn't code complete, but here is a start:

public virtual IDictionary<string, object> ParseCustomerCustomAttribute(string attributes)
        {
            var caValues = new Dictionary<string, object>();
            var caCollection = ParseCustomerAttributes(attributes);
            foreach (var ca in caCollection)
            {
                var caValuesStr = ParseValues(attributes, ca.Id);

                if ((ca.AttributeControlType == AttributeControlType.TextBox ||
                    ca.AttributeControlType == AttributeControlType.MultilineTextbox ||
                    ca.AttributeControlType == AttributeControlType.Datepicker ||
                    ca.AttributeControlType == AttributeControlType.FileUpload) && caValuesStr.Any())
                {                    
                    caValues.Add(ca.Name, caValuesStr.First());
                }
                else
                {
                    var multipleValues = new List<CustomerAttributeValue>();
                    foreach (string caValueStr in caValuesStr)
                    {
                        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(caValueStr))
                        {
                            var caValueId = 0;
                            if (int.TryParse(caValueStr, out caValueId))
                            {
                                var caValue = _customerAttributeService.GetCustomerAttributeValueById(caValueId);
                                if (caValue != null)
                                {
                                    multipleValues.Add(caValue);
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    if (multipleValues.Any())
                    {
                        caValues.Add(ca.Name, multipleValues);
                    }
                }
            }
            return caValues;
        }

For what it's worth, this is the helper class that Shipping Director uses support its Custom Customer Attribute Extensions:
    GetAttributeValues(this Customer customer, string attributeName, string valueSeparator)
    GetAttributeValues(this Customer customer, string attributeName)
    HasAttributeValue(this Customer customer, string attributeName, string valueName)
    HasAttributeValue(this Customer customer, string attributeName)
    HasAttributeValue(this Customer customer, int valueId)


-It's in an Extension class, so it uses Resolve<ICustomerAttributeService> rather than the DI'd service.

-Internally, it uses a helper class (rather than Dictionary like yours), so that it also has the Value Id.  (Because value text might be localized, or store owner might change the text - the attribute Id never changes.)

        // helper class
        private class AttributeValuePair
        {
            public string AttributeName { get; set; }
            public int ValueId { get; set; }
            public string ValueText { get; set; }
        }

-I decided to do my own XDocument.Parse  ( I forget why, but I think because the core Parse did not look optimal for my purpose)

        private static IList<AttributeValuePair> GetSelectedAttributes(Customer customer)
        {
            if (customer == null)
                return null;

            string selectedCustomerAttributes = customer.GetAttribute<string>(SystemCustomerAttributeNames.CustomCustomerAttributes);

            var attributeValueList = new List<AttributeValuePair>();

            if (String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(selectedCustomerAttributes))
                return attributeValueList;

            var _customerAttributeService = Nop.Core.Infrastructure.EngineContext.Current.Resolve<Nop.Services.Customers.ICustomerAttributeService>();
            var customerAttributes = _customerAttributeService.GetAllCustomerAttributes();

            XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(selectedCustomerAttributes);

            var selectedAttributes = doc.Root.Descendants("CustomerAttribute");
            foreach (var selectedAttribute in selectedAttributes)
            {
                int selectedId = int.Parse(selectedAttribute.Attributes("ID").First().Value);
                foreach (var value in selectedAttribute.Descendants("CustomerAttributeValue").Elements("Value"))
                {
                    var customerAttribute = customerAttributes.Single(pva => pva.Id == selectedId);
                    switch (customerAttribute.AttributeControlType)
                    {
                        case AttributeControlType.DropdownList:
                        case AttributeControlType.RadioList:
                        case AttributeControlType.Checkboxes:
                            var productVariantAttributeValue = customerAttribute.CustomerAttributeValues.Single(pvav => pvav.Id == int.Parse(value.Value));
                            var attributeValue = new AttributeValuePair()
                            {
                                AttributeName = customerAttribute.Name,
                                ValueId = productVariantAttributeValue.Id,
                                ValueText = productVariantAttributeValue.Name
                            };
                            attributeValueList.Add(attributeValue);
                            break;
                        default:
                            attributeValue = new AttributeValuePair()
                            {
                                AttributeName = customerAttribute.Name,
                                ValueId = 0,
                                ValueText = value.Value
                            };
                            attributeValueList.Add(attributeValue);
                            break;
                    }
                }
            }

            return attributeValueList;
        }

looks good - I'll give it a shot - thanks!