title: How can I retrieve a user using a query string from drupal using REST?
body: <h2>What I'd like</h2>
  
  <p>I want to be able to reset a users password without emailing them. I also need to do this via REST (it's for a kiosk system).</p>
  
  <p>So I need to:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Get user with a specific username</li>
  <li>Reset the password of that user</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Try as I might, I can't get the user with a username.</p>
  
  <h2>The problem</h2>
  
  <p>After I've logged in using the admin user via REST I do:</p>
  
  <p><code>GET on <a href="http://mydomain.com/rest/user?name=user" rel="nofollow">http://mydomain.com/rest/user?name=user</a></code>. </p>
  
  <p>According to REST documentation, this should get the user with name <code>user</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I get a 200 response, but <strong>nothing is returned in the body</strong>.</p>
  
  <h2>What I've Tried</h2>
  
  <p><strong>Get node from ID</strong></p>
  
  <p>Once I've logged in as admin, I can do:</p>
  
  <p>GET on <a href="http://mydomain.com/rest/user/1" rel="nofollow">http://mydomain.com/rest/user/1</a></p>
  
  <p>This works, returning the details of user 1 in the response. But I need to search for a user by username.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Different GETs</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>GET on http://mydomain.com/rest/user/admin
  GET on http://mydomain.com/rest/user/account/name/admin
  GET on http://mydomain.com/rest/user?account[name]=admin
  GET on http://mydomain.com/rest/user?uid=1
  GET on http://mydomain.com/rest/user/retrieve?uid=1
  GET on http://mydomain.com/rest/user?account[uid]=1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>All these fail.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Nodes instead of users</strong></p>
  
  <p>GET on <code>http://mydomain.com/rest/node/1</code> works, but <code>http://mydomain.com/rest/node?nid=1</code> gives me a 200 response with nothing in the body.</p>
  
  <p><strong>List of all users</strong></p>
  
  <p><code>GET on <a href="http://mydomain.com/rest/user/" rel="nofollow">http://mydomain.com/rest/user/</a></code> doesn't show a list of all users either. I get a 200 with empty body again.</p>
  
  <h2>Further Details</h2>
  
  <ul>
  <li>I'm working with a Drupal 6.22 install. </li>
  <li>I've installed the services module (3.0 RC1) and REST Server (2.0 beta 1). </li>
  <li>I've got the session authentication module installed. </li>
  <li>I've tried the above with the session authentication switched on and with it off.</li>
  <li>I've enabled all node resources and user resources for the REST endpoint I've set up.</li>
  <li>I've tried the above with and without clean URLs and nothing seems to make a difference.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <h2>Question</h2>
  
  <p>How do I get a user with a specific username? What am I doing wrong?</p>
  
  <h2>Update</h2>
  
  <p>I've uninstalled then reinstalled Services module, I've done the same with the REST server. I've also rolled back my version of CTools to the latest recommended one. I've added a brand new service in case it was corrupted. Nothing I do works. Frustrating!</p>
  
  <h2>Update 2</h2>
  
  <p>I've found the problem, but would like a more permanent solution. It turns out it was an error because of table naming. See my current accepted answer.</p>