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Authorization Code: Saving the Token & Handling Failures

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What if we want to make other API requests on behalf of Brent later? Where should we store the access token?

Saving the Access Token Somewhere

Some access tokens last an hour or two, and are well suited for storing in the session. Others are long-term tokens, for example facebook provides a 60-day token, and these make more sense to store in a database. Either way, storing the token will free us from having to ask the user to authorize again.

In our app, we're going to store it in the database:

// src/OAuth2Demo/Client/Controllers/CoopOAuthController.php

public function receiveAuthorizationCode(Application $app, Request $request)
{
    // ...
    $meData = json_decode($response->getBody(), true);

    $user = $this->getLoggedInUser();
    $user->coopAccessToken = $accessToken;
    $user->coopUserId = $meData['id'];
    $this->saveUser($user);

    // ...
}

This code is specific to my app, but the end result is that I've updated the coopAccessToken column on the user table for the currently-authenticated user. I'm also saving the coopUserId, which we'll need since most API calls have the user's ID in the URI.

Recording the Expires Time

We can also store the time when the token will expire. I'll create a DateTime object that represents the expiration time. We can check this later before trying to make API requests. If the token is expired, we'll need to send the user through the authorization process again:

public function receiveAuthorizationCode(Application $app, Request $request)
{
    // ...
    $expiresIn = $responseArr['expires_in'];
    $expiresAt = new \DateTime('+'.$expiresIn.' seconds');
    // ...

    $user = $this->getLoggedInUser();
    $user->coopAccessToken = $accessToken;
    $user->coopUserId = $meData['id'];
    $user->coopAccessExpiresAt = $expiresAt;
    $this->saveUser($user);

    // ...
}

Again, the code here is special to my app, but the end result is just to update a column in the database for the current user. When we try it, it runs and hits our die statement. But if you go to the homepage, the user drop-down shows us that the COOP user id was saved! Eggcellent...

When Authorization Fails

But what if the user declines to authorize our app? If this happens, an OAuth server will redirect the user back to our redirect_uri. If we start from the homepage again but deny access on COOP, we can see this. But this time, the page explodes because our request to /token is not returning an access token. In fact, COOP hasn't included a code query parameter in the URL on the redirect.

This is what a canceled authorization looks like: no authorization code.

Unfortunately, we can't just assume that the user authorized our application. As we've seen when this happens, the code query parameter will be missing, but the OAuth server should include a few extra query parameters explaining what went wrong. These are commonly called error and error_description. Let's grab these and pass them into a template I've already prepared:

public function receiveAuthorizationCode(Application $app, Request $request)
{
    // equivalent to $_GET['code']
    $code = $request->get('code');

    if (!$code) {
        $error = $request->get('error');
        $errorDescription = $request->get('error_description');

        return $this->render('failed_authorization.twig', array(
            'response' => array(
                'error' => $error,
                'error_description' => $errorDescription
            )
        ));
    }

    // ...
}

When we try the flow again, we see a nicer message. You can really do whatever you want in your application, just make sure you're handling the possibility that the user will decline your app's request.

These errors should be documented by the OAuth server, but the standard set includes "temporarily_unavailable", "server_error", and "access_denied".

When Fetching the Access Token Fails

There's one other spot where things can fail: when requesting out to /token. What if the response doesn't have an access_token field? Under normal circumstances, this really shouldn't happen, but let's render a different error template in case it does. Don't worry about the variables I'm passing into the template, I'm just trying to pass enough information so that we can see what the problem was:

public function receiveAuthorizationCode(Application $app, Request $request)
{
    // ...
    $request = $http->post('/token', null, array(
        // ...
    ));

    $response = $request->send();
    $responseBody = $response->getBody(true);
    $responseArr = json_decode($responseBody, true);

    // if there is no access_token, we have a problem!!!
    if (!isset($responseArr['access_token'])) {
        return $this->render('failed_token_request.twig', array(
            'response' => $responseArr ? $responseArr : $response
        ));
    }
    // ...
}

Try the whole cycle again, but approve the app this time. It works the first time of course. But if you refresh, you'll see this error in action. The code parameter exists, but it's expired. So, the request to /token fails.

Redirecting after Success

Until now, we've had an ugly die statement at the bottom of the code that handles the OAuth redirect. What you'll actually want to do here is redirect to some other page. Our work is done for now, so we want to help the user to continue on our site:

public function receiveAuthorizationCode(Application $app, Request $request)
{
    // ...

    // redirect back to the homepage
    return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('home'));
}

In our application, this code simply redirects us to the homepage. And just like that, we're done! This is the authorization grant type, which has 2 distinct steps to it:

  1. First, redirect the user to the OAuth server using its /authorize endpoint, your application's client_id, a redirect_uri and the scopes you want permission for. The URL and how the parameters look may be different on other OAuth servers, but the idea will be the same.

  2. After authorizing our app, the OAuth server redirects back to a URL on our site with a code query parameter. We can use this, along with our client_id and client_secret to make an API request to the /token endpoint. Now, we have an access token.

Let's finally use it to count some eggs!

Couting Eggs

On the homepage, we still have the "Authorize" button. But now that we have an access token for the user, we really don't need this anymore. The template that displays this page is at views/dashboard.twig, and I'm already passing a user variable here, which is the currently-authenticated user object. Let's hide the "Authorize" link if the user has a coopUserId stored in the database:

{# views/dashboard.twig #}
{# ... #}

{% if user.coopUserId %}

{% else %}
    <a class="btn btn-primary btn-lg" href="{{ path('coop_authorize_start') }}">Authorize</a>
{% endif %}

If we do have a coopUserId, let's add a link the user can click that will count their daily eggs. Don't worry if you're not familiar with the code here, we're just generating a URL to a new page that I've already setup:

{# views/dashboard.twig #}
{# ... #}

{% if user.coopUserId %}
    <a class="btn btn-primary btn-lg" href="{{ path('count_eggs') }}">Count Eggs</a>
{% else %}
    <a class="btn btn-primary btn-lg" href="{{ path('coop_authorize_start') }}">Authorize</a>
{% endif %}

When we refresh, we see the new link. Clicking it gives us another todo message. Open up src/OAuth2Demo/Client/Controllers/CountEggs.php, which is the code behind this new page.

Making the eggs-count API Request

Start by copying the /api/me code from CoopOAuthController, and changing the method from get() to post(), since the eggs-count endpoint requires POST:

// src/OAuth2Demo/Client/Controllers/CountEggs.php
// ...

class CountEggs extends BaseController
{
    // ...
    public function countEggs()
    {
        $http = new Client('http://coop.apps.knpuniversity.com', array(
            'request.options' => array(
                'exceptions' => false,
            )
        ));

        $request = $http->post('/api/me');
        $request->addHeader('Authorization', 'Bearer '.$accessToken);
        $response = $request->send();
        $meData = json_decode($response->getBody(), true);

        die('Implement this in CountEggs::countEggs');

        return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('home'));
    }
}

The endpoint we want to hit now is /api/USER_ID/eggs-count. Fortunately, we've already saved the COOP user id and access token for the currently logged-in user to the database. Get that data by using our app's $this->getLoggedInUser() method and update the URL:

public function countEggs()
{
    $user = $this->getLoggedInUser();

    $http = new Client('http://coop.apps.knpuniversity.com', array(
        'request.options' => array(
            'exceptions' => false,
        )
    ));

    $request = $http->post('/api/'.$user->coopUserId.'/eggs-count');
    $request->addHeader('Authorization', 'Bearer '.$user->coopAccessToken);
    // ...
}

I'll add in some debug code so we can see if this is working:

public function countEggs()
{
    // ...

    $request = $http->post('/api/'.$user->coopUserId.'/eggs-count');
    $request->addHeader('Authorization', 'Bearer '.$user->coopAccessToken);
    $response = $request->send();
    echo ($response->getBody(true));die;
    // ...
}

When we refresh, you should see a nice JSON response. Yea, we're counting eggs! That'll show Farmer Scott!

Since the purpose of TopCluck is to keep track of how many eggs each farmer has collected each day, let's save the new count to the database. Like before, I've already done all the hard work, so that we can focus on just the OAuth pieces. Just call setTodaysEggCountForUser() and pass it the current user and the egg count. While we're here, we can remove the die statement and redirect the user back to the homepage once we're done:

public function countEggs()
{
    // ...

    $response = $request->send();
    $countEggsData = json_decode($response->getBody(), true);

    $eggCount = $countEggsData['data'];
    $this->setTodaysEggCountForUser($this->getLoggedInUser(), $eggCount);

    return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('home'));
}

When we refresh, we should get redirected back to the homepage. But on the right, Farmer Brent's egg count isn't going up. Let's go to COOP and collect a few more eggs manually. Back on FCL, if we count our eggs again, we get the updated count. Sweet!

All the Things that can Go Wrong

The "Count Eggs" page we created works great, but we're not handling any of the things that might go wrong. First, we're hiding its link, but what if a user somehow ends up on the page without a coopUserId or coopAccessToken? Let's code for this case:

public function countEggs()
{
    $user = $this->getLoggedInUser();

    if (!$user->coopAccessToken || !$user->coopUserId) {
        throw new \Exception('Somehow you got here, but without a valid COOP access token! Re-authorize!');
    }

    // ...
}

I'm throwing an exception message, but we could also handle this differently, like by redirecting the user to the "Authorize" page to start the OAuth flow.

Another thing we can check for is whether or not the token has expired. This is possible because we stored the expiration data in the database. I've created an easy helper method to check for this. If this happens, let's redirect the user to re-authorize, just like if they had clicked the "Authorize" link:

public function countEggs()
{
    $user = $this->getLoggedInUser();

    if (!$user->coopAccessToken || !$user->coopUserId) {
        throw new \Exception('Somehow you got here, but without a valid COOP access token! Re-authorize!');
    }

    if ($user->hasCoopAccessTokenExpired()) {
        return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('coop_authorize_start'));
    }

    // ...
}

Finally, what if the API request itself fails? A simple way to handle this might look like this:

public function countEggs()
{
    // ...

    $request = $http->post('/api/'.$user->coopUserId.'/eggs-count');
    $request->addHeader('Authorization', 'Bearer '.$user->coopAccessToken);
    $response = $request->send();

    if ($response->isError()) {
        throw new \Exception($response->getBody(true));
    }

    // ...
}

Of course, you may want to do something more sophisticated. The response could also have some error information on it, which you can play around with. For OAuth, this is important because the call may have failed because the access_token expired. What, I thought we just checked for that? Well, in the real world, there's no guarantee that the token won't expire before its scheduled time. Plus, the user may have decided to revoke your token -- what a bully. Be aware, and handle accordingly. Once again, the OAuth Server should provide information on the error in the error and error_description query string parameters.

You're now dangerous, so lets move on to let our farmers actualy log into FCL via COOP.

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Default user avatar
Default user avatar Mike Ritter | posted 5 years ago

"eggsellent"

you guys!

1 Reply
weaverryan Avatar

Haha, you're cracking us up this morning... I feel like we're re-enjoying (or suffering) our own jokes for the first time :p

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