OAuth2 3-legged Workflow

The Bazaarvoice Privacy API provides a secure HTTP interface for integrating Bazaarvoice into your privacy regulations compliance workflow. To learn more, go to the Privacy API home page.

This tutorial explains how to use OAuth2 with the Bazaarvoice Privacy API using a three-legged workflow, which requires a Bazaarvoice Portal user to supply credentials during the process. If you need to automate your application without a user supplying credentials, refer to the 2-legged OAuth2 workflow topic.

Introduction

Bazaarvoice has implemented 3-legged OAuth2, an open standard for access delegation. This style of OAuth is referred to as “3-legged” because it consists of three roles:

• The Client Application
  This is an application that would like to access data or interact with a Bazaarvoice service on behalf of a user.
• The OAuth2 API
  A Bazaarvoice service that implements the OAuth2 standard and intermediates between the User and Client Application.
• The User
  This is the person who is using the Client Application. They can grant or deny the Client Application access to their data.

3-legged OAuth2 offers certain advantages including:

• The User’s credentials are never exposed to the Client Application.
• The Client Application can be used by an arbitrary number of users.
• As a well-known open standard, OAuth2 is easier to implement than a custom solution.

Continue reading to learn how to use OAuth2 to access the supported Bazaarvoice APIs.

OAuth2 components

The following table summarizes several components that will be used when implementing OAuth2.

Component	Description
Authorization Code	A code that, when combined with the Client Secret, allows the Client Application to request an Access Token. This value is provided by the OAuth2 API. An Authorization Code may only be used once and has a lifespan of 60 seconds.
Access Token	A token that, when combined with the Client Secret, allows the Client Application to access data or interact with a Bazaarvoice service on behalf of a user. The Access Token is provided by the OAuth2 API and has a lifespan of 60 minutes.
Refresh Token	A token that, when combined with the Client Secret, can be used to request a new Access Token. Refresh tokens have unlimited lifetime as long as they are used at least every 7 days.
Client Secret	A value used to verify the identity of the Client Application. This value will be provided by Bazaarvoice when the Client Application is registered. ⚠ The value should not be exposed to the public.
Client ID	A value used to identify the Client Application. This value will be provided by Bazaarvoice when the Client Application is registered.
Redirect URI	This is a URL that identifies a resource implemented by the Client Application. The Authorization Service will send the User back to this location after the User logs into Bazaarvoice. ⚠ This value must be provided to Bazaarvoice when the Client Application is registered. The Authentication Service will not redirect to unknown locations.

API fundamentals

Security

All requests to the OAuth2 API must use HTTPS.

https://api.bazaarvoice.com/auth/...

Environments

The OAuth2 API supports the following environments:

Staging
Domain	stg.api.bazaarvoice.com
Description	Used while developing your application. This environment will not access real end-user information.
Production
Domain	api.bazaarvoice.com
Description	Used when your application is complete. This environment will access real end-user information.

API passkeys

Each request to the OAuth2 API must be accompanied with a staging or production passkey corresponding to the environment used.

Staging	https://stg.api.bazaarvoice.com/…/auth?passkey={STAGING_PASSKEY}
Production	https://api.bazaarvoice.com/…/auth?passkey={PRODUCTION_PASSKEY}

The OAuth2 API will always be used in a conjunction with the Privacy API, so as a convenience the passkeys for each will be the same. In other words, your Privacy API staging passkey will also work as your OAuth2 API staging passkey and your production Privacy API passkey will also work as your OAuth production API key.

Walkthrough

The following sections describe the recommended method for implementing authentication for your application. The API calls you make to the OAuth2 API count towards your passkey's rate limit and quota, so correct implementation is highly recommended.

The Bazaarvoice OAuth2 integration can be divided into the following three actions:

• Authorization
  • Description: The Client Application initiates a process in which the User can grant or deny access to the Client Application by logging in to the Bazaarvoice Portal through their browser. If access is granted, the Client Application will receive an Authorization Code from Bazaarvoice.
  • When to perform: When you don’t have a valid Access Token or valid Refresh Token.
• Token exchange
  • Description: Client Application submits the Authorization Code to Bazaarvoice. If it is valid, Bazaarvoice will return an Access Token that the Client Application can use when making requests to a Bazaarvoice Service on behalf of the User.
  • When to perform: When you don’t have a valid Access Token or valid Refresh Token, but do have a valid Authorization Code
• Token refresh
  • Description: When an Access Token is expired, or nearing expiration, a Client Application can request a new Access Token by submitting the Refresh Token to the OAuth2 API.
  • When to perform: When you have a valid Refresh Token and the Access Token is expired or will expire very soon.

Each action is described in more detail below.

Authorization

Step 1: Request login page

To begin the authorization process, the Client Application should make a request to the OAuth2 API as depicted below. If you are testing this step during development, you can perform this step in a browser to automatically be redirected to the login page in the next step without having to extract the redirect location.

Request

GET https://[stg.]api.bazaarvoice.com/auth/v1/oauth2/auth?client_id={CLIENT_ID}&redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}&passkey={PASSKEY}

Assuming the client_id, passkey and redirect_uri are valid, the API will respond with a 303 redirect with a Location header that passes along query strings from API request.

Response

HTTP/1.1 303 See Other
Connection    keep-alive
Content-Length    0
Location    https://portal.bazaarvoice.com/oauth2?client_id={CLIENT_ID}&redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}&client_name={CLIENT_DISPLAY_NAME}
...

Ellipsis (…) indicate that some headers have been omitted.

https://portal.bazaarvoice.com/oauth2 is not a part of the public facing Bazaarvoice OAuth2 API. Client Applications should not make requests to it directly.

Step 2: Access page

Next, the application must redirect the User’s browser to the URL identified in the Location header of the previous response:

Request

GET https://portal.bazaarvoice.com/oauth2?client_id={CLIENT_ID}&redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}&client_name={CLIENT_DISPLAY_NAME}

https://portal.bazaarvoice.com/oauth2 is not a part of the public facing Bazaarvoice OAuth2 API. Client Applications should not make requests to it directly.

Response

The user will see the Bazaarvoice Portal access screen in their browser.

The User will be presented with the option to grant the Client Application access on behalf of the User.

Step 3: Back to the Client Application

If the User grants access to the Client Application by logging in, then the Bazaarvoice Portal will redirect the user's browser to the URL identified in the redirect_uri parameter, sending the User back to the Client Application along with an Authorization Code.

Request

GET {REDIRECT_URI}?code={AUTHORIZATION_CODE}

Response

The User will be redirected to your application's redirect URI. The Client Application should extract the Authorization Code from the URL to request an Access Token within 60 seconds, as described in the next step, or the Authorization Code will expire. If Token exchange is successful, then the Client Application should respond with the appropriate application state. If Token exchange is unsuccessful, then consider loading an error page that invites the User to re-attempt giving access.

Next

Now that the Client Application has a valid Authorization Code it can perform the Token exchange.

Token exchange

Step 1: Requesting an Access Token with an Authorization Code

The Client Application should perform a token exchange when it receives a request to the Redirect URI that includes the code parameter.

The token exchange is accomplished by submitting the Authorization Code, along with several other values, to the OAuth2 API, as depicted below:

Request

POST https://[stg.]api.bazaarvoice.com/auth/v1/oauth2/token?passkey={API_PASSKEY}
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
…

code={AUTHORIZATION_CODE}&grant_type=authorization_code&client_id={CLIENT_ID}&redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}&client_secret={CLIENT_SECRET}

Ellipsis (…) in the example above indicate your application may generate other headers.

If successful, the OAuth2 API will respond with the following Access Token data:

Response

{
  "access_token": "{ACCESS_TOKEN}",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_at": {TIME_STAMP},
  "scope": "offline_access",
  "refresh_token": "{REFRESH_TOKEN}"
}

The Access Token can now be used to authenticate requests to other Bazaarvoice services.

Step 2: Persist the token data

The relationship between the token response object and the corresponding User should be persisted in the User’s browser session, for example with a cookie, so that it can be used for subsequent requests for the same user.

The Client Application should also store the entire token response object. Exactly how this is accomplished is up to the Client Application developer.

Next

Now the Client Application can use the Access Token to make secure requests to Bazaarvoice on behalf of the User. Before each request, verify that the Access Token is still valid and will not expire in the near future. If the Access Token is expired or will expire soon, then perform the Token refresh described below to get a new Access Token.

Token refresh

Step 1: Requesting an Access Token with a Refresh Token

To request a new Access Token, the Client Application should submit a Refresh Token to the OAuth2 API. If the Refresh Token is valid, then the OAuth2 API will respond with new Access Token data.

The following request demonstrates how to request new Access Token data:

Request

POST https://[stg.]api.bazaarvoice.com/auth/v1/oauth2/token?passkey={API_PASSKEY}
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
…

refresh_token={REFRESH_TOKEN}&grant_type=refresh_token&client_id={CLIENT_ID}&redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}&client_secret={CLIENT_SECRET}

Ellipsis (…) in the example above indicate your application may generate other headers.

Response

If successful, the OAuth2 API will respond with the following token response object:

Response

{
  "access_token": "{ACCESS_TOKEN}",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_at": {TIME_STAMP},
  "scope": "offline_access",
  "refresh_token": "{REFRESH_TOKEN}"
}

The Access Token can now be used to authenticate requests with the Bazaarvoice Privacy API.

Step 2: Persist the token data

The relationship between the token response object and the corresponding User should be persisted in the User’s browser session, for example with a cookie, so that it can be used for subsequent requests for the same user.

The Client Application should also store the entire token response object. Exactly how this is accomplished is up to the Client Application developer.

Next

Now the Client Application can use the Access Token to make secure requests to Bazaarvoice on behalf of the User. Before each request, verify that the Access Token is still valid and will not expire in the near future. If the Access Token is expired or will expire soon, then perform the Token refresh described above to get a new Access Token.

Resources

Refer to these resources for more information on OAuth2:

1. OAuth2 3-legged specification
2. OAuth.net
3. OAuth Bible on GitHub