1 Welcome
This is FlowWright’s oAuth guide. This guide describes how to configure and use FlowWright’s oAuth.
1.0 What is oAuth?
oAuth is an open standard for access delegation, commonly used for Internet users to grant websites or applications access to information without giving passwords.
1.1 How does oAuth work?
The diagram below illustrates the oAuth process:
- A client application authenticates with the FlowWright REST API using a username and password.
- If authentication is successful, FlowWright issues a token and a refresh token.
- Using the token, calls can be made to the FlowWright REST API.
- FlowWright’s REST API will validate the token, process the API call, and return a result.
2 oAuth Tokens
2.1 How to Get a Token
The first step is to authenticate and receive a token from the REST API. Throughout this documentation, we will be using POSTMAN to demonstrate this. You may use another familiar tool if you wish. If you don’t have POSTMAN, you can download it for free using the following link: https://www.postman.com/
Let’s get started! To receive a token, you must perform a POST with user authentication information.
As shown in the diagram above, an HTTP POST request is sent to the REST API URL:
http://localhost/cDevWorkflowRESTAPI/api/token
Within the body of the request, 3 form elements are passed with their respective values:
- username – FlowWright username
- password – FlowWright user password
- grant_type – password
The form body should be sent as “x-www-form-urlencoded,” and then, after the request is sent, the REST API will authenticate against FlowWright security. If authentication is not successful for some reason, you will see a response such as that shown (below):
If the authentication is successful, then you will see a request with the information shown (below):
The response sent back is in JSON format, and it contains the following information:
- access_token – a token for making REST API calls
- token_type – bearer type token
- expires_in – expiration in seconds
- refresh_token – refresh token for requesting tokens in the future
- refreshTokenExpire – expiration date/time of refresh token in UTC
- .issued – issued date/time of token in UTC
- .expires – expiration date/time of token in UTC
Once received, a token can make any REST API calls during the valid period. In the above request, the token is valid for 599 seconds or 10 minutes, and the refresh token is valid for 1 month.
2.2 Making the REST API Call using the Token
Now that we have authenticated and have an OAuth token, we can use the token to make a REST API call. We will get the list of users using the REST API call “getUsers”. Below is the request configuration within the POSTMAN application:
As shown above, the HTTP method is set to GET, and the REST API call URL is set to:
http://localhost/cDevWorkflowRESTAPI/api/deUser/getUsers
Under the “Authorization” section, select “Bearer Token” as the authentication type and set the token received from the previous call. Click the “Send” button to send the request to the server. FlowWright authentication will validate the token and, if successful, process the “getUsers” API call and return the response from the call.
As you can see above, the REST API successfully authenticated using the token and returned the response. The “getUsers” call returned a list of users in JSON format.
On the other hand, if the token was invalid, you would see the following message:
And if an expired token were sent, you would see the following message:
2.3 Requesting a New Token using the Refresh Token
If a token has expired, a new token can be requested using the “refresh token” functionality. The process for requesting a refreshed token is similar to what you have already seen when requesting a new one. Below is the process for requesting a refreshed token:
As before, use the same token-requesting URL:
http://localhost/cDevWorkflowRESTAPI/api/token
As per the above diagram, an HTTP POST request is sent to get a new token. The form body has the following fields and values configured:
- grant_type – set the grant type to “refresh_token”
- refresh_token – pass the refreshed token received from the first token call
If the request for a refreshed token is successful, then the following response will come back:
The JSON response received contains a new OAuth token with a new expiration date/time. The JSON response payload is in the same format as the token request. A successful response is only returned if the refreshed token is valid and not expired.
The new access token can now be used to make REST API calls. If the “refresh token” request were invalid or expired, you will see the following response message:
Note: When requesting a new token, if the refreshed token is valid, the identical refreshed token will be provided again.
3. Configurations
The token request calls to the oAuth API return a JSON response. This JSON response contains 2 tokens and expirations in the UTC date/time format. Expiration timings for both tokens have the following default expiration values:
- token – 10 minutes or 600 seconds
- refresh token – 1 month
These are configuration values within the REST API’s application settings file. Navigate to the following REST API directory:
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cDevWorkflowRESTAPI
Open the file “web.config”, you will see the following app settings keys and values:
Use the key “tokenExpireMinutes” to set your own standard number of minutes to expire the token. Use the key “refershTokenExpireDays” to set your own standard number of days to expire the refresh token. Once the above key values are changed, you will see that token expirations have also changed.
4. Integrations
Now that you can request oAuth tokens through the REST API, you can use them to make API calls. Importantly, these tokens can also be used to better take advantage of FlowWright capabilities.
4.1 Using Tokens for User Interface Authentication
The FlowWright configuration manager user interface (UI) can be configured with many kinds of authentication, starting with v9.7 and oAuth token authentication. Pass the token through the URL to the login page to accomplish this.
http://localhost/cDevWorkflow/LoginPage.aspx?token=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Replace the “XXXXXXXXXXXXXX” with the name of your oAuth token. The FlowWright Configuration Manager UI will validate the token and, if successful, authenticate the user and open the application UI.
For example, if you want to automatically login to the UI and display the “List of Tasks” page, then you can use the following URL:
http://localhost/cDevWorkflow/LoginPage.aspx?ReturnUrl=ConfigTasks.aspx&token=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
If you want to open the Workflow designer to a particular workflow definition and then display it, then you can use the following URL format:
If you want to open the Forms Designer to a specific form definition and display that definition, then you can use the following URL format:
Further, if you want to render a Form instance, then you can use the following URL format:
4.2 Using Tokens for Microservice Authentication
FlowWright microservices can be configured with or without authentication. If authentication is turned on, each microservice call made will require authentication. Microservices support two kinds of authentication: 1.) Basic authentication and 2.) Token authentication.
Here’s an example URL for a FlowWright microservice:
http://localhost/cDevWorkflow/MicroServices/dev2/AddTwoNumbers?value1=34
Below is the request configuration shown on POSTMAN:
As shown, an HTTP POST call is sent to the URL along with the authentication information: the authentication type is set to “Bearer Token,” and the token value is set to a valid oAuth token.
Then, after the request is sent to the microservice, that FlowWright microservice responds as shown:
