Is this the right flow for you?
Before you get started, let's make sure this is the right approach for you. Learn more at: How should I authenticate?
Let's get started
OAuth2 is a protocol that lets external apps request authorization from Reverb to perform actions on behalf of a user without storing the user's password on the app. Users can allow apps to perform specific types of operations (for example, read vs update data), and can revoke access at any time, making this a secure and convenient way to integrate.
All apps need to be registered first
A registered OAuth application is assigned a unique Client ID and Client Secret. The Client Secret should not be shared.
OAuth2 is Standard - Don't roll your own implementation
The flow below outlines the specifics of what happens, but you should be able to take an off the shelf oauth2 library for your platform. Here are a few existing ones:
See the full list of available oauth2 clients
The code below will show the basic actions required to complete the OAuth2 Authorization Code Flow which involves obtaining a code and then posting it back to Reverb to get a Bearer Token.
Your app should provide a button with the title "Login with Reverb.com" or similar. This button should link to the following url:
https://reverb.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=[your-client-id]&redirect_uri=[your-callback-url]&response_type=code&scope=read_listings+write_listings"
Explanation of params:
client_id
string
Required. The client ID is a unique id assigned to your application when you register it with Reverb. View your ClientID at https://reverb.com/my/api_settings by clicking the details link for your app.
redirect_uri
string
Required. The URL where Reverb will redirect once the user authorizes your app. This should look something like https://yourdomain.com/auth/reverb/success
scope
string
Optional. A list of oauth scopes that your application requires on the user's behalf. The list is delimited by spaces, which is URI encoded as +. For example, an app that wants to read the user's listings and update them should use the scope: read_listings+update_listings. By default you will only get read access to the user's information.
response_type
string
Required. Should be set to code. No other values are supported.
state
string
Optional. This parameter will be delivered back to you during the redirect. You should use this to set a randomly generated unguessable string so that you can validate the request for additional security in step 3.
The user will be presented with a screen that looks similar to this:
The user's browser will be redirected back to your site with a temporary code. The url will look something like this:
https://yoursite.com/auth/reverb/success?code=12345abcdefg&state=yourstate
If you supplied a state parameter in step 1, this is a good time to validate that the state you got back is the same as you requested. If it's not, the request originated with a third party and should be ignored. Read more about CSRF protection with the state parameter.
To request a token from reverb, you will POST to the url https://reverb.com/oauth/token with the following parameters.
curl -XPOST https://reverb.com/oauth/token -d "client_id=[...]&client_secret=[...]&code=[...]&grant_type=authorization_code&redirect_uri=[...]"
The response will contain an access token:
{"access_token":"7ef5a3d9a01290e61449542e2033f76a84236b7902dfe8dee9278b73eee71db4","token_type":"bearer","scope":"update_listings read","created_at":1444505942}%Now you should set your client's headers to contain the given token in the Authorization header in every API request you make, using the OAuth Bearer token format:
curl -XGET https://api.reverb.com/api/some/thing -H "Authorization: Bearer 7ef5a3d9a01290e61449542e2033f76a84236b7902dfe8dee9278b73eee71db4"