Client API Keys ​

In situations where authorized access to Trivial's API is required for an indefinite amount of time, you can utilize a client API key in your requests. Client API keys are not tied to a specific user or app, and have access to all available apps.

This walkthrough demonstrates how to generate and use a long-lived API key over Trivial's API.

Generating Client Keys ​

To generate a client key,

Step 1) Create a client secret and copy to your clipboard:

openssl rand -hex 32 | pbcopy

Then, set the CLIENT_SECRET environment variable to the value of the secret you just generated:

# .env
CLIENT_SECRET=8d105ffc... # paste your secret here

Step 2) Now that your CLIENT_SECRET is set, still on the command line, run the following from inside of the trivial-api directory to get the Ruby on Rails console started:

bundle exec rails c

Now, using the Rails console, store a new client key inside a key variable:

key = ApiKeys.issue_client_key!

An example response from the console will look like:

=>
{:key_id=>"xxx",                        
. . .

You can print the entire object by simply typing key into the console:

=>
{:key_id=>"xxx",                        
 :key_access_token=>"yyy"}

Step 4) Now that we have a key, we need to save the key_id to allow access with it, separating multiple clients with a comma:

#.env
CLIENT_SECRET=8d105ffc... # Already set during Step 1
CLIENT_KEYS=xxx, another-key # key_id from key

After restarting your local server, your local instance will now accept the token for authorization.

Using Client Keys ​

In your client, you can now use the access token in an API call as a Bearer token. Assuming the API is running on port 3000:

const data = await fetch('http://localhost:3000/apps', {
headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    Authorization: `Bearer yyy` // key_access_token from key
  }
})
.then(response => response.json())

// data: [
//  {
//    "id": 1,
//    "user_id": 1,
//    "name": "ba6811fb3e073d"...