Introduction

The AccessToken is used for accessing Web Services using the OAuth protocol.

See Spec

This is only used from the ConsumerService side.

AccessToken lifecycle

ConsumerService Request an AccessToken from the ServiceProvider using an authorized RequestToken
ConsumerService ServiceProvider's web service using the AccessToken's http request wrapper methods

Contains

token - the actual token string
secret - a secret string used for signing requests

Creation

You ask the RequestToken to exchange it self for an AccessToken from the ServiceProvider:

@access_token=@request_token.get_access_token

Accessing REST webservices

It wraps the ruby http/s object with simple methods for each http method:

# GET /people.xml
@response=@access_token.get('/people.xml')

# GET /people/1.xml
@response=@access_token.get('/people/1.xml')

# POST /people
@response=@access_token.post('/people',"person[name]=Bob")

# POST /people with xml
@response=@access_token.post('/people',@person.to_xml,{'Content-Type'=>'application/xml')

# PUT /people/1
@response=@access_token.post('/people/1',"person[name]=Bob%20Smith")

# PUT /people/1 with xml
@response=@access_token.put('/people/1',@person.to_xml,{'Content-Type'=>'application/xml')

# DELETE /people/1
@response=@access_token.delete('/people/1')

Comment by humbroll, Apr 01, 2008

there's some errata. {'Content-Type'=>'application/xml' => {'Content-Type'=>'application/xml'}

thanks for great document.

Comment by avbentem, Jun 22, 2008

Using a long living AccessToken

If the provider does not invalidate the access token until explicitly requested to do so, then one can keep the string values to use at a later time:

# Initialisation based on string values:
consumer_key = 'AVff2raXvhMUxFnif06g'
consumer_secret = 'u0zg77R1bQqbzutAusJYmTxqeUpWVt7U2TjWlzbVZkA'
access_token = 'R1bQqbzYm0zg77tAusJzbVZkAVt7U2T'
access_token_secret = 'sVbVZkAt7U2TjWlJYmTxqR1bQqbzutAuWzeUpu0zg77'

@consumer = OAuth::Consumer.new(consumer_key, consumer_secret, {:site=>'http://my.site'})


@accesstoken = OAuth::AccessToken.new(@consumer, access_token, access_token_secret)

Sending specific HTTP headers

To send specific HTTP headers such as User-Agent or Accept:

@response = @access_token.get('/people.xml', {'User-Agent'=>'my user agent'})