Grant Type Password
Your application's code needs to:
- Store the returned access_token to use to authenticate all other endpoint requests until the token expires. (3600 seconds)
- Store the returned refresh_token for the purpose of getting a new access_token after the access token expires.
- Use the access token for all non-authentication related requests as specified by documentation for endpoints you are using. Access tokens expire in 3600 seconds.
- To refresh a session, use the refresh token from the immediate prior session in a refresh request. When the refresh request is granted, the response contains another access token/refresh token pair.
The refresh token does not expire until a new initial access token request (a password or code grant type) or a refresh request occurs.
Password or Code grant types are limited to 5 authentication attempts per hour. Using the refresh token workflow avoids unneeded access token requests and prevents your application from reaching this limit.
Parameters
| Name | Parameter Type |
Allow Multiple |
Required/ Optional |
Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| grant_type | x-www-form-urlencoded | False | Required | string | The value must be 'password'. |
| username | x-www-form-urlencoded | False | Required | string | The email address of a user in the Act-On account you are trying to access. |
| password | x-www-form-urlencoded | False | Required | string | The password associated with the username. |
| client_id | x-www-form-urlencoded | False | Required | string | The Client ID you received in your welcome email. |
| client_secret | x-www-form-urlencoded | False | Required | string | The Client Secret you received in your welcome email. |
Unlike most other endpoints, the URL for the authentication request does not have /api/1/ in the URL path. The token endpoint URL is just: https://restapi.actonsoftware.com/token.
Request
|
1 |
POST /token HTTP/1.1 Host: restapi.actonsoftware.com Cache-Control: no-cache Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded grant_type=password&username=email%40company.com&password=<your_password>&client_id=<your_clientid>&client_secret=< your_client_secret > |
Response
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 |
{ "token_type":"bearer", "expires_in":3600, "refresh_token":"6d84dba1e8b55d795983af10abffffff" ,"access_token":"ec96c219f477cb695644498ffffff" } |
Code Examples
cURL Request
NOTE: replace the placeholder text in brackets with your client id and password.
|
1 |
curl -X POST -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -d 'grant_type=password&username=%40url.com&password=welcome2here&client_id=<your_clientid>&client_secret=your_client_secret' https://restapi.actonsoftware.com/token |
Refreshing Authentication
After the initial authentication, you’ll need to use the Refresh grant type to get a new access token before the current one’s hour-long lifespan expires.
