tent.io/content/docs/app-auth.md

title
App Authentication

App Authentication

Tent uses OAuth 2 for app authentication. Because of the distributed nature of Tent, apps must register with the Tent entity before starting the authentication flow.

After the authentication flow is complete, requests are authenticated using the credentials with MAC Access Authentication.

App Registration

Before authenticating a user, the application must be registered with the specified Tent entity. The first step is to perform discovery on the provided entity url.

{discovery example}

The next step is to register the application with the server. Registration specifies some details about the app, as well as the exact redirect_uris that will be used during the OAuth flow. The response id, secret, and mac_algorithm are used to authenticate future requests to the Tent server. The id is used as the client_id in all OAuth requests.

{create_app example}

App JSON Schema

{app schema}

Authentication Flow

Auth Request

The app requests the user's Tent identifier, and performs discovery on it to find the Tent API root. The app then builds an auth request and redirects the user-agent to it:

/oauth/authorize?client_id={app_id var}
  &redirect_uri=http://app.example.com/tent/callback
  &scope=read_posts,read_profile
  &state=87351cc2f6737bfc8ba
  &tent_profile_info_types=https://tent.io/types/info/music/v0.1.0
  &tent_post_types=https://tent.io/types/posts/status/v0.1.0,https://tent.io/types/posts/photo/v0.1.0

Parameters

Name	Required	Description
client_id	Required	The id obtained by registering with the Tent server
redirect_uri	Required	The URI to redirect to after authentication is complete. It must exactly match a URI (including parameters) provided during app registration in redirect_uris.
state	Optional	This parameter will be added to the redirect_uri and should always be set to a random string that is stored in the session, and then verified to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks.
scope	Optional	A comma-separated list of scopes that the app is requesting access to.
tent_profile_info_types	Optional	A comma-separated list of profile info type urls that the app is requesting access to. Set to all to request full access to the profile.
tent_post_types	Optional	A comma-separated list of type urls that the app is requesting access to. Set to all to request access to all posts.
tent_notification_url	Optional	The URI to send post notifications to.

Scopes

Scope	Description
read_profile	Read profile sections listed in the profile_info parameter
write_profile	Read and write profile sections listed in the profile_info parameter
read_followers	Read follower list
write_followers	Read follower list and block followers
read_followings	Read followings list
write_followings	Read followings list and follow new entities
read_posts	Read posts with types listed in the post_types parameter
write_posts	Read and publish posts with types listed in the post_types parameter

Redirect

After the user has authorized the application, the Tent server will redirect the User-Agent back to the specified redirect_uri with a code that can be used to retrieve authentication details from the server.

The state parameter should be matched against the state parameter sent in the initial request to prevent request forgery.

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: http://app.example.com/tent/callback?code={app_code var}&state=87351cc2f6737bfc8ba

Access Token

The code must be traded for permanent authentication details that can be used to access the Tent server on behalf of the user.

POST /apps/:id/authorizations

The request must be signed with a MAC using the secret obtained during app registration. Currently only the mac token_type is supported.

{app_auth example}

Response Parameters

Name	Description
access_token	Used as the MAC key identifier.
mac_key	Used as the MAC key for requests.
mac_algorithm	The MAC algorithm to be used.
token_type	Specifies the token type. Currently always mac

Request Authentication

Tent uses HTTP MAC Access Authentication to authenticate app requests. Requests to modify the app's registration details must be authorized using the provided id and secret as the MAC key identifier and MAC key respectively.

Requests to the Tent server on behalf of an authenticated user must be authorized using the credentials retrieved at the end of the auth flow. The access_token and mac_key are the MAC key identifier and MAC key respectively.

App Registration Modification

The request must be authenticated with a MAC generated using the secret from the initial registration.

GET /apps/:id

{get_app example}

PUT /apps/:id

{update_app example}