Access Tokens

At the end of the login process, an access token is generated. This access token is the thing that is passed along with every API call to the openid connect server (e.g. userinfo endpoint) as proof that the call was made by a specific person from a specific app.

Access tokens generally have a lifetime of only a couple of hours. You can use OIDC_TOKEN_EXPIRE to set a custom expiration time that suits your needs.

Obtaining an Access Token

Go to the admin site and create a confidential client with response_types = code and redirect_uri = http://example.org/.

Open your browser and accept consent at:

http://localhost:8000/authorize?client_id=651462&redirect_uri=http://example.org/&response_type=code&scope=openid email profile&state=123123

In the redirected URL you should have a code parameter included as query string:

http://example.org/?code=b9cedb346ee04f15ab1d3ac13da92002&state=123123

We use the code value to obtain access_token and refresh_token:

curl -X POST \
    -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
    "http://localhost:8000/token/" \
    -d "client_id=651462" \
    -d "client_secret=37b1c4ff826f8d78bd45e25bad75a2c0" \
    -d "code=b9cedb346ee04f15ab1d3ac13da92002" \
    -d "redirect_uri=http://example.org/" \
    -d "grant_type=authorization_code"

Example response:

{
    "access_token": "82b35f3d810f4cf49dd7a52d4b22a594",
    "token_type": "bearer",
    "expires_in": 3600,
    "refresh_token": "0bac2d80d75d46658b0b31d3778039bb",
    "id_token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6..."
}

Then you can grab the access token and ask for user data by doing a GET request to the /userinfo endpoint:

curl -X GET \
    -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" \
    "http://localhost:8000/userinfo/?access_token=82b35f3d810f4cf49dd7a52d4b22a594"

Expiration and Refresh of Access Tokens

If you receive a 401 Unauthorized status when using the access token, this probably means that your access token has expired.

The RP application can request a new access token by using the refresh token. Send a POST request to the /token endpoint with the following request parameters:

curl -X POST \
    -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
    "http://localhost:8000/token/" \
    -d "client_id=651462" \
    -d "client_secret=37b1c4ff826f8d78bd45e25bad75a2c0" \
    -d "grant_type=refresh_token" \
    -d "refresh_token=0bac2d80d75d46658b0b31d3778039bb"