Secure authentication
Authentication is the act of validating the identity of each user before they access a system. Agora uses digital tokens to authenticate users and their privileges before they access Agora SD-RTN to join . Each token is valid for a limited period and works only for a specific channel. For example, you cannot use the token generated for a channel called AgoraChannel
to join the AppTest
channel.
This page shows you how to quickly set up an authentication token server, retrieve a token from the server, and use it to connect securely to a specific channel.
Understand the tech
An authentication token is a dynamic key that is valid for a maximum of 24 hours. On request, a token server returns an authentication token that is valid to join a specific channel.
When users attempt to connect to an Agora channel from your , your retrieves a token from the token server in your security infrastructure. Your then sends this token to Agora SD-RTN for authentication. Agora SD-RTN validates the token and reads the user and project information stored in the token. A token contains the following information:
-
The App ID of your Agora project
-
The App certificate of your Agora project
-
The channel name
-
The user ID of the user to be authenticated (optional)
-
The privilege of the user, either as a publisher or a subscriber
-
The Unix timestamp showing when the token will expire
The following figure shows the call flow you need to implement to create step-up-authentication with Agora :
Prerequisites
To follow this procedure you must have:
- Implemented the Quickstart
- Created a Heroku account
-
A computer with Internet access.
Ensure that no firewall is blocking your network communication.
Project setup
To integrate token authentication into your , do the following:
- Open the project you created in the:
- Log in to your Heroku account.
Implement the authentication workflow
In the Get Started project you implemented, the uses an authentication token obtained manually from Agora Console to join a channel. In a production environment, your retrieves this token from a token server. This section shows you how to:
- Create and run a token server
- Retrieve and use tokens from a token server
Create and run a token server
This section shows you how to deploy a token server on Heroku.
-
Click here and deploy a token server to Heroku.
Heroku retrieves the project code and necessary files from Github and takes you to a Create New App page. On this page, fill in the following information:
-
app-name
: A name for your token server, containing only lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes. -
APP_CERTIFICATE
: The obtained from Agora Console. -
APP_ID
: The App ID obtained from Agora Console.
-
-
Click Deploy app. Heroku configures and builds the token server.
You see a message 'Your app was successfully deployed.'
-
Click View.
Heroku opens the token server URL in your browser. The URL is of the form
<app-name>.herokuapp.com
where<app-name>
is the name you chose for your token server.Don’t worry if you see
404 page not found
in your browser. Follow the next steps and test your server. -
Test your server
-
Ping the server
Load the following URL in a browser tab. Replace
<app-name>
with the name of your server.You see the following message in your browser:
-
Retrieve a token
To retrieve an RTC token, send a request to the token server using a URL based on the Token server GET request structure:
For example:
https://my-token-server.herokuapp.com/rtc/MyChannel/1/uid/0/?expiry=300
Your token server returns the following JSON object to your browser:
-
To see how to create a token generator inside your IAM system, see Integrate a token generator.
Authentication using Video SDK
To retrieve tokens from the token server and use them to authenticate your with Agora SD-RTN using Video SDK
Test your implementation
To ensure that you have implemented Agora token authentication workflow in your app:
-
Generate a token in Agora Console.
Users communicate securely using channels in the same project. The App ID you use to generate this token must be the same one you supplied to Heroku.
-
In your browser, navigate to the Agora web demo and update App ID, Channel, and Token with the values for your temporary token, then click Join.
Your magically connects to the same channel you used in web demo. You don’t need to hardcode a token in your app; each channel is secured with a specific token, and each token is refreshed automatically. That’s pretty cool!
Reference
This section contains information that completes the information in this page, or points you to documentation that explains other aspects to this product.
Source code for a token server
The token server RESTful web service used in this page is written in Golang using the Gin framework. Want to use the code in your authentication service? Download the token server source code and binaries for various platforms from Github.
To see how to create a token generator inside your IAM system, see Integrate a token generator.
Token server GET request structure
A token server GET request has the following structure:
-
:channelName
is the name of the Agora Channel you wish to joinA channel name may contain numbers with both upper and lower case letters. The name length must be less than 64 characters.
-
:role
is the user roleUse
1
for publisher,2
for subscriber. -
:tokentype
is the type of tokenAgora SD-RTN supports both integer user IDs and string user accounts for token generation. To ensure smooth communication, all the users in a channel must use the same type of ID, that is, either the integer
uid
, or a stringuserAccount
. Best practice is to use theuid
. -
:uid
is the user IDUser Id can be any 32-bit unsigned integer. It can be set to 0, if you do not need to authenticate the user based on the user ID.
-
expireTime
(optional) is the number of seconds after which the token will expireBy default, a token expires after 24 hours unless a shorter life span is explicitly specified in the token request.