Step Three: Connect to Chatter REST API Using OAuth

Use OAuth to connect to Salesforce and get an access token. Pass the access token in requests to Chatter REST API.

Complete Step Two: Set Up Authorization and create a connected app before starting this task.

This table maps the terms used in the connected app you created to the OAuth properties used in the examples. The OAuth 2.0 specification uses the word “client” instead of “consumer.”

Connected App Application Label	Value in Example
Consumer Key	`client_id`
Consumer Secret	`client_secret`

This quick start uses the username-password OAuth authentication flow. The username-password authentication flow passes the user’s credentials back and forth. Use this authentication flow only when necessary, such as in this quick start. No refresh token will be issued. In addition, Salesforce Communities doesn’t support the username-password authentication flow. In this quick start, don’t make a request to a Communities URL.

Note

To make a request to Salesforce, substitute values from your organization into these examples:

Generate the access token.

This cURL command generates an access token:

1curl --form client_id=3MVG9PhR6g6B7ps4xDycwGrI4PvjVZvK9
2     --form client_secret=8870355475032095511 
3     --form grant_type=password 
4     --form username=admin@seattleapps.com 
5     --form password=1Lsfdc! 
6      https://login.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/token

To paste a multi-line command into a Mac or Linux command line interface, escape each line with a backslash (“\”) to indicate that the command continues on the next line. An escaped line looks like this:

1curl --form client_id=3MVG9PhR6g6B7ps4xDycwGrI4PvjVZvK9 \

1curl --form client_id=3MVG9PhR6g6B7ps4xDycwGrI4PvjVZvK9 ^

Tip

The response includes the server instance and the access token:

1{
2"id":"https://login.salesforce.com/id/00Di0000000hT9uEAE/005i00000022uIbAAI",
3"issued_at":"1302907727777",
4"instance_url":"https://na1.salesforce.com",
5"signature":"5jcevY5fUai0lWntuSxkwBzWcvRjd01RCOkIBZpyGv0=",
6"access_token":"00DD0000000FJ6T!AQkAQPde_DMF2vGzddfZmBRS95GojDbtA
7     rKkgukAgZP0OVFYY5KkAqhLw9ejeKIlpJ3FgwGAWeRlBiWRt8mfXEuAZGbZNosk"
8}

To request a Chatter REST API resource, use the returned instance_url as the server instance. Pass the returned access_token as a Bearer token in the Authorization request header.

1curl -X GET https://na1.salesforce.com/services/data/v36.0/chatter/users/me 
2     -H 'Authorization: Bearer 00DD0000000FJ6T!AQkAQPde_DMF2vGzddfZmBRS95Goj
3     DbtArKkgukAgZP0OVFYY5KkAqhLw9ejeKIlpJ3FgwGAWeRlBiWRt8mfXEuAZGbZNosk'

This example uses these values:

Property	Value
Server instance	na1.salesforce.com
`client_id`	3MVG9PhR6g6B7ps4xDycwGrI4PvjVZvK9
`client_secret`	8870355475032095511
`grant_type`	password The value of `grant_type` depends on the OAuth authentication flow you are using.
`username`	admin@seattleapps.com
`password`	1Lsfdc!

Chatter REST API Developer Guide

Step Three: Connect to Chatter REST API Using OAuth