# Accessing Signicat REST services

Page contents

Introduction
Using the service
- Required information
Code examples
- Example using CURL
- Example request using Java
Messages
- TokenRequest
- TokenResponse

# Introduction

In order to consume Signicat REST services, a caller must first acquire an access token in order to be able to authenticate consecutive requests. The access token is retrieved using the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol. For more, general information about OpenID Connect, refer to our OpenID Connect documentation.

Signicat offers the client_secret_basic method for client authentication, as described in the OpenID Connect Core 1.0 specification. (opens new window)

# Using the service

Bear in mind that the examples shown in this section are only applicable for the client_secret_basic method.

# Required information

In order to call the OIDC endpoint, you will need:

Client ID
Client secret
Scope

If you are not already a Signicat customer, you can use our demo credentials.

# API

Environment	Base URL (Nordics)*	Base URL (Europe)*
Beta	https://beta.signicat.com/
Pre-production	https://preprod.signicat.com/	https://eu01.preprod.signicat.com/
Production	https://id.signicat.com/	https://eu01.signicat.com/

* If you are unsure which environment to choose, contact your Signicat onboarding manager.

Path	Verb	Content Type	Header	Input	Output
/oidc/token	POST	application/x-www-form-urlencoded	Authorisation header	TokenRequest	TokenResponse

# Authorisation header

# When acquiring the access token

The authentication header is your Client ID and Client secret, joined with a colon in between and then base64-encoded. So, if your client id is foo and your client secret is bar, then the header value is:

foo:bar -> Zm9vOmJhcg==

In your HTTP request to the /oidc/token endpoint, the following header is then added:

Authorization: Basic Zm9vOmJhcg==

# When using the access token

When you’ve received the access token, you will need to apply an authorisation header when doing requests to the service resources that you are using. The access token header is:

Authorization: Bearer <YOUR ACCESS TOKEN HERE>

# Code examples

# Example using CURL

curl -X POST "https://<ENVIRONMENT>.signicat.com/oidc/token" \
    -H "Authorization: Basic <CLIENT ID AND SECRET BASE64-ENCODED>" \
    -d "grant_type=client_credentials&scope=<SCOPE>"

# Example request using Java

class TokenResponse {
    @JsonProperty("access_token")
    String accessToken;
    @JsonProperty("token_type")
    String tokenType;
    @JsonProperty("scope")
    String scope;
    @JsonProperty("expires_in")
    int expiresIn;
}
private static String getToken(CloseableHttpClient httpClient, String scope) {
    ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    try {
        HttpPost auth = new HttpPost(OIDC_URL);
        Header authenticationHeader = new BasicScheme().authenticate(
            new UsernamePasswordCredentials(CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_SECRET),
            auth, null);
        auth.addHeader(authenticationHeader);
        List < NameValuePair > nvps = new ArrayList < NameValuePair > ()
        nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("grant_type", "client_credentials"));
        nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("scope", scope));
        auth.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvps, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
        TokenResponse tokenResponse = null;
        try (CloseableHttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(auth)) {
            tokenResponse = mapper.readValue(
                EntityUtils.toString(
                    response.getEntity(),
                    StandardCharsets.UTF_8),
                TokenResponse.class
            );
            return tokenResponse.getAccessToken();
        } catch (ParseException | IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    } catch (AuthenticationException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return null;
}

# Messages

# TokenRequest

Name	Type	Description
`Scope`	String	The requested scope.
`GrantType`	String	The string "client_credentials"

# TokenResponse

Name	Type	Description
`AccessToken`	String	The access token.
`TokenType`	String	The string `Bearer`.
`Scope`	String	The requested scope.
`ExpiresIn`	Long	Milliseconds until the access token expires unless refreshed.