When to Use a Custom OAuth App

Creating a custom OAuth app is required. Creating a custom OAuth app is required for desktop applications.

Desktop Authentication with your OAuth App

Follow the steps below to authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth app. See Creating a Custom OAuth App.

Get an OAuth Access Token

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URL in your app settings, such as http://localhost:33333.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken if you already generated one through the API Add-on on your TSheets account. .

When you connect with InitiateOAuth set to GETANDREFRESH the driver opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The driver then completes the OAuth process:

1. Extracts the access token from the callback URL and authenticates requests.
2. Obtains a new access token when the old one expires.
3. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.

Web Authentication with your OAuth App

When connecting via a Web application, you need to register a custom OAuth app with TSheets. See Creating a Custom OAuth App. You can then use the driver to get and manage the OAuth token values.

Get an OAuth Access Token

Set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuthAccessToken:

• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.

You can then call stored procedures to complete the OAuth exchange:

1. Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB and set the CallbackURL input to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings. If necessary, set the Permissions parameter to request custom permissions.

   The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.

2. Open the URL, log in, and authorize the application. You are redirected back to the callback URL.
3. Call the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB. Set the Verifier input to the "code" parameter in the query string of the callback URL. If necessary, set the Permissions parameter to request custom permissions.

To connect to data, set the OAuthAccessToken connection property to the access token returned by the stored procedure. When the access token expires after ExpiresIn seconds, call GetOAuthAccessToken again to obtain a new access token.

Refresh the OAuth Access Token

You can set InitiateOAuth to REFRESH to automatically refresh the OAuth access token when it expires, or you can call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure to refresh the token manually.

Automatic Refresh

To refresh the token with InitiateOAuth, set the following on the first data connection:

• OAuthAccessToken: Set this to the access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the path where the driver will save the OAuth values, to be persisted across connections.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
• OAuthRefreshToken: Set this to the refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.

On subsequent data connections, set the following:

• InitiateOAuth
• OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual Refresh

You can use the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure to manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken. Call the stored procedure after the ExpiresIn parameter value returned by GetOAuthAccessToken has elapsed. You need the following connection properties to be set:

• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.

You can then call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with the following parameter set:

• OAuthRefreshToken: Set this to the OAuthRefreshToken returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.