Creating a Custom OAuth Application

CData embeds OAuth Application Credentials with CData branding that can be used when connecting to LinkedIn via a desktop application or a headless machine.

However, you must create a custom OAuth application to connect to LinkedIn via the Web. And since custom OAuth applications seamlessly support all three commonly-used auth flows, you might want to create custom OAuth applications (use your own OAuth Application Credentials) for those auth flows anyway.

Custom OAuth applications are useful if you want to:

• control branding of the authentication dialog;
• control the redirect URI that the application redirects the user to after the user authenticates; or
• customize the permissions that you are requesting from the user.

Procedure

To create a custom OAuth application for use with LinkedIn:

1. Log in to the LinkedIn Developer Platform.
2. Click Create app.
3. Enter the page URL you want to associate with the app, alongside information to be displayed to users when they are prompted to grant permissions to your application.

After the application is created:

1. Select your application.
2. Navigate to the Products tab and request access to the API products (scopes) applicable for your use cases. Refer to OAuth Scopes and Endpoints for more details.
3. Wait for LinkedIn to approve your application. After that is done, your application will have the OAuth 2.0 permissions it needs. These permissions will be visible in the Auth tab.
4. Navigate to the Auth tab and configure the authorized Redirect URLs.

   For desktop applications, set the Redirect URL to http://localhost:33333 or a port number of your choice. When you connect, you must set the CallbackURL connection property to this exact URL.

   For headless machines, set the Redirect URL to http://localhost:33333 or a port number of your choice.

   The OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are also displayed on the same page. Make a note of these values for future reference.