Connecting to Pipedrive

Pipedrive offers two ways to connect and authenticate: Basic and OAuth.

Basic Authentication

To authenticate via Basic authentication:

1. Obtain an API Token:
   1. Open the Pipedrive portal.
   2. At the top right corner of the page, click the account name. Pipedrive displays a drop-down list.
   3. Navigate to Company Settings > Personal Preferences > API > Generate Token.
   4. Record the value of the generated API token. Also, note the CompanyDomain,which is visible in the PipeDrive HomePage URL. (This is the company's developer sandbox URL.)
2. Set these connection properties:
   • APIToken: The value for the API token you just obtained.
   • CompanyDomain: The CompanyDomain from the developer sandbox URL.
   • AuthScheme: Basic.

3. Log in with the approved user name and password.

The API Token is stored in the Pipedrive portal. To retrieve it, click the company name, then use the drop-down list to navigate to Company Settings > Personal Preferences > API.

OAuth Authentication

If you do not have access to the user name and password or do not want to require them, use the OAuth user consent flow. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth and create a custom OAuth application.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to Pipedrive from three common authentication flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in Pipedrive, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.

Get and refresh the OAuth access token:

• InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret: The client secret that was assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• CallbackURL: The redirect URI that was defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the provider opens Pipedrive's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

After you grant permissions to the application, the provider completes the OAuth process:

1. The provider obtains an access token from Pipedrive and uses it to request data.
2. The OAuth values are saved in the path specified in OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across connections.

When the access token expires, the provider refreshes it automatically.

Web Applications

Authenticating via the Web requires you to create and register a custom OAuth application with Pipedrive, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application. You can then use the provider to get and manage the OAuth token values.

This section describes how to get the OAuth access token, how to have the driver refresh the OAuth access token automatically, and how to refresh the OAuth access token manually.

Get the OAuth access token:

1. To obtain the OAuthAccessToken, set these connection properties :
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your custom OAuth application settings.

2. Call stored procedures to complete the OAuth exchange:
   • Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB and the CallbackURL to the Redirect URI you specified in your custom OAuth application settings. The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.
   • Navigate to the URL that the stored procedure returned in Step 1. Log in and authorize the web application. You are redirected back to the callback URL.
   • 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 redirect URI.

After you obtain the access and refresh tokens, you can connect to data and refresh the OAuth access token automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the provider automatically refresh the OAuth access token:

1. Before connecting to data for the first time, set these connection parameters:
   • InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your custom OAuth application settings.
   • OAuthAccessToken: The access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthSettingsLocation: The path where you want the provider to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
2. On subsequent data connections, set:
   • InitiateOAuth
   • OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAuth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

1. To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
2. Set these connection properties:
   • OAuthClientId: The Client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret in your custom OAuth application settings.

3. Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
4. After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Headless Machines

If you need to log in to a resource that resides on a headless machine, you must authenticate on another device that has an internet browser. You can do this in either of the following ways:

• Option 1: Obtain the OAuthVerifier value.
• Option 2: Install the provider on a machine with an internet browser and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow.

After you execute either Option 1 or Option 2, configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token on the headless machine.

Option 1: Obtaining and Exchanging a Verifier Code

To obtain a verifier code, you must authenticate at the OAuth authorization URL as follows:

1. Authenticate from the machine with an internet browser, and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.

   Set these properties:

   • InitiateOAuth: OFF.
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

2. Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. The stored procedure returns the CallbackURL established when the custom OAuth application was registered. (See Creating a Custom OAuth Application.)

   Copy this URL and paste it into a new browser tab.

3. Log in and grant permissions to the provider. The OAuth application redirects you the redirect URI, with a parameter called code appended. Note the value of this parameter; you will need it later, to configure the OAuthVerifier connection property.

4. Exchange the OAuth verifier code for OAuth refresh and access tokens. On the headless machine, to obtain the OAuth authentication values, set these properties:

   • InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
   • OAuthVerifier: The noted verifier code (the value of the code parameter in the redirect URI).
   • OAuthSettingsLocation: Persist the encrypted OAuth authentication values to the specified file.
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in the custom OAuth application settings.

5. Test the connection to generate the OAuth settings file.

6. You are ready to connect after you re-set these properties:

   • InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
   • OAuthSettingsLocation: The file containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. To enable the automatic refreshing of the access token, be sure that this file gives read and write permissions to the provider.
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

Option 2: Transferring OAuth Settings

Prior to connecting on a headless machine, you must install and create a connection with the driver on a device that supports an internet browser. Set the connection properties as described above in "Desktop Applications".

After completing the instructions in "Desktop Applications", the resulting authentication values are encrypted and written to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. The default filename is OAuthSettings.txt.

Test the connection to generate the OAuth settings file, then copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine.

To connect to data via the headless machine, set these connection properties:

• InitiateOAuth: REFRESH
• OAuthSettingsLocation: The path to the OAuth settings file you copied from the machine with the browser. To enable automatic refreshing of the access token, ensure that this file gives read and write permissions to the provider.
• OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.