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Android OAuth2

using Google OAuth Client Library for Java.

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Introduction

The goal of this sample project is to show you how you can do OAuth2 from an Android application using the Google OAuth Client Library for Java.

For a sample application using Twitter (an OAuth1 Service Provider, checkout this page.

The sample application allows you to access data from the following OAuth2 providers

Legacy github repo / blog post

This repository has recently been updated to use a new version of the Google OAuth libraries, and now also includes the Foursquare flow.

The original blog post for the original github repository can be found here.

Note that some of the code samples in the article are now out-of-date due to the new version of the Google OAuth library. I’ll write up a new blog post as soon as I can find the time.

Google projects for doing OAuth2

The sample application uses 3 projects from the Google OAuth2 client library family.

The last one is optional and is only really needed when interacting with Google APIs. It offers a higher level abstraction for the Google OAuth2 endpoints. There’s for example no need to configure authorization and token URLs yourself as all of that is handled by the API. It also comes with a huge set of client libraries that make it even easier to interact with Google APIs.

These client libraries not only encapsulates the OAuth2 part, but also provide

The Google Tasks sample included in the application for example doesn’t use the Google APIs Client library, but shows you how to configure the Google OAuth2 endpoints manually, and execute the API calls using raw HTTP (without using a client library).

Although the Google APIs Client Library for Java primarily target Google APIs, they can also be used to interact with non-Google Oauth2 providers like Foursquare.

Project setup

This project is built using the m2e-android plugin to handle its external dependencies.

When using Eclipse ADT, it assumes that the following components are installed :

If you don’t have the Eclipse Marker Client installed, you can install it by clicking on

Help → Install new Software → Switch to the Juno Repository → General Purpose Tools → Marketplace Client

Once you have the Eclipse Market Client installed, you can proceed to install the m2e-android plugin

Help -> Eclipse Marketplace... and search for "android m2e".

More instructions can be found on the m2e-android plugin site.

Project configuration

The OAuth2 connection params are defined in the com.ecs.android.sample.oauth2.OAuth2Params class.

GOOGLE_PLUS("","","https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token","https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",BearerToken.authorizationHeaderAccessMethod(),PlusScopes.PLUS_ME,"http://localhost","plus","https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/people/me/activities/public"),
GOOGLE_TASKS_OAUTH2("","","https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token","https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",BearerToken.authorizationHeaderAccessMethod(),"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/tasks","http://localhost","tasks","https://www.googleapis.com/tasks/v1/users/@me/lists"),
FOURSQUARE_OAUTH2("","","https://foursquare.com/oauth2/access_token", "https://foursquare.com/oauth2/authenticate",FoursquareQueryParameterAccessMethod.getInstance(),"","http://localhost","foursquare","https://api.foursquare.com/v2/users/self/checkins");

I haven’t shared my own clientId and clientSecrets here so you’ll need to provide them yourself (first 2 arguments of the constructor.

If you don’t provide the clientId and clientSecret you’ll see the following message on your screen.

No clientID and secret provided

If you have provided a clientId and clientSecret then you should see this

clientID and secret provided

Notice how for each OAuth2 provider we have 3 buttons

When you start an OAuth2 flow (ex: the Google flows), you’ll be invited to login with your Google account

clientID and secret provided

Google will then prompt you to provide access to your application to access the users data.

clientID and secret provided

When returning to the application, an API call will be executed on a protected resource from that OAuth2 service provided. The RAW JSON is simply dumped on the screen.

clientID and secret provided

When returning to the intro screen, the application shows the access_token and the time in seconds before it expires. Note that the Google OAuth library handles expired tokens transparently. So when clicking on the API button with an expired token, the API will automatically refresh the token in the background before executing the API call.

clientID and secret provided

The same is applicable for non-Google OAuth2 service providers like Foursquare. You also need to login and you also need to authorize the application to access your data.

clientID and secret provided clientID and secret provided

Note how Foursquare doesn’t issue a refresh token, but rather a non-expiring access token.

clientID and secret provided

Project dependences

This project depends on the following libraries. (automatically pulled in when using the m2e-android plugin).

References

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