Token authentication

Server-side generation (recommended)

Alibaba Cloud provides code examples for Go, Java, Python, and other languages. See Token generation code examples.

Client-side generation (for development and debugging only)

During development and debugging, if your app server does not yet generate tokens, you can temporarily generate one on the client by referencing the APIExample logic. Sample code:

Generate a token on an Android client: Android/ARTCExample/KeyCenter/src/main/java/com/aliyun/artc/api/keycenter/ARTCTokenHelper.java

Generate a token on an iOS client: iOS/ARTCExample/Common/ARTCTokenHelper.swift

Generate a token on a HarmonyOS client: Harmony/ARTCExample/entry/src/main/ets/common/keycenter/ARTCTokenHelper.ets

Join a channel with a token

Use a token to join a channel on an Android client: Android/ARTCExample/QuickStart/src/main/java/com/aliyun/artc/api/quickstart/TokenGenerate/TokenGenerateActivity.java
Use a token to join a channel on an iOS client: iOS/ARTCExample/QuickStart/TokenGenerate/TokenGenerateVC.swift

Use a token to join a channel on a HarmonyOS client: Harmony/ARTCExample/entry/src/main/ets/pages/quickstart/TokenGenerate.ets

Token workflow

1. The client requests a token from the app server. The app server generates a token based on the required rules and returns it.

2. The client uses the token, AppID, channel ID, user ID, and other information to join the specified channel.

3. The Alibaba Cloud ARTC service validates the token, allowing the client to join the channel.

Token generation

The following table describes the parameters used to generate a token.

Token generation process example:

Token generation code example:

// 1. Concatenate the fields: AppID+AppKey+ChannelID+UserID+Nonce+Timestamp
// 2. Use the SHA-256 algorithm to hash the concatenated string and generate the token.
token = sha256(AppID+AppKey+ChannelId+UserID+Nonce+timestamp)
// Example:
AppID = "abc",AppKey="abckey",ChannelID="abcChannel",UserID="abcUser",Nonce="",Timestamp=1699423634
token = sha256("abcabckeyabcChannelabcUser1699423634") = "3c9ee8d9f8734f0b7560ed8022a0590659113955819724fc9345ab8eedf84f31"

Single-parameter method (recommended)

The ARTC SDK provides a single-parameter API for joining a channel. This approach prevents channel joining failures caused by parameter inconsistencies between your app server and the client. Package the authentication token, appid, channelid, nonce, userid, and timestamp into a JSON object, and then Base64-encode the JSON string to create a new authentication string (Base64 token).

package com.example;

import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.security.MessageDigest;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.util.Base64;
import java.util.Calendar;
import org.json.JSONObject;

public class App {

    public static String createBase64Token(String appid, String appkey, String channelid, String userid) {
        // Calculate the expiration timestamp (24 hours from now)
        Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
        calendar.add(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 24);
        long timestamp = calendar.getTimeInMillis() / 1000;

        // Concatenate the strings
        String stringBuilder = appid + appkey + channelid + userid + timestamp;

        // Calculate the SHA-256 hash
        String token = sha256(stringBuilder);

        // Create the JSON object
        JSONObject base64tokenJson = new JSONObject();
        base64tokenJson.put("appid", appid);
        base64tokenJson.put("channelid", channelid);
        base64tokenJson.put("userid", userid);
        base64tokenJson.put("nonce", "");
        base64tokenJson.put("timestamp", timestamp);
        base64tokenJson.put("token", token);

        // Convert the JSON object to a string and encode it in Base64
        String jsonStr = base64tokenJson.toString();
        String base64token = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(jsonStr.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
        return base64token;
    }

    private static String sha256(String input) {
        try {
            MessageDigest digest = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-256");
            byte[] hash = digest.digest(input.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
            StringBuilder hexString = new StringBuilder();
            for (byte b : hash) {
                String hex = Integer.toHexString(0xff & b);
                if (hex.length() == 1)
                    hexString.append('0');
                hexString.append(hex);
            }
            return hexString.toString();
        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String appid = "your_appid";
        String appkey = "your_appkey";
        String channel_id = "your_channel_id";
        String user_id = "your_user_id";

        String base64token = createBase64Token(appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id);
        System.out.println("Base64 Token: " + base64token);
    }
}

package main

import (
	"crypto/sha256"
	"encoding/base64"
	"encoding/hex"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"time"
)

func createBase64Token(appid, appkey, channelID, userID string) (string, error) {
	// Calculate the expiration timestamp (24 hours from now)
	timestamp := time.Now().Add(24 * time.Hour).Unix()

	// Concatenate the strings
	stringBuilder := appid + appkey + channelID + userID + fmt.Sprintf("%d", timestamp)

	// Calculate the SHA-256 hash
	hasher := sha256.New()
	hasher.Write([]byte(stringBuilder))
	token := hasher.Sum(nil)

	// Convert the hash to a hexadecimal string using encoding/hex
	tokenHex := hex.EncodeToString(token)

	// Create the JSON object
	tokenJSON := map[string]interface{}{
		"appid":     appid,
		"channelid": channelID,
		"userid":    userID,
		"nonce":     "",
		"timestamp": timestamp,
		"token":     tokenHex,
	}

	// Convert the JSON object to a string and encode it in Base64
	jsonBytes, err := json.Marshal(tokenJSON)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	base64Token := base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(jsonBytes)

	return base64Token, nil
}

func main() {
	appid := "your_appid"
	appkey := "your_appkey"
	channelID := "your_channel_id"
	userID := "your_user_id"

	token, err := createBase64Token(appid, appkey, channelID, userID)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("Error creating token:", err)
		return
	}
	fmt.Println("Base64 Token:", token)
}

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-

import hashlib
import datetime
import time
import base64
import json

def create_base64_token(app_id, app_key, channel_id, user_id):
    expire = datetime.datetime.now() + datetime.timedelta(days=1)
    timestamp = int(time.mktime(expire.timetuple()))
    h = hashlib.sha256()
    h.update(str(app_id).encode('utf-8'))
    h.update(str(app_key).encode('utf-8'))
    h.update(str(channel_id).encode('utf-8'))
    h.update(str(user_id).encode('utf-8'))
    h.update(str(timestamp).encode('utf-8'))
    token = h.hexdigest()

    jsonToken = {'appid':app_id,
                 'channelid':channel_id,
                 'userid':user_id,
                 'nonce':'',
                 'timestamp':timestamp,
                 'token':token
                }
    base64Token = base64.b64encode(json.dumps(jsonToken).encode())

    return base64Token

def main():
    app_id = 'your_appid'
    app_key = 'your_appkey'
    channel_id = 'your_channel_id'
    user_id = 'your_user_id'

    base64Token = create_base64_token(app_id, app_key, channel_id, user_id)
    
    print(base64Token)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

'use strict'
const crypto = require('crypto')
function create_base64_token(appid, appkey, channelid, userid) {
    let timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000 + 24 * 60 * 60)

    let string_builder = appid + appkey + channelid + userid + timestamp.toString()
    let token = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(string_builder).digest('hex')
    let base64tokenJson = {
        appid:appid,
        channelid:channelid,
        userid:userid,
        nonce:'',
        timestamp:timestamp,
        token:token
    }
    let base64token = Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(base64tokenJson), 'utf-8').toString('base64')
    return base64token
}

let appid = "your_appid";
let appkey = "your_appkey";
let channel_id = "your_channel_id";
let user_id = "your_user_id";

let base64token = create_base64_token(appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id)
console.log(base64token)

use chrono::{Duration, Utc};
use sha2::{Sha256, Digest};
use serde_json::json;
use base64::encode;

fn create_base64_token(appid: &str, appkey: &str, channel_id: &str, user_id: &str) -> String {
    // Calculate the expiration timestamp (24 hours from now)
    let timestamp = (Utc::now() + Duration::hours(24)).timestamp();

    // Concatenate the strings
    let string_builder = format!("{}{}{}{}{}", appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id, timestamp);

    // Calculate the SHA-256 hash
    let mut hasher = Sha256::new();
    hasher.update(string_builder);
    let token = hasher.finalize();
    let token_hex = format!("{:x}", token);

    // Create the JSON object
    let token_json = json!({
        "appid": appid,
        "channelid": channel_id,
        "userid": user_id,
        "nonce": "",
        "timestamp": timestamp,
        "token": token_hex
    });

    // Convert the JSON object to a string and encode it in Base64
    let base64_token = encode(token_json.to_string());

    base64_token
}

fn main() {
    let appid = "your_appid";
    let appkey = "your_appkey";
    let channel_id = "your_channel_id";
    let user_id = "your_user_id";

    let token = create_base64_token(appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id);
    println!("Base64 Token: {}", token);
}

Client API call examples

After the client obtains the Base64 token from your app server, it uses the token to join the channel.

• Android:

  // You can set channelId and userId to null. If you pass values for channelId and userId, they must match those used to generate the token. You can use this feature to verify parameter consistency between the server and the client.
  // base64Token is the Base64-encoded token.
  // username is an identifier passed for troubleshooting purposes.
  mAliRtcEngine.joinChannel(base64Token, null, null, "username");

• iOS:

  // You can set channelId and userId to null. If you pass values for channelId and userId, they must match those used to generate the token. You can use this feature to verify parameter consistency between the server and the client.
  // base64Token is the Base64-encoded token.
  // username is an identifier passed for troubleshooting purposes.
  [self.engine joinChannel:base64Token channelId:nil userId:nil name:@"username" onResultWithUserId:nil];

Multi-parameter method

The ARTC SDK also provides a multi-parameter API for joining a channel. This method uses the AliRtcAuthInfo data structure to store the token and user information for authentication.

• Android:

  // Pass the token and user information for the multi-parameter method.
  AliRtcAuthInfo authInfo = new AliRtcAuthInfo();
  authInfo.appId = appId;
  authInfo.channelId = channelId;
  authInfo.userId = userId;
  authInfo.timestamp = timestamp;
  authInfo.nonce = nonce;
  authInfo.token = token;
  // Join the channel.
  mAliRtcEngine.joinChannel(authInfo, "");

• iOS:

  // Pass the token and user information for the multi-parameter method.
  let authInfo = AliRtcAuthInfo()
  authInfo.appId = appId
  authInfo.channelId = channelId
  authInfo.nonce = nonce
  authInfo.userId = userId
  authInfo.timestamp = timestamp
  authInfo.token = authToken
  // Join the channel.
  self.rtcEngine?.joinChannel(authInfo, name: nil)