How to get LinkedIn API access token without a redirect

Question

I'm trying to use LinkedIn's API to access Universities LinkedIn pages to periodically collect how many followers they have. This seems doable, but I cant seem to generate an access token without having some weird redirect URL that has to take you to a GUI login page!

I'm using node.js for this, specifically this package: https://www.npmjs.org/package/node-linkedin

I have a API key and secret, so all I need is a access token then I'll be set to actually start using their API routes.

var Linkedin  = require('node-linkedin')('KEY', 'SECRET', 'callback');
var linkedin = Linkedin.init('my_access_token'); // need a token to initialise!

Any ideas?

Edit: Here's my code so far:

var Linkedin  = require('node-linkedin')('KEY', 'SECRET', './oauth/linkedin/callback');

app.get('/oauth/linkedin', function(req, res) {
  // This will ask for permisssions etc and redirect to callback url.
  Linkedin.auth.authorize(res, ['r_basicprofile', 'r_fullprofile', 'r_emailaddress', 'r_network', 'r_contactinfo', 'rw_nus', 'rw_groups', 'w_messages']);
});

app.get('/oauth/linkedin/callback', function(req, res) {
  Linkedin.auth.getAccessToken(res, req.query.code, function(err, results) {
    if ( err )
        return console.error(err);

    /**
     * Results have something like:
     * {"expires_in":5184000,"access_token":". . . ."}
     */

    console.log(results);
    var linkedin  = Linkedin.init(result);
    return res.redirect('/');
  });
});

Muimuir

you're not authenticating.. github.com/ArkeologeN/node-linkedin#oauth-20 – Blomquist

so i need to use this route? /oauth/linkedin/callback – Muimuir

I get this error when I go there {"error_description":"missing required parameters, includes an invalid parameter value, parameter more than once. : Unable to retrieve access token : authorization code not found","error":"invalid_request"} – Muimuir

can you post code of your auth ? with your callback ? credentials cleared ofc – Blomquist

are you using relative directory in the callback url for any particular reason ? – Blomquist

only because I'm on localhost at the moment and don't want to swap it over to the live url when it's done, I get this with the whole url: i.imgur.com/5jjvbZZ.jpg Seems impossible to dev for, as it wants the url of the live app! – Muimuir

i mean on your require constructor, you're using a relative callbacl, './oauth/linkedin/callback' im sure its no problem.. but just incase – Blomquist

yeah I changed it to http://localhost:3000/oauth/linkedin/callback and got this error: i.imgur.com/5jjvbZZ.jpg – Muimuir

looks like you need to add the URL to your KEY : developer.linkedin.com/forum/… – Blomquist

i.imgur.com/OragoZN.png This is what I'm trying to avoid, I dont want this annoying GUI login page, I just want it to back end authenticate, as this script is supposed to run automatically on its own monthly – Muimuir

@Blomquist thanks for your help man, but I think it's impossible, man this API sucks – Muimuir

It has to be possible, but i agree with you, i don't enjoy Oath, as a user of it or developer for it! – Blomquist

Did you come up with any solution without having to manually grant access every 60 days with the GUI? – Toluol

I don't think it's possible without human interaction at some point, their way of stopping people from mining it I guess! – Muimuir

Answer 1

What you are trying to do is an application-only authentication, it seems linkedIn has removed this option unlike facebook and twitter. As from now it is only possible to authenticate as a user. If you really want to skip the redirect you could use something like PhantomJS which is a headerless browser. But i strongly recommend you not to do so as LinkedIn requires a user to authenticate in their license agreement. I don't know if it is legal but you could provide yourself an end-point which you use to generate the authentication_code and access_token and then save it to a database (60 days valid by default).

Draughtsman