Android Tumblr oAuth Confusion

Asked 15/10, 2011 at 3:47 Answered 18/5, 2016 at 13:37

I'm trying to implement the Tumblr API in an Android app. I'm really getting stuck with authorizing a user so that they can do things such as post and view their dashboard. I don't really understand oAuth, and the Tumblr API documentation sort of skips right over it. I have no idea if I'm supposed to prompt the user for their credentials, or what to do with those once I have them, or anything like that. I added the Signpost library to my project, but I've been scratching my head since then. Anybody familiar with oAuth on Android who would care to fill me in? Thanks!

Dambrosio answered 15/10, 2011 at 3:47 Comment(1)

check this tutorial : android-ios-tutorials.com/920/tumblr-login-using-sign-post – Curmudgeon 16/9, 2014 at 17:1

Yes, the documentation is not that good. You should first read about OAuth. Twitter has a good overview.

First of all you need a consumer key and secret (you can get those by registering your app in tumblr). After that, you should use the auth URLs that Tumblr provides to get the authorization from the user. Usually you will generate a request URL, from which you can take the user to the browser where he/she will login and authorize your app. This will trigger a callback to your app, and you will be able to get the oAuth token. Save this in your app (SharedPreferences) so that you won't need to ask the user again to authenticate. With this token you will be able to interact with Tumblr's API that requires authentication.

Note that you could also implement a webview instead of making the user use the browser. Though, this requires a bit more of work.

I have found that the latest signpost library does not work well with Tumblr. You will need a bit older version. Head here and download these files:

signpost-core-1.2.jar
signpost-commonshttp4-1.2.jar (this is needed specially if you want to target pre-froyo devices)

Import both libraries to your project. To use them, basically you need to call the following code:

CommonsHttpOAuthConsumer consumer = new CommonsHttpOAuthConsumer(CONSUMER_KEY,
         CONSUMER_SECRET);
CommonsHttpOAuthProvider provider = new CommonsHttpOAuthProvider(
         REQUEST_TOKEN_URL,
         ACCESS_TOKEN_URL,
         AUTH_URL);
String authUrl = provider.retrieveRequestToken(consumer, CALLBACK_URL);

CALLBACK_URL could be something like this: "tumblrapp://tumblrapp.com/ok". There is no need to set the callback URL on the Tumblr settings.

Also, you will need to set an intent filter so your app gets called after authorization. Make sure that your Manifest looks like this:

            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
                <data android:scheme="tumblrapp"/>
            </intent-filter>

Now after authentication you can get the token like this:

Uri uri = this.getIntent().getData();
if (uri != null) {
   String token = uri.getQueryParameter("oauth_token");
}

I made a quick sample app. You can check it out here. You might want to move the request to a background thread as it will block the UI.

Arbalest answered 15/10, 2011 at 7:35 Comment(15)

Okay, this is incredibly helpful. So after I've gotten the token, should I store it into a SharedPreference, and then use that to check whether or not to prompt the authentication when the app is opened? Also, I'm going for the WebView, which is hard, but I just started so I won't beg for help yet haha – Dambrosio 18/10, 2011 at 2:55

Yes, you should store it in SharedPreferences and check it wether to authenticate the user or not. You might want also to give the user the ability to log out in your app (just delete the stored preference). WebView is not that hard, it is only a bit more of work :) – Arbalest 18/10, 2011 at 3:42

In my webview, it first shows the Tumblr homescreen with registration and login, then after logging in it shows this: 27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lt8r7iR3pK1r0bu28o1_500.png and then after I click Allow, it takes me to a 404 page with the CALLBACK_URL in the center... Confused haha – Dambrosio 18/10, 2011 at 3:54

Did you add the intent filter? Also, does the callback url match the one in the intent filter? – Arbalest 18/10, 2011 at 4:12

For a webview it might be a bit different. I think you might want to subclass a WebViewClient and override shouldOverrideUrlLoading and check if the url starts with your CALLBACK_URL string (you can use url.startsWith(...)). Then you can just parse the URL to get the token or you might be able to use provider.retrieveAccessToken(consumer, oauthVerifier). – Arbalest 18/10, 2011 at 4:22

Do you think it'd be better to do my WebView dialog in a separate activity, or load it using dialog.show()? Thanks for all your help, really – Dambrosio 18/10, 2011 at 4:38

let us continue this discussion in chat – Dambrosio 18/10, 2011 at 4:39

@JanS.: Hi Jans, this post is very helpful. The sample code works fine. now i want to clear my older credentials when i click the button (similar to logout funtionality). How can i do this – Plasterwork 27/6, 2012 at 10:39

@Aerrow: Assuming you stored the token on SharedPreferences, you just need to delete it whenever the user logs out. – Arbalest 29/6, 2012 at 3:11

github.com/janfsd/TumblrOAuthDemo is unavailable could anyone share this sample project. – Armpit 21/12, 2012 at 14:40

Sry changed my username in Github. The url is now github.com/jansanz/TumblrOAuthDemo – Arbalest 22/12, 2012 at 3:18

I have diwnloaded this sample i.e "github.com/jansanz/TumblrOAuthDemo" and i have replaced consumer key and consumer secret.But when i run this app i am getting this error:java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: oauth.signpost.commonshttp.CommonsHttpOAuthConsumer. Plz any one help me – Primeval 29/5, 2013 at 13:13

Hi, I've no problem in using your sample code to get oauth_token and oauth_verifier. But may I know how to convert these into oauth_token and oauth_token_secret? – Izaguirre 16/9, 2013 at 6:54

sample code is good, but can u plz answer my question #21739514. I want to post image on tumblr – Pak 13/2, 2014 at 3:6

@venkat : check this tutorial : android-ios-tutorials.com/920/tumblr-login-using-sign-post – Curmudgeon 16/9, 2014 at 17:2

Just so new people coming in have an easier way to implement this, There's an Android Library on GitHub to login the user for you. It returns the Tokens so you may use them with Jumblr Library.

Edit 1:

On Recommendation of Bhargav Rao & tttony, below is an elaboration of the login process for Tumblr. Though I recommend using the library as it takes care of the messy part, for those who like getting their hands dirty...

The Tumblr Login is a 3 staged process. For info on what OAuth is, refer this simplified guide

1) Using httpOAuthprovider in the signpost library, generate a request token.

            //Generate a new oAuthConsumer object
            commonsHttpOAuthConsumer
                    = new CommonsHttpOAuthConsumer(
                    "Consumer Key",
                    "Consumer Secret Key");
            //Generate a new oAuthProvider object
            commonsHttpOAuthProvider
                    = new CommonsHttpOAuthProvider(
                    "https://www.tumblr.com/oauth/request_token",
                    "https://www.tumblr.com/oauth/access_token",
                    "https://www.tumblr.com/oauth/authorize");
            //Retrieve the URL to which the user must be sent in order to authorize the consumer
            return commonsHttpOAuthProvider.retrieveRequestToken(
                    commonsHttpOAuthConsumer,
                    "Callback URL as registered with Tumblr"
            );

2) The response of the previous return statement is a URL which the user should be redirected to for him to login to Tumblr and authorize your app. I did this in a webview for better control of app flow. Refer this for info on how to load content to WebViews. Attach a WebView client and override the shouldOverrideUrlLoading method. This will enable you to intercept URLs before they are loaded. Post Authorization, tumblr issues an OAuthVerifier which will be used to exchange for Tokens.

public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String strUrl) {
                //Log Current loading URL
                Log.i(TAG, strUrl);
                //Check if the Currently loading URL is that of the call back URL mentioned on top
                if (strUrl.toLowerCase().contains("Callback URL".toLowerCase())) {
                    //Parse string URL to conver to URI
                    Uri uri = Uri.parse(strUrl);
                    //instantiate String variables to store OAuth & Verifier tokens
                    String strOAuthToken = "";
                    String strOAuthVerifier = "";
                    //Iterate through Parameters retrieved on the URL
                    for (String strQuery : uri.getQueryParameterNames())
                        switch (strQuery) {
                            case "oauth_token":
                                //Save OAuth Token
                                //Note : This is not the login token we require to set on JumblrToken
                                strOAuthToken = uri.getQueryParameter(strQuery);
                                break;

                            case "oauth_verifier":
                                //Save OAuthVerifier
                                strOAuthVerifier = uri.getQueryParameter(strQuery);
                                break;
                        }
                }

3) Exchange the OAuthVerifier for access tokens.

try {
        //Queries the service provider for access tokens. The method does not return anything.
        //It stores the OAuthToken & OAuthToken secret in the commonsHttpOAuthConsumer object.
        commonsHttpOAuthProvider.retrieveAccessToken(commonsHttpOAuthConsumer, strOAuthVerifier);
        //Check if tokens were received. If Yes, save them to SharedPreferences for later use.
        if(!TextUtils.isEmpty(commonsHttpOAuthConsumer.getToken())) {
            Log.i(TAG, "OAuthToken : " + commonsHttpOAuthConsumer.getToken());
        }

        if(!TextUtils.isEmpty(commonsHttpOAuthConsumer.getTokenSecret())) {    
            Log.i(TAG, "OAuthSecretToken : " + commonsHttpOAuthConsumer.getTokenSecret());
        }
    } catch (OAuthCommunicationException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    } catch (OAuthExpectationFailedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    } catch (OAuthNotAuthorizedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    } catch (OAuthMessageSignerException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    }

4) Once Token and TokenSecret are retrieved, use them with Jumblr to continue using TumblrAPIs.

Lancelancelet answered 18/5, 2016 at 13:37 Comment(0)

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