uber api - Take Me Home Now app - invalid access token - node JS

Question

I'm trying to implement this prototype app: https://github.com/agraebe/Take-Me-Home-Now As a disclaimer, I'm fairly new to Node JS and API integration. I'd like to get the code functioning to show that I properly implement this OAuth2 workflow, and saw this app as a good way to practice that.

I'm having trouble obtaining an access token and receive the error: Invalid access token when I go to localhost:1455, and then click the "Login to request ride" button.

I've seen various reasons on stackoverflow. One could be that I need to have requests approved by Uber. I wouldn't think so though, since the code is using sandbox and not production.

My redirect uri is set as https://login.uber.com/oauth/v2/authorize?client_id=client_id&response_type=code with "client_id" set as my client id in that link. I've made sure the redirect uri matches what I have in the app developer account page.

Also, I've hard coded the details into the config.js file, since I've seen someone mention on stackoverflow that storing the environment variables could be an issue from the error I was receiving.

please help... thanks!

Answer 1

I created the Take-Me-Home-Now app. Assuming you already installed all the dependencies (npm install in the project root folder), here are some things to consider:

• You should disable your ad-blocker to ensure that's not the issue
• You have to configure your app in the Uber Developer Dashboard:
  • Create a new app
  • Go to the authorizations tab and set the following configuration:
  • redirect url: http://localhost:1455/api/callback
  • origin url: http://localhost:1455/
  • general scopes: enable all the scopes (except for the priviliged ones)
  • Go to the settings tab and copy over the required credentials (client id, server token, and client secret). You will need them to start the NodeJS server, like this: client_id=[1] client_secret=[2] server_token=[3] redirect_uri=[4] mashape_key=[5] node app.js
• In order to make use of the gender-awareness feature, you'd need to get an account with Mashape (Face++). As you might have realized already, the start command above also requires this key.

Answer 2

When you register your app with uber, you will have to define a callback URL. Even if it is your development machine (i.e. localhost:1455) When you send the request to the Auth server, you provide a client_id, response_type and callback_url.

When the user successfully authenticates, Uber sends back a code (hence the response_type=code) as a URL parameter to your callback URL. This code is NOT the token. This code is then used to get the token using the client_id, client_secret and code.

I would suggest doing some reading on how oAuth works to get a better understanding.