OAuth2 iOS Example

This guide shows example code for an iOS app that connects to a reddit account. For details on each step, see the full OAuth2 login docs.

OAuth2 Web App Sample code

First Steps

Go to your app preferences. Click the "Create app" or "Create another app" button. Fill out the form like so:

• name: My Example App
• App type: Choose the installed app option
• description: You can leave this blank
• about url: You can leave this blank
• redirect url: myappscheme://somethingorblank

Hit the "create app" button. Make note of the client ID. Installed apps do not use secrets. For the rest of this page, it will be assumed that:

• Your app's client ID is: Bq9yaGfIVdJXTQ
• Your app's redirect URL is: myappscheme://response

Note: The client IDs, tokens and passwords used here are, obviously, fake and invalid.

###How Installed app OAuth flows work

1. App opens a webpage for the user to login and authenticate with reddit.
2. User authenticates in webview, and accepts app permissions in webview.
3. App receives a callback via the registered app scheme.
4. Your app dismisses the webview used for registration.

Note: Apple has rejected apps that go to Safari for the authentication process. We encourage you to do this in your app.

Register your scheme

In your Xcode project, navigate to the Info tab of Target settings. Add your URL scheme to the URL Types section. Here's a sample:

Setup your AppDelegate

The UIApplicationDelegate protocol has a method for handling URLs called application:openURL:sourceApplication:annotation. Implement it and you will be able to receive the authorization code without having to redirect users outside of your app.

Once OAuth is complete, you will receive a callback with a URL that looks something like this: myappscheme://response/?state=TEST&code=5HyYTQ1xc76kx2PLwe8Bnlr2L32.

You will need to parse out the code from the query string. Below is a sample of what that the AppDelegate method looks like:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation
{
    if ([url.scheme isEqualToString:@"myappscheme"]) {
        NSArray *queryParams = [[url query] componentsSeparatedByString:@"&"];
        NSArray *codeParam = [queryParams filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF BEGINSWITH %@", @"code="]];
        NSString *codeQuery = [codeParam objectAtIndex:0];
        NSString *code = [codeQuery stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"code=" withString:@""];
        NSLog(@"My code is %@", code);
        // Finish the OAuth flow with this code
        return YES;
    }
    
    return NO;
}

Showing the Authentication Screen

You will need to create an Authorization URL to show to the user in a web view.

Since this is an installed application, you always want to request duration=permanent to get a refresh token.

Example:

NSURL *authorizationURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://ssl.reddit.com/api/v1/authorize?client_id=Bq9yaGfIVdJXTQ&response_type=code&state=TEST&redirect_uri=myappscheme://response&duration=permanent&scope=read"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:authorizationURL];
[self.webView loadRequest:request];