API Key Authentication

API Key Authentication typically involves clients sending a unique API key with each request, often in a header or as a query parameter. Similar to Basic Authentication, it does not involve the dynamic exchange of tokens, limiting the applicability of token-specific hooks.

Applicable Hooks:

get_secret_keys: To add sensitive credential fields to mask in logs.
modify_session: To add the API key to the appropriate HTTP header or query parameter for authenticated requests.

The most common method of sending the API key is in a header and this is currently supported by the out of the box API Key Authenticator as defined in the API Key Auth section. However the API key can also be in the query parameters. The following examples show how they can be easily supported.

API Key in Query parameter

The following example shows how the modify_session hook can be used to support cases where the key should be sent in a query parameter. In this case the example will be to access the FRED database. The following is an example of a url call: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/observations?series_id=GNPCA&api_key=*****&file_type=json

Notice that query parameters of api_key=***** and the file_type=json are required parameters. The existing Universal Credential in Low-code Tools can be leveraged. In this case, the API Key Authentication mechanism is selected, the url is entered, and the key is entered in the API key field.

Note

The Authorization Header field in the credential should be set to Authorization.

In order to support this, the modify_session hook is used to add those parameters. For this case, the existing credential in Low-code Tools was used. It is important to note that in the credential there is a field called Authenticator Override. That field must be populated with the name of your authenticator. (In this case it is FREDApiKeyAuth).

Ideally, there is only a single line of code that needs to be created and this is shown as follows: session.params = {'api_key':auth_info['Authorization'],'file_type':'json'} The above statement adds two params to the api call with the first being api_key:***** where ***** is the api_key that was entered in the Authorization Header credential field.

Note

Authenticators make use of session properties extensively. See Request Sessions for all the session properties.

from silo.apps.errors import error_manager
with error_manager(self):

    from silo.low_code import *
    from silo.apps.collection import create_collections, save_collections

    # =====================================
    # =========== User Editable ===========
    # =====================================
    # List any custom substitutions that need to occur within the snippet arguments
    from silo.auth import create_api_key_authenticator

    custom_substitution = {}

    def modify_session_hook(session, auth_info):
        session.params = {'api_key':auth_info['Authorization'],'file_type':'json'}

    create_api_key_authenticator(
        name="FREDApiKeyAuth",
        description="A configurable API Key authenticator usable for testing.",
        modify_session=modify_session_hook,
    )

    # =====================================
    # ========= End User Editable =========
    # =====================================


    collections = create_collections(self)
    snippet_framework(collections, custom_substitution, snippet_id, app=self)
    save_collections(collections, self)