API Authentication

The  Alteryx® REST APIs support the following methods of authentication.

Required Permissions

Authenticating user must be a valid user of the deployed instance of the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform.

API Access Token Authentication

API access tokens can be acquired and applied to your requests to obscure sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and are compliant with common privacy and security standards. These tokens last for a preconfigured time period and can be renewed as needed.

Basic Steps:

1. You submit a request to create a new access token.
   1. You can create and delete access tokens through the Settings area of the Designer Cloud application. See Access Tokens Page.

   2. You can create access tokens through the REST API endpoint.

      1. If you do not have a valid access token, you must submit your request to the endpoint using one of the other forms of authentication.
      2. If you do have a valid access token, you can use it with your submission to generate a new access token.
      3. See API AccessTokens Create v4.

2. With each request, you submit the token as part of the Authorization header. 
3. Continue using the token. As needed, you can create and use additional tokens. There is no limit to the number of tokens you can create.

Basic Authentication

As request parameters, you can submit username/password under Basic Auth to any REST API endpoint. 

Example:

This example submits authentication requirements over HTTP, including the username and password (me@example.com:me_pwd):

$ curl  -u me@example.com:me_pwd \
    -b ~/cookies.txt -c ~/cookies.txt \
    http://<platform_host>:<platform_port_number>/v4/<endpoint>

where:

SSO Authentication

You can use the APIs in SSO environments. Below, you can review the best method of authenticating to the APIs based on your SSO environment:

In a single sign-on environment, you can use basic authentication to interact with the APIs.

 However, some changes are required:

• Basic authentication to the gateway must be enabled as part of the configuration for the reverse proxy. This feature is enabled by default, but please verify that it has not been explicitly disabled in your environment. For more information, see Configure SSO for AD-LDAP.
• You must authenticate using the SSO principal as the username and the LDAP or AD password associated with that user. 
• You must authenticate to the SSO gateway.  In the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform, this value corresponds to the <platform_host>:<platform_port_number> value.

Example:

$ curl  -u myUser@example.com:foobar -x http://<platform_host>:<platform_port_number> \
    -b ~/cookies.txt -c ~/cookies.txt \
    http://<platform_host>:<platform_port_number>/v4/<endpoint>

For more information, see Configure SSO for AD-LDAP.

Kerberos Authentication

In a Kerberos environment, credentials must be submitted with each request using the SPNEGO Auth method.

• Kerberos is a network authentication protocol for client/server applications.
• SPNEGO provides a mechanism for extending Kerberos to Web applications through HTTP.
• For more information on the differences, see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995330.aspx#http-sso-2_topic2.

Credentials are authenticated by the KDC for each request. 

Example 1 - Embedded in Java:

SPNEGO requires a custom client. The following SPNEGO client enables submission of URL-based authentication parameters from within Java: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/security/jgss/lab/part5.html

Example 2 - Using cURL:

To use cURL:

1. Verify that your version of cURL supports GSS:
   
   

   $ curl -V
   curl 7.51.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin16.0) libcurl/7.51.0 SecureTransport zlib/1.2.8
   Protocols: dict file ftp ftps gopher http https imap imaps ldap ldaps pop3 pop3s rtsp smb smbs smtp smtps telnet tftp
   Features: AsynchDNS IPv6 Largefile GSS-API Kerberos SPNEGO NTLM NTLM_WB SSL libz UnixSockets

2. Verify that GSS-API and SPNEGO are in the output.

3. Run kinit and authenticate using the Hadoop principal:

   $ kinit
   Please enter the password for [hadoop.user.principal]@localhost:
   $ 

4. Access using cURL: 
   
   

   $ curl --negotiate -u anything \
       -b ~/cookies.txt -c ~/cookies.txt \
       http://<platform_host>:<platform_port_number>/v4/<endpoint>

   where:

   Parameter	Description
   --negotiate	Enables SPNEGO use in cURL. This option requires a library built with GSS-API or SSPI support. If this option is used several times, only the first one is used. Use --proxy-negotiate to enable Negotiate (SPNEGO) for proxy authentication.
   -u anything	Required username. However, this username is ignored. Instead, the principal used in kinit is applied.

For more information:

• https://hadoop.apache.org/docs/r2.7.3/hadoop-auth/Examples.html
• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995329.aspx

Logout

Since each request requires credentials, logging out is not required.