Authentication

There are two ways to authenticate: API Key authentication and Session-based authentication.

Authenticate with an API Key

Authenticating with an API key is the recommended authentication method for most scenarios, and is the method used in the examples on this site.

To use an API Key, first generate an API key from the web interface or via the API or an SDK.

A user key follows its account's permissions, narrowed by the key's permission scope, Workspace, and any path restriction on file operations. It can perform administrative operations only when both the account and key permit them. API Keys explains credential scope and lifecycle; Workspaces explains request context and delegated administration.

Example Request

Files.api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY'

begin
  # Alternatively, you can specify the API key on a per-request basis in the final parameter to any method or initializer.
  Files::User.new(params, api_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY')
rescue Files::NotAuthenticatedError => e
  puts "Authentication Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
rescue Files::Error => e
  puts "Unknown Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
end

Authenticate with a Session

Create a session with the username and password of an active user. The session uses that user's permissions, including any delegated administrative access. Workspaces describes account scope and administrative access.

Sessions use the exact same session timeout settings as web interface sessions. When a session times out, simply create a new session and resume where you left off. This process is not automatically handled by our SDKs because we do not want to store password information in memory without your explicit consent.

Logging In

To create a session, the create method is called on the Files::Session object with the user's username and password.

This returns a session object that can be used to authenticate SDK method calls.

Example Request

begin
  session = Files::Session.create(username: "username", password: "password")
rescue Files::NotAuthenticatedError => e
  puts "Authentication Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
rescue Files::Error => e
  puts "Unknown Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
end

Using a Session

Once a session has been created, you can store the session globally, use the session per object, or use the session per request to authenticate SDK operations.

Example Requests

# You may set the returned session to be used by default for subsequent requests.
Files.session = session

begin
  # Alternatively, you can specify the session ID on a per-object basis in the second parameter to a model constructor.
  user = Files::User.new(params, session_id: session.id)
  
  # You may also specify the session ID on a per-request basis in the final parameter to static methods.
  Files::Group.list({}, session_id: session.id)
rescue Files::NotAuthenticatedError => e
  puts "Authentication Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
rescue Files::Error => e
  puts "Unknown Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
end

Logging Out

User sessions can be ended calling the destroy method on the session object.

Example Request

begin
  session.destroy()
rescue Files::NotAuthenticatedError => e
  puts "Authentication Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
rescue Files::Error => e
  puts "Unknown Error Occurred (#{e.class.to_s}): " + e.message
end