Authentication - QuickBlox

Every user needs to authenticate with QuickBlox before using any QuickBlox functionality. When someone connects with an application using QuickBlox, the application needs to obtain a session token which provides temporary secure access to QuickBlox APIs. A session token is an opaque string that identifies a user and an application. Visit Key Concepts page to learn the most important QuickBlox concepts.

Before you begin

Register a QuickBlox account. This is a matter of a few minutes and you will be able to use this account to build your apps.
Configure QuickBlox SDK for your app. Check out Setup page for more details.

Session token rights

There are different types of session tokens to support different use cases.

Application session token	Description
Application session token	This kind of access token is needed to read the app data. Has only READ access to resources. The expiration time after the last REST API request is 2 hours.
User session token	The user token is the most commonly used type of token. This kind of access token is needed any time the app calls an API to read, modify or write a specific user’s data on their behalf. Has READ/WRITE access to resources. The expiration time after the last REST API request is 2 hours.

Get session

You can check whether you have a session or not.

Dart

try {
  QBSession? session = await QB.auth.getSession();
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
  // some error occurred, look at the exception message for more details
}

Before you log in the user, you must create the user on QuickBlox. Recommendations are below:

For POCs/MVPs: Create the user using the QuickBlox Dashboard or in client app with application session token.
For production apps: Use the QuickBlox Create User API with API key on your backend to create the user when your user signs up in your app.

SecurityIt’s recommended to disable permission to create users with application session on production apps once user creation is implemented on your backend.

You can create a user with application session token in client app by calling createUser() method.

Bash

String login = "johnsmith";
String password = "superPassword";
String fullName = "John Smith";

try {
  QBUser? user = await QB.users.createUser(login, password, fullName: fullName);
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
  // Some error occurred, look at the exception message for more details
}

Log in user

If you have an application session, you can upgrade it to a user session by calling login() method.

Dart

String login = "johnsmith";
String password = "superPassword";

try {
  QBLoginResult result = await QB.auth.login('login', 'password');
  QBUser? qbUser = result.qbUser;
  QBSession? qbSession = result.qbSession;
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
  // some error occurred, look at the exception message for more details
}

Log out user

If you have a user session, you can downgrade it to an application session by calling logout() method.

Dart

try {
  await QB.auth.logout();
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
  // some error occurred, look at the exception message for more details
}

Session expiration

The expiration time for a session token is 2 hours. If you will perform a query with an expired token, you will receive an error: Required session does not exist. In this case, you have to recreate the session token. In Flutter SDK since version 0.9.0, we have a listener to find if the session token has expired.

Dart

await QB.auth.subscribeAuthEvent(QBAuthEvents.SESSION_EXPIRED, (data) {
  // handle session expired event
});

Set existing session

Typically, a session token is stored in SDK after successful login and used for every subsequent API call. However, you may want to obtain and store the session on your server for better security. In this case, you can set application or user token into SDK using the startSessionWithToken() method, also before calling the method to get notified that the session has expired you need to add session expiration listener. Don’t forget to log in user if you pass the application token.

Dart

try {
  String sessionToken = "8b75a6c7191285499d890a81df4ee7fe49bc732a";
  QBSession? session = await QB.auth.startSessionWithToken(sessionToken);
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
  // some error occurred, look at the exception message for more details
}

If you have a version lower than 0.9.0, you can set the existing session token into SDK using the setSession() method.

Dart

try {
  QBSession? session = QBSession();
  session!.applicationId = 76730;
  session!.userId = 567527986;
  session!.expirationDate = "2025-01-23T01:23:45.678+09:00";
  session!.token = "8b75a6c7191285499d890a81df4ee7fe49bc732a";
  QBSession? sessionResult = await QB.auth.setSession(session);
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
  // some error occurred, look at the exception message for more details
}

Set the following fields of the qbSession.

Field	Required	Description
applicationId	yes	Application ID.
userId	yes	User ID.
expirationDate	yes	Session token expiration date.
token	yes	QuickBlox session token.

​Before you begin

​Session token rights

​Get session

​Sign up user

​Log in user

​Log out user

​Session expiration

​Set existing session

Before you begin

Session token rights

Get session

Sign up user

Log in user

Log out user

Session expiration

Set existing session