Foursquare native authentication makes it easier for your app's users to connect with Foursquare. Unlike web-based OAuth, native authentication re-uses the Foursquare app's user credentials, saving users the hassle of re-logging in to Foursquare within your app.
Foursquare native authentication makes it easier for your app’s users to connect with Foursquare. Unlike web-based OAuth, native authentication re-uses the Foursquare app’s user credentials, saving users the hassle of re-logging in to Foursquare within your app.
This repo includes a helper class (FSOAuth) that can be used as-is in your own app. It also includes a simple test application as an example of how to use the class.
At http://foursquare.com/developers/apps enter the URL callback in the “Redirect URI(s)” field that you wish to Foursquare to use to return users to your app after authenticating. You can add multiple URIs in this field, separate them with commas. To support iOS 9, you will have to use a universal link (http or https). To support earlier iOS versions you will need to use a native custom URL scheme (e.g. yourappname://foursquare). If possible you should support both types of URL and register both as your redirect URIs.
If you are supporting native URL schemes (iOS 8 and below), add your callback URL scheme to your app’s Info.plist file (in the URL types field).
If you are supporting universal links, you will need to set up your callback url appropriately. See Apple’s documentation for more information.
Add FSOAuth.{h,m} to your Xcode project. If you are using git for version control in your app, we recommend adding this repo as a submodule to yours to make it easier to get future updates. FSOAuth can be added to a project using CocoaPods.
FSOAuth has three primary methods.
+ (FSOAuthStatusCode)authorizeUserUsingClientId:(NSString *)clientID
nativeURICallbackString:(NSString *)nativeURICallbackString
universalURICallbackString:(NSString *)universalURICallbackString
allowShowingAppStore:(BOOL)allowShowingAppStore
presentFromViewController:(UIViewController *)presentFromViewController;
Call this method with your app’s client ID and callback string(s) to authorize a user with Foursquare. On iOS 9 or greater, a webview will be presented; on iOS 8 or lower, if a current version of the Foursquare app is installed, it will bounce the user out to that app and present them with an authorization dialog. After the user chooses Accept or Deny, your app will receive a callback at the url specified with the accessCode for the user attached.
The method will automatically select the correct callback string to use based on what version of iOS your app is running on. If your app runs on iOS 8 or lower you MUST support native URL schemes. If you are on iOS 9 or greater you may just use native scheme, but it is recommended you also provide a universal link callback if possible.
Note: Your callbacks MUST be added to the “Redirect URI(s)” field at http://foursquare.com/developers/apps or users will see an error message instead of the authorization prompt.
This method has five possible return values:
If running on iOS 9 or above, you will not be able to get NotInstalled or NotSupported return values, as apps can no longer freely check what URL schemes are registered with the system. Instead, if an appropriate version of the Foursquare app is not installed, the web version of the Foursquare OAuth page will open in Safari.
If the allowShowingAppStore param is set to YES, then when returning FSOAuthStatusErrorFoursquareNotInstalled or FSOAuthStatusErrorFoursquareOAuthNotSupported, this method will present the user with the Foursquare app’s page on the App Store so that the may easily install or update the app (by bouncing them out to the App Store app, or by presenting a modal StoreKit sheet if running on iOS 6+ and compiled with at least the iOS 6 SDK). If you pass NO, you should manually handle these two return values appropriately. This parameter has no effect if running on iOS 9 or later as there is no way to detect if Foursquare is installed when using universal links.
+ (nullable NSString *)accessCodeForFSOAuthURL:(NSURL *)url
+ error:(nullable FSOAuthErrorCode *)errorCode;
Call this method when you receive the callback from Foursquare, passing in the NSURL object you received. It will parse out the access code and error code (if any) from the URL’s parameters and return them to you.
NOTE: Your app may receive access code callbacks that it did not initiate (e.g. by a user initially choosing to connect to your app via a screen in the Foursquare app). Therefore you should not rely on your app being in any particular state when your callback is received.
The possible error code values are:
+ (void)requestAccessTokenForCode:(NSString *)accessCode
clientId:(NSString *)clientID
callbackURIString:(NSString *)callbackURIString
clientSecret:(NSString *)clientSecret
completionBlock:(FSTokenRequestCompletionBlock)completionBlock;
This method will initiate an asynchronous network request to Foursquare to convert a user’s access code into an auth token.
WARNING: For security reasons, it is recommended that you not use this method if possible. You should pass the returned accessCode to your own server and have it contact the Foursquare server to convert the code to an access token instead of including your client secret in your app’s binary. However, this helper method is provided for you to use if this is not possible for your app.
Call this method with the access code returned to you by +accessCodeForFSOAuthURL:error: along with your app’s Foursquare client ID, callback string, and client secret. The callback URI must be the same one that was used to generate the access code.
When the network request completes, your completion block will be called. The block has the following signature:
typedef void (^FSTokenRequestCompletionBlock)(NSString *authToken, BOOL requestCompleted, FSOAuthErrorCode errorCode);
authToken will be set to the Foursquare OAuth token for the user if the request succeeded.
errorCode is an error code from the Foursquare server. It has the same possible values as the errorCode from +accessCodeForFSOAuthURL:error:. (See above.)
requestCompleted will be YES if the network request actually completed properly or NO if it did not. If this is NO, the values of authToken and errorCode should be ignored. If NO, you may want to re-try the request again after checking that the user has a valid internet connection. This could also indicate a temporary problem with the Foursquare servers.
The example application can be used as a simple reference for how to use the FSOAuth in your class, as well as a basic test to make sure your client id and secret is working properly.
The app will present you with fields to enter your client id, client secret, and callback URL. It has two buttons. The first initates the fast app switch to the Foursquare app and gets the access code. The second converts a received access code to a token by contacting the Foursquare servers. This will only work after first successfully receiving an access code from the initial Foursquare fast app switch.
The app itself uses “fsoauthexample” as its schema. If you want to be redirected back to it after the fast app switch (instead of to your own app) you will need to add an fsoauthexample redirect URI to your app’s settings on foursquare.com (or change the Info.plist and FSViewController.m’s -handleURL: method to match one of your existing redirect schemas). This is necessary for the code → token conversion functionality to work.
You should hard code all these values in your own application. Your client secret should be stored only on your own server, if possible, and not included in the app at all.
The example application contains code showing you how to set up universal link callback handling. However as it has no matching https url that will launch it, you cannot actually use a universal link callback to go back to it out of the box.
See https://developer.foursquare.com for more information on how to use the Foursquare API. foursquare-ios-oauth is currently maintained by Sam Grossberg (@samgro).