Development API

Brightspace API Authentication Guide - ID Key Auth

The Brightspace API provides developers with two Authentication approaches: OAuth 2.0 and our own proprietary Id Key Auth. This Authentication Guide covers ID Key Auth, but please note that we encourage you to use the OAuth 2.0 standard as that is where we at D2L are investing.

ID Key Auth

ID Key Authorization is a proprietary authentication solution that allows developers to write applications that access different services on behalf of a user.

Because ID Key Auth is unique to Brightspace we recommend developers use our standards-based OAuth 2.0 as it is our recommended authentication approach.

Workflow

Register a new ID Key App using the Brightspace Manage Extensibility tool
- Set the new App’s Trusted URL to be that of the API Test Tool
Request an API Token
Requesting User is redirected to their Brightspace Login page
After the user successfully authenticates a User ID Key pair is returned to the Trusted URL (in this case the API Test Tool).

All subsequent Brightspace API calls then must include the App ID and User ID, as well as a computationally generated App Sig and User Sig values. The signature values are typically generated using a Brightspace API SDK.

A very detailed technical ID Key Auth workflow is available here.

Resources