Illuminate for partners
PubNub partners can embed Illuminate directly into their own product or customer portal. Users see real-time decisions, metrics, and analytics as a native part of your interface. This integration supports Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and reseller models, where Illuminate functions as a component of your product offering.
How the integration works
The integration has three parts that work together:
- Customer management: you create customer records in PubNub and assign keysets to them. Each keyset belongs to one customer. A PubNub partner customer can have up to five keysets assigned to it.
- Access tokens: you generate a short-lived token for each customer session. The token authenticates the customer and carries their permissions. A partner access token defaults to a 1-hour lifetime and can be set up to a maximum of 24 hours.
- iframe embedding: you load the Illuminate UI in your portal by inserting an iframe that points to the Illuminate OEM endpoint with the token and the resource to show.
You control which Illuminate resources each customer can see and what they can do with them.
What you can embed
You can embed any combination of Illuminate's three main interfaces: Business Objects, Decisions, and Dashboards. You can also brand the embedded UI with your own colors by passing six hex color values in the iframe URL.
Permission model
When you generate a token for a customer, you include a list of permissions that control what that customer can access. Permissions are granular: you can grant read-only access to one module and full read/write access to another.
Permissions are grouped by Illuminate resource:
| Resource | Scope |
|---|---|
| Business Objects | Read, write, activate/deactivate, configure, update JSON mapping |
| Metrics | Read, write |
| Dashboards | Read, write (includes action history) |
| Decisions | Read, write, configure, manage rules, activate/deactivate |
For the full list of individual permission strings and what each controls, see API operations for partners.
Embedding scenarios
Partners use three common patterns to determine how much control customers have.
Rules-only: you create and manage all Illuminate resources in the Admin Portal. You embed only the Decision rules view in your portal. Customers can adjust rule values (thresholds, toggles, output values) but cannot see or change the underlying conditions, actions, Business Objects, or Dashboards. You can optionally expose read-only Dashboards so customers can monitor results.
Full control: you embed the complete Illuminate UI. Customers can create, update, and manage Business Objects, Decisions, and Dashboards with the permission level you choose (read-only or read/write). This model suits self-service or power-user products.
Hybrid: you define Business Objects, Dashboards, and the core Decision structure in the Admin Portal. The Decisions section is embedded in your portal so customers can create new Decisions, configure conditions and actions, and adjust rule values. Customers have no access to Business Objects or Dashboards.
Dashboard partner view
The partner view and the customer view of Dashboards are different.
You, in the Admin Portal: the Dashboards home page has a drop-down that shows your account name. Open it to choose whose Dashboards you see:
| Drop-down selection | What you see |
|---|---|
| A customer name, labeled Customer | That customer's Dashboards only |
| All internal and customers | Your Dashboards and all customer Dashboards |
Your customers, in the embedded UI: a customer sees only their own Dashboards. The customer's access token limits the list to that customer, so one customer can't open another customer's Dashboards or yours.
When you select All internal and customers, the Dashboards list adds a Customer column. It shows the customer's name for a customer's Dashboard and is empty for your own. In this view, you can't create a Dashboard. Select a customer first.
If a customer does not appear in the drop-down, create them in the Partner Portal and assign a keyset to them. If apps or keysets are not visible after you select a customer, assign the keysets to that customer in the Partner Portal.
Prerequisites
To use the partner integration:
- Your PubNub account must have the partner feature enabled. Contact PubNub support or your account executive to enable it.
- Customers must be created in PubNub with at least one keyset assigned to each. You can do this through the Partner Portal or the OEM API.
For step-by-step instructions on setting up customers and keysets, see Create entities as a partner. For the full embedding walkthrough, see Embed Illuminate UI in your site.