Access Manager v2 API for Android SDK

Access Manager allows you to enforce secure controls for client access to resources within the PubNub network. With Access Manager, your servers can grant their clients access to individual PubNub resources for a limited duration, with the ability to extend access or add permissions for additional resources.

As soon as Access Manager is enabled, no publish/subscribe operations can be done without first explicitly providing an authorization token to the PubNub object. If an invalid token is provided, the requesting client will receive a Forbidden error.

For more information about Access Manager, refer to Managing Permissions with Access Manager.

Grant​

Requires Access Manager add-on

This method requires that the Access Manager add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

The grant method allows you to grant permissions for one or more resources to one or more authKeys. You may need to make multiple grant calls with an authKey so that you can specify explicit permissions for each channel, channelGroup and uuid resources. For common permissions, you can normally use a single request.

Privileges specifically granted to an application's subscribeKey always take precedence over privileges granted to channel or auth_key. Therefore an application that requires authentication at the user level should not grant access at either the Application or Channel levels. View the Grant Levels section for more details.

Permissions​

The grant request allows your server to securely grant access for your clients on the following resources within the platform. Each resource allows a limited set of permissions that control the operations that can be performed by the clients. For permissions and API operations mapping information, refer to Managing Permissions with Access Manager.

ResourcePermissions
channel
read, write, get, manage, update, join, delete
uuid
get, update, delete
channelGroup
read, manage

Wildcard Permissions​

Wildcard notation allows you to grant permissions to multiple channels at a time and later revoke these permissions in the same manner. You can only go one level deep using wildcards. In other words:

  • a.* grants access on all channels that begin with a..
  • * or a.b.* won't work this way. If you grant on * or a.b.*, the grant treats * or a.b.* as a channel name, not a wildcard.
Wildcard revokes

You can revoke permissions with wildcards from one level deep, like a.*, only when you initially used wildcards to grant permissions to a.*.

Grant Levels​

When a user attempts to access a PubNub resource, Access Manager will evaluate any existing rules using the following order of precedence before access to a channel is granted to the user:

  1. Application Level - Access Manager privileges are always evaluated first at the Application level. If either read or write attribute is set to true for a subscribeKey, Access Manager will immediately grant access for that attribute without proceeding to check permissions at either Channel or User levels. If an attribute is set to false at the Application level, Access Manager proceeds to evaluate the attribute at the next most granular level.

  2. Channel Level - After first verifying an attribute at the Application level, Access Manager evaluates the attribute at the Channel level. If an attribute is set to true for a combination of subscribeKey, and channel, Access Manager grants access for that attribute at the Channel level without proceeding to check whether there may be user level permissions.

  3. User Level (Recommended) - As a final step Access Manager evaluates the attributes at the User level. If an attribute is set to true for subscribeKey, channel and auth_key, access is granted for that attribute. Similarly, user level grants also allow you granting an auth_key access to channelGroups and uuids. User level grants require auth_key and are the recommended approach if you need to manage permissions for individual users within your application. Each user should be assigned a unique auth_key and securely passed back to the user to perform operations on the platform.

Method(s)​

To Grant Permissions on a Channel you can use the following method(s) in the Android SDK:

this.pubnub.grant().authKeys(Arrays).channels(Arrays).uuids(Arrays).write(Boolean).read(Boolean).manage(Boolean).delete(Boolean).get(Boolean).update(Boolean).join(Boolean).ttl(Long).async(PNCallback)
* required
ParameterDescription
authKeys
Type: Arrays
Default:
n/a
Specifies auth Key to grant permissions. It is possible to specify multiple auth keys. You can also grant access to a single auth key for multiple channels at the same time. Zero or more channels with zero or more auth tokens are allowed.
channels
Type: Arrays
Default:
n/a
Specifies the channels on which to grant permissions. If no channels/channelGroups are specified, then the grant applies to any and all channels/channelGroups that have been or will be created for that publish/subscribe key set. Furthermore, any existing or future grants on specific channels are ignored, until the all channels grant is revoked. It is possible to grant permissions to multiple channels simultaneously. Wildcard notation like a.* can be used to grant access on channels. You can grant one level deep.
  • a.* - you can grant on this.
  • * and a.b.* - grant will not work on these levels. If you grant on * or a.b.*, the grant will treat * or a.b.* as a single channel named either * or a.b.*.
channelGroups
Type: Arrays
Default:
n/a
Specifies the channelGroups to grant permissions. If no channels/channelGroups are specified, then the grant applies to any and all channels/channelGroups that have been or will be created for that publish/subscribe key set. Furthermore, any existing or future grants on specific channelGroups are ignored, until the all channelGroups grant is revoked. It is possible to grant permissions to multiple channelGroups simultaneously.
This parameter does not support wildcards.
uuids
Type: Arrays
Default:
n/a
A list of uuids to grant permissions to. You can't grant permissions to channels and channel groups in the same request if you decide to use uuids.
This parameter does not support wildcards.
write
Type: Boolean
Default:
false
Write permission
read
Type: Boolean
Default:
false
Read permission
manage
Type: Boolean
Default:
false
Manage permission
delete
Type: Boolean
Default:
false
Delete permission
get
Type: Boolean
Default:
false
Get permission
update
Type: Boolean
Default:
false
Update permission
join
Type: Boolean
Default:
false
Join permission
ttl
Type: Long
Default:
Not set
Time to live for permission to be valid
async *
Type: PNCallback
Default:
n/a
PNCallback of type PNAccessManagerGrantResult

Basic Usage​

Grant Access Manager Permissions for channel and auth_key​

pubnub.grant()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("ch1", "ch2", "ch3")) //channels to allow grant on
    .channelGroups(Arrays.asList("cg1", "cg2", "cg3")) // groups to allow grant on
    .authKeys(Arrays.asList("key1", "key2", "key3")) // the keys we are provisioning
    .write(true) // allow those keys to write (false by default)
    .manage(true) // allow those keys to manage channel groups (false by default)
    .read(true) // allow keys to read the subscribe feed (false by default)
    .delete(true)  // allow keys to delete messages (false by default)
    .ttl(12337) // how long those keys will remain valid (0 for eternity)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted response from server
        }
    });

Returns​

The grant() operation returns a PNAccessManagerGrantResult which contains the following operations:

MethodDescription
getLevel()
Type: String
Subkey or channel level.
getTtl()
Type: Int
Ttl of grant.
getSubscribeKey()
Type: String
The subscribeKey.
getChannels()
Type: Map<String, Map<String, PNAccessManagerKeyData>>
Access rights per channel. See PNAccessManagerKeyData for more details.
getChannelGroups()
Type: Map<String, Map<String, PNAccessManagerKeyData>>
Access rights per channel group. See PNAccessManagerKeyData for more details.

PNAccessManagerKeyData​

MethodDescription
isReadEnabled()
Type: Boolean
true if the user has read rights.
isWriteEnabled()
Type: Boolean
true if the user has write rights.
isManageEnabled()
Type: Boolean
true if the user has manage rights.
isDeleteEnabled()
Type: Boolean
true if the user has delete rights.
Size of revoke requests

Access Manager grant or revoke requests must be less than ~32KiB at a time, or the client will return an error. For requests greater than 32KiB, break them into smaller batched requests. When the message size exceeds 32KiB the server returns the HTTP Error code 500, instead of the correct error code 414.

NTP configuration

For NTP synchronization, please ensure that you have configured NTP on your server to keep the clock in sync. This is to prevent system clock drift leading to 400 Invalid Timestamp error response. Read more in the support article.

Other Examples​

Grant subscribe access to a channel only for clients with a specific auth_key with a 5 minute ttl​

pubnub.grant()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("my_channel"))
    .write(false)
    .read(true)
    .authKeys(Arrays.asList("my_ro_authkey"))
    .ttl(5)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted response from server
        }
    });

The above code would return the following response to the client:

if (!status.isError()) {
    result.getTtl(); // 5
    result.getLevel(); // user
}

Allow access to a specific channel for Presence​

pubnub.grant()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("my_channel-pnpres"))
    .write(true)
    .read(true)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted response from server
        }
    });

Grant Access Manager Permissions for channel group​

pubnub.grant()
    .channelGroups(Arrays.asList("cg1", "cg2", "cg3")) // groups to allow grant on
    .authKeys(Arrays.asList("key1", "key2", "key3")) // the keys we are provisioning
    .write(true) // allow those keys to write (false by default)
    .manage(true) // allow those keys to manage channel groups (false by default)
    .read(true) // allow keys to read the subscribe feed (false by default)
    .ttl(12337) // how long those keys will remain valid (0 for eternity)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted response from server
        }
    });

The above code would return the following response to the client:

if (!status.isError()) {
    result.getTtl(); // 12337
    result.getLevel(); // user
}

Application Level Grant​

Use application level grants with caution

When access is granted on an application level, all channels and users will have access.

Application level grants can also happen due to a bug in your code. For example, Null parameters for channels and auth-keys can cause accidental application level grants.

pubnub.grant()
    .write(true)
    .read(true)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted response from server
        }
    });

Channel Level Grant​

pubnub.grant()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("my_channel"))
    .write(true)
    .read(true)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted response from server
        }
    });

User Level Grant​

pubnub.grant()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("my_channel"))
    .write(true)
    .read(true)
    .authKeys(Arrays.asList("my_authkey"))
    .ttl(5)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted response from server
        }
    });

UUID Level Grant​

pubnub.grant()
    .uuids(Arrays.asList("uuid1", "uuid2")) // uuids to allow grant on
    .authKeys(Arrays.asList("key1")) // the keys you are provisioning
    .get(true) // allow those keys to get (false by default)
    .update(true) // allow those keys to update (false by default)
    .delete(true)  // allow keys to delete (false by default)
    .ttl(60) // how long those keys will remain valid (0 for eternity)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAccessManagerGrantResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAccessManagerGrantResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // PNAccessManagerGrantResult is a parsed and abstracted server response
        }
    });
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