Access Manager v3 API for Unreal SDK
Access Manager allows you to enforce security controls for client access to resources within the PubNub Platform. With Access Manager v3, your servers (that use a PubNub instance configured with a secret key) can grant their clients tokens with embedded permissions that provide access to individual PubNub resources:
- For a limited period of time.
- Through resource lists or patterns (regular expressions).
- In a single API request, even if permission levels differ (
read
tochannel1
andwrite
tochannel2
).
You can add the authorizedUuid
parameter to the grant request to restrict the token usage to one client with a given userId
. Once specified, only this authorizedUuid
will be able to use the token to make API requests for the specified resources, according to permissions given in the grant request.
User ID / UUID
User ID is also referred to as UUID
/uuid
in some APIs and server responses but holds the value of the userId
parameter you set during initialization.
Grant token
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.
Requires Secret Key authentication
Granting permissions to resources should be done by administrators whose SDK instance has been initialized with a Secret Key (available on the Admin Portal on your app's keyset).
The GrantToken()
method generates a time-limited authorization token with an embedded access control list. The token defines time to live (TTL
), AuthorizedUser
, and a set of permissions giving access to one or more resources:
Channels
ChannelGroups
Uuids
(other users' object metadata, such as their names or avatars)
Only this AuthorizedUser
will be able to use the token with the defined permissions. The authorized client will send the token to PubNub with each request until the token's TTL
expires. Any unauthorized request or a request made with an invalid token will return a 403
with a respective error message.
- Permissions
- TTL
- RegEx
- Authorized User ID
The grant request allows your server to securely grant your clients access to the resources within the PubNub Platform. There is a limited set of operations the clients can perform on every resource:
Resource | Permissions |
---|---|
Channels | read , write , get , manage , update , join , delete |
ChannelGroups | read , manage |
Uuids | get , update , delete |
For permissions and API operations mapping, refer to Manage Permissions with Access Manager v3.
The ttl
(time to live) parameter is the number of minutes before the granted permissions expire. The client will require a new token to be granted before expiration to ensure continued access. ttl
is a required parameter for every grant call and there is no default value set for it. The max value for ttl
is 43,200 (30 days).
Recommended ttl value
For security reasons, it's recommended to set ttl
between 10
and 60
, and create a new token before this ttl
elapses.
For more details, see TTL in Access Manager v3.
If you prefer to specify permissions by setting patterns, rather than listing all resources one by one, you can use regular expressions. To do this, define RegEx permissions for a given resource type in the grant request.
For more details, see RegEx in Access Manager v3.
Setting an AuthorizedUser
in the token helps you specify which client device should use this token in every request to PubNub. This will ensure that all requests to PubNub are authorized before PubNub processes them. If AuthorizedUser
isn't specified during the grant request, the token can be used by any client with any User ID. It's recommended to restrict tokens to a single AuthorizedUser
to prevent impersonation.
For more details, see Authorized User ID in Access Manager v3.
Method(s)
PubnubSubsystem->GrantToken(
int Ttl,
FString AuthorizedUser,
const FPubnubGrantTokenPermissions& Permissions,
FOnGrantTokenResponse OnGrantTokenResponse,
FString Meta = ""
);
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Ttl *Type: int | Time-To-Live (TTL) in minutes for the granted token. |
AuthorizedUser *Type: FString | The User ID that is authorized by this grant. |
Permissions * | Permissions applied to the listed resources. |
OnGrantTokenResponse *Type: FOnGrantTokenResponse | The delegate for the operation's result. You can also use a native callback of the type FOnGrantTokenResponseNative to handle the result using a lambda. |
Meta Type: FString | Additional metadata to be included in the token. |
FPubnubGrantTokenPermissions
Property | Description |
---|---|
Channels Type: TArray<FChannelGrant> | A list of exact channel names and their associated permissions. Applied to the resources.channels section of the grant token. |
ChannelGroups | A list of exact channel group names and their associated permissions. Applied to the resources.groups section of the grant token. |
Users Type: TArray<FUserGrant> | A list of exact user IDs and their associated permissions. Applied to the resources.uuids section of the grant token. |
ChannelPatterns Type: TArray<FChannelGrant> | A list of channel name patterns (regular expressions) and their associated permissions. Applied to the patterns.channels section of the grant token. |
ChannelGroupPatterns | A list of channel group name patterns (regular expressions) and their associated permissions. Applied to the patterns.groups section of the grant token. |
UserPatterns Type: TArray<FUserGrant> | A list of user ID patterns (regular expressions) and their associated permissions. Applied to the patterns.uuids section of the grant token. |
FChannelGrant
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Channel | FString | The ID of a single Channel if used in the "Channels" field of [FPubnubGrantTokenPermissions](#fpubnubgranttokenpermissions) or a regular expression pattern if used in the "ChannelPatterns" field. |
Permissions | FPubnubChannelPermissions | Permissions to grant for the specified Channel name or pattern. |
FChannelGroupGrant
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
ChannelGroup | FString | The name of a single Channel Group if used in the "ChannelGroups" field of [FPubnubGrantTokenPermissions](#fpubnubgranttokenpermissions) or a regular expression pattern if used in the "ChannelGroupPatterns" field. |
Permissions | FPubnubChannelGroupPermissions | Permissions to grant for the specified Channel Group name or pattern. |
FUserGrant
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
User | FString | The ID of a single User if used in the "Users" field of [FPubnubGrantTokenPermissions](#fpubnubgranttokenpermissions) or a regular expression pattern if used in the "UserPatterns" field. |
Permissions | FPubnubUserPermissions | Permissions to grant for the specified User ID or pattern. |
FPubnubChannelPermissions
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Read | bool | Read permission. Applies to Subscribe, History, and Presence. |
Write | bool | Write permission. Applies to Publish. |
Delete | bool | Delete permission. Applies to History and App Context. |
Get | bool | Get permission. Applies to App Context. |
Update | bool | Update permission. Applies to App Context. |
Manage | bool | Manage permission. Applies to Channel Groups and App Context. |
Join | bool | Join permission. Applies to App Context. |
FPubnubChannelGroupPermissions
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Read | bool | Read permission. Applies to presence and history access for the group. |
Manage | bool | Manage permission. Applies to modifying members of the group. |
FPubnubUserPermissions
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Delete | bool | Delete permission. Allows deletion of user metadata. |
Get | bool | Get permission. Allows retrieval of user metadata. |
Update | bool | Update permission. Allows updating of user metadata. |
For a successful grant request, you must specify permissions for at least one User, channel, or group, either as a resource list or as a pattern (RegEx). You can specify the permissions in the following ways:
-
apply the same permission to multiple objects
// permission1 as applied to all channels
Channels = {channel1, channel2, channel3}
Permisions = {permission1} -
apply different permissions to multiple objects
// the indexes in the Channels array correspond to the indexes in the Permissions array
// so channel1 gets permission1, channel2 permission2, etc
Channels = {channel1, channel2, channel3}
Permisions = {permission1, permission2, permission3}
If you provide more than one permission to multiple objects, an error will be thrown.
// this throws an error as the permissions don't match the objects
Channels = {channe1, channel2, channel3}
Permisions = {permission1, permission2}
Sample code
Reference code
ACTION REQUIRED
before running the code.Returns
This function is void, but the delegate returns the FOnGrantTokenResponse
struct.
FOnGrantTokenResponse
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Result | FPubnubOperationResult | The result of the operation. |
Token | FString | The token that was granted. |
FOnGrantTokenResponseNative
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Result | const FPubnubOperationResult& | The result of the operation. |
Token | FString | The token that was granted. |
Other examples
Reference code
ACTION REQUIRED
before running the code.Grant an authorized client different levels of access to various resources in a single call
The code below grants my-authorized-user
:
- Read access to
channel-a
,channel-group-b
, and get touser-c
. - Read/write access to
channel-b
,channel-c
,channel-d
, and get/update touser-d
.
Actor.h
Actor.cpp
Grant an authorized client read access to multiple channels using RegEx
The code below grants my-authorized-user
read access to all channels that match the channel-[A-Za-z0-9]
RegEx pattern.
Actor.h
Actor.cpp
Grant an authorized client different levels of access to various resources and read access to channels using RegEx in a single call
The code below grants the my-authorized-user
:
- Read access to
channel-a
,channel-group-b
, and get touser-c
. - Read/write access to
channel-b
,channel-c
,channel-d
, and get/update touser-d
. - Read access to all channels that match the
channel-[A-Za-z0-9]
RegEx pattern.
Actor.h
Actor.cpp
Error Responses
If you submit an invalid request, the server returns the 400
error status code with a descriptive message informing which of the provided arguments is missing or incorrect. These can include, for example, issues with a RegEx, a timestamp, or permissions.
Revoke token
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.
Enable token revoke
To revoke tokens, you must first enable this feature on the Admin Portal. To do that, navigate to your app's keyset and mark the Revoke v3 Token checkbox in the ACCESS MANAGER section.
The RevokeToken()
method allows you to disable an existing token and revoke all permissions embedded within. You can only revoke a valid token previously obtained using the GrantToken()
method.
Use this method for tokens with TTL
less than or equal to 30 days. If you need to revoke a token with a longer TTL
, contact support.
For more information, refer to Revoke permissions.
Method(s)
PubnubSubsystem->RevokeToken(
FString Token,
FOnRevokeTokenResponse OnRevokeTokenResponse
);
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Token *Type: FString Default: n/a | Existing token with embedded permissions. |
OnRevokeTokenResponse *Type: FOnRevokeTokenResponse Default: n/a | The delegate for the operation's result. You can also use a native callback of the type FOnRevokeTokenResponseNative to handle the result using a lambda. |
Sample code
Reference code
ACTION REQUIRED
before running the code.Returns
This function is void, but the delegate returns the FOnRevokeTokenResponse
struct.
FOnRevokeTokenResponse
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Result | FPubnubOperationResult | The result of the operation. |
FOnRevokeTokenResponseNative
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Result | const FPubnubOperationResult& | The result of the operation. |
Other Examples
Reference code
ACTION REQUIRED
before running the code.Revoke a token with lambda
You can use a lambda function to handle the response:
Actor.h
Actor.cpp
Revoke a token with result struct
You can use the result struct to handle the response:
Actor.h
Actor.cpp
Error Responses
If you submit an invalid request, the server returns an error status code with a descriptive message informing which of the provided arguments is missing or incorrect. Depending on the root cause, this operation may return the following errors:
400 Bad Request
403 Forbidden
503 Service Unavailable
Parse token
The ParseToken()
method decodes an existing token and returns the object containing permissions embedded in that token. The client can use this method for debugging to check the permissions to the resources or find out the token's TTL
details.
Method(s)
PubnubSubsystem->ParseToken(FString Token);
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Token *Type: FString | Existing token with embedded permissions. |
Sample code
Reference code
ACTION REQUIRED
before running the code.Returns
{
"Version": 2,
"Timestamp": 1752200000,
"TTL": 30,
"Resources": {
"Channels": {
"my_first_channel": {
"Read": true,
"Write": false,
"Manage": true,
"Delete": true,
"Get": false,
"Update": true,
"Join": true
}
show all 33 linesError Responses
If you receive an error while parsing the token, it may suggest that the token is damaged. In that case, request the server to issue a new one.
Set token
The SetAuthToken()
method is used by the client devices to update the authentication token granted by the server.
Method(s)
PubnubSubsystem->SetAuthToken(FString Token);
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Token *Type: FString Default: n/a | Existing token with embedded permissions. |
Sample code
Reference code
ACTION REQUIRED
before running the code.Returns
This method doesn't return any response value.