Generating an IBM Cloud IAM token by using an API key

Generating an IAM token

You can generate an IAM token by using either your IBM Cloud API key or a service ID's API key. The API key is a permanent credential that can be reused if you don't lose the API key value or delete the API key in the account. This process is also used if you are developing an application that needs to work with other IBM Cloud services. You must use a service ID API key to get an access token to be passed to each of the IBM Cloud services.

An access token is a temporary credential that expires after 1 hour at the latest. After the acquired token expires, you must generate a new token to continue calling IBM Cloud or service APIs, and you can perform only actions that are allowed by your level of assigned access within all accounts. Use the response property expires_in in the API response to identify the length of time that your specific access token is valid.

Generate an IAM token by using an API key

To programmatically generate an IAM token by using an API key, call the IAM Identity Services API or SDKs as shown in the following sample request.

curl -X POST 'https://iam.cloud.ibm.com/identity/token' -H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' -d 'grant_type=urn:ibm:params:oauth:grant-type:apikey&apikey=MY_APIKEY'

import com.ibm.cloud.sdk.core.security.IamAuthenticator;
import <sdk_base_package>.ExampleService.v1.ExampleService;
...
// Create the authenticator.
IamAuthenticator authenticator = new IamAuthenticator.Builder()
    .apikey("myapikey")
    .build();

// Create the service instance.
ExampleService service = new ExampleService(authenticator);

// 'service' can now be used to invoke operations.

const ExampleServiceV1 = require('mysdk/example-service/v1');
const { IamAuthenticator } = require('mysdk/auth');

const authenticator = new IamAuthenticator({
  apikey: '<iam-api-key>',
});

const myService = new ExampleServiceV1({
  authenticator,
});

from ibm_cloud_sdk_core.authenticators import IAMAuthenticator
from <sdk-package-name>.example_service_v1 import *

# Create the authenticator.
authenticator = IAMAuthenticator('myapikey')

# Construct the service instance.
service = ExampleServiceV1(authenticator=authenticator)

# Use 'service' to invoke operations.

import {
    "github.com/IBM/go-sdk-core/v5/core"
    "<appropriate-git-repo-url>/exampleservicev1"
}
...
// Create the authenticator.
authenticator := &core.IamAuthenticator{
    ApiKey: "myapikey",
}

// Create the service options struct.
options := &exampleservicev1.ExampleServiceV1Options{
    Authenticator: authenticator,
}

// Construct the service instance.
service := exampleservicev1.NewExampleServiceV1(options)

// 'service' can now be used to invoke operations.

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUz......sgrKIi8hdFs",
  "refresh_token": "SPrXw5tBE3......KBQ+luWQVY=",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "expiration": 1473188353
}