Activeconnect

Activeconnect

Activeconnect provides multifactor identity and presence verification.

This library provides a Python wrapper for the Activeconnect API.

Getting Started

Create an Activeconnect Account

To begin visit Activeconnect Developer Portal to register.

Create an Activeconnect Application

Once you have registered create a new Activeconnect application. Save the Application ID and Application Secret in a safe place as you will need this to authenticate calls to the Activeconnect API.

Register Users

Activeconnect identifies application users using a token supplied by the application developer. You can use your existing user IDs or create a lookup table that maps your user ID to a value you provide to Activeconnect.

Users are registered using the Activeconnect ManagementAPI. Create an instance of Activeconnect.ManagementAPI using your application ID and secret.

from Activeconnect.management_api import ManagementAPI
from Activeconnect.management_api import ManagementAPIResult
application_id = "MY APPLICATION ID"
application_secret = "MY APPLICATION SECRET"

manager = ManagementAPI(application_id="MY APPLICATION ID", application_secret="MY APPLICATION SECRET")

To add a single user call ManagementAPI.add_user

add_user_result = manager.add_user("MY USER")

if add_user_result == ManagementAPIResult.success:
    # User added
    print("user added")
elif add_user_result == ManagementAPIResult.user_exists:
    # User already exists
    print("user already exists")
else:
    # User failed
    print("add user failed")

To add multiple users call ManagementAPI.add_users.

users = ["MY USER 1", "MY USER 2", "MY USER 3"]
created, existing = manager.add_users(users)
if created is not None:
    print("Users created: {}".format(created))
if existing is not None:
    print("Existing users: {}".format(existing))

Registering a Mobile Device

Activeconnect uses a mobile device to collect authentication data. Mobile devices are registered using a registration link generated by Activeconnect. The Activeconnect mobile application is registered to open these links and register the device. To obtain a registration link use ManagementAPI.get_registration_link. The display_name query parameter is optional and is used by the Activeconnect mobile app to provide a description of the user.

registration_link = manager.get_registration_link(user_id="MY USER 1", display_name="MY USER 1@myapp")

ManagementAPI also provides a helper method to send a registration link to a mobile device using SMS.

manager.send_registration_sms(  user_id="MY USER 1",
                                display_name="MY USER1@myapp",
                                phone_number="+1XXXYYYY",
                                message=None)

You can specify a message for the SMS body

manager.send_registration_sms(  user_id="MY USER 1",
                                display_name="MY USER1@myapp",
                                phone_number="+1XXXYYYY",
                                message="REGISTER FOR MY APP")

Registering a Mobile Device

Before a user can authenticate using Activeconnect they must register a mobile device. To check if a user has registered a mobile device use ManagementAPI.has_registered_mobile_device

has_device = manager.has_registered_mobile_device("MY USER 1")

if has_device is ManagementAPIResult.has_mobile_device:
    print("User has mobile device.")
elif has_device is ManagementAPIResult.no_mobile_device:
    print("User has no mobile device.")
else:
    print("has_registered_mobile_device failed.")

Removing Users

To remove a single user use ManagementAPI.delete_user

manager.delete_use("MY USER 1")

To remove multiple users use ManagementAPI.delete_users

users=["MY USER 1", "MY USER 2",...]
manager.delete_users(users)

Authenticating Users

Activeconnect authentication is a multi step process:

• Initiate the authentication process using the Authentication API.
• If the process is initiated the mobile device will collect authentication data and send it to Activeconnect
• Activeconnect processes the collected data and determines whether the user is authenticated. Create an instance of Activeconnect.AuthenticationAPI using the application ID and application secret created above.

from Activeconnect.authentication_api import AuthenticationAPI,AuthenticationMethod
authenticator=AuthenticationAPI(application_id="MY APPLICATION ID", 
                                application_secret="MY APPLICATION SECRET")

# Initiate the authentication process.
session = authenticator.authenticate_user("MY USER 1")

# Check if authentication started.
if session.failed:
    # Authentication failed - check the failure reason.
    # If the user has not registered a mobile device, the failure_reason will be NO_MOBILE_DEVICE
    print("Authentication failed {}".format(session.failure_reason))
elif session.in_progress:
    # Authentication is in progress
    print("Authentication in progress")
else:
    print("Session status is {}".format(session.session_status.name))

Once the authentication process is initiated periodically check the status of the session using Activeconnect.Session.getStatus.

# Wait for the user to approve the request.
while session.in_progress:
    # Get the status of the session
    session_status = session.get_status()
    
    # Wait a while and try again
    time.sleep(5)

if session.active:
    print("authenticated")
    # Now end the session
    session.destroy()
else:
    print("Authentication failed {}".format(session.session_status.name))

Ending a Session

To end an Activeconnect session call Activeconnect.Session.destroy.

session.destroy()

Session Serialization

It may be necessary to save session information in cookies or pass session information with URLS. Activeconnect.Session is derived from marshmallow dataclass and can be serialized as JSON.

# Save a session as JSON
session_json=Session.Schema().dumps(session)

# Load a session from JSON
new_session=Session.Schema().loads(session_json)

It is recommeded that the generated JSON in encrypted before storing. One way to do this is to use the itsdangerous package.

from itsdangerous.url_safe import URLSafeSerializer

# Convert the session to JSON.
session_json=Session.Schema().dumps(session)

# Encode/encrypt the session JSON
s = URLSafeSerializer("secret-key")
session_token = s.dumps(session_json)

# Store the session_token...