#Authenticating to Sinch From Your Rails App With Devise

This tutorial will walk you through authenticating users to the Sinch JavaScript SDK with a Rails backend. You will use the devise gem to securely authenticate and store your users' info. Once users are authenticated with devise, you will generate a token and pass it to the Sinch JavaScript SDK. From there, you can follow our calling or messaging tutorials to build out the functionality of your app.

For more Verification Tutorials

##Sinch setup

1. Sign up for a Sinch account
2. In the developer dashboard, create a new app and take note of the app key and secret
3. Download the Sinch JavaScript SDK

##Project setup First, create a new Rails app and move into the project directory:

$ rails new NameOfYourApp
$ cd NameOfYourApp

Create the main controller. I'll call mine SinchController:

$ rails generate controller sinch --no-test-framework

To add the Sinch SDK to your project, add sinch.min.js to your JavaScript folder:

To set up devise, add the following to your Gemfile:

gem 'devise'

Then bundle install and set up devise:

$ bundle install
$ rails generate devise:install
$ rails generate devise User
$ rake db:migrate

##Authenticate You will want to generate the token for Sinch after a user has logged in or registered with devise. You can do this by overriding after_sign_in_path_for(user) and after_sign_up_path_for(user). Add the following in ApplicationController.rb and be sure to fill in your app key and secret from the Sinch dashboard:

def after_sign_in_path_for(user)
  after(user.email)
end

def after_sign_up_path_for(user)
  after(user.email)
end

#keep your code DRY!
def after(email)
  #temporarily store ticket in session
  session[:ticket] = get_auth_ticket(email)
  root_path
end

#generate ticket for Sinch authentication
def get_auth_ticket(username)
  user_ticket = {
    "identity" => {"type" => "username", "endpoint" => username},
    "expiresIn" => 3600, #seconds
    "applicationKey" => "your_app_key",
    "created" => Time.now.utc.iso8601
  }

  user_ticket_json = user_ticket.to_json.gsub(/\s+/, "")
	user_ticket_base64 = Base64.encode64(user_ticket_json).strip
	digest = OpenSSL::HMAC.digest(OpenSSL::Digest.new('sha256'), Base64.decode64("your_app_secret"), user_ticket_json).strip
	signature = Base64.encode64(digest).strip
	return (user_ticket_base64 + ':' + signature).gsub(/\s+/, "")
end

Then, in SinchController.rb, add the following to make the ticket accessible in the view:

class SinchController < ApplicationController
  before_action :authenticate_user!

  def index
    @ticket = session[:ticket]
	  session[:ticket] = nil

	  redirect_to new_user_session_path if @ticket == nil
  end
end

In the above code, look for the ticket in the session storage. If there is no ticket, re-authenticate the user with devise. If there is a current valid devise session, users won't see a login page, but rather, after_sign_up_path_for(user) will automatically get called, generating a new Sinch ticket. If there is a ticket, you will get access the @ticket variable in your view. session[:ticket] will be set to nil so that it can be reset next time a user logs in.

##Authenticate using the sinch_auth gem

Alternatively, you can use the sinch_auth gem to take care of creating the token. First, add the gem 'sinch_auth' to your Gemfile and bundle install.

The gem generates the ticket that you have created by hand in get_auth_ticket. You can use it like so:

sinchAuth = SinchAuth.new
ticket = sinchAuth.get_auth_ticket(username, expires_in, key, secret)

In the above example, pass in a string username, the number of seconds you want the token to expire in, your app key and your app secret.

##The view Next, you will make sinch#index the root path, and start the Sinch client in that view.

Add to routes.rb:

  root 'sinch#index'

Add sample HTML body and start the Sinch client in sinch/index.html.erb. Don't forget to replace your_app_key with your app key from above:

<div>
  <%= link_to "Sign Out", destroy_user_session_path, :method => :delete, :id => "signOut" %>
</div>
	
 <div id="clientStart" style="display:none;">
  Sinch client started!
</div>

<script>
  $('document').ready(function() {
    $("#signOut").click(function() {
      if (sinchClient) {
        sinchClient.terminate();
      }
    });

    sinchClient = new SinchClient({
      applicationKey: "your_app_key",
      capabilities: {messaging: true},
      startActiveConnection: true,
      onLogMessage: function(message) {
        console.log(message.message);
      },
    });

    sinchClient.start({"userTicket":"<%=@ticket%>"})
      .then(function() {
        $("#clientStart").css("display", "inline");
      });
    });
</script>

A few notes about the code above:

1. Upon sign out, terminate the Sinch client
2. Use the authentication ticket you generated, @ticket, to start the Sinch client
3. Reveal the UI when the Sinch client is started. This will take one to two seconds

To test out your app, start a local rails server and navigate to http://0.0.0.0:3000:

$ rails server
$ open http://0.0.0.0:3000

Open the developer console in your browser to see real-time updates of the Sinch client:

Congratulations, you did it! You can now use the Sinch client to add calling or messaging to your web app. Check out the following tutorials to continue with your app:

• Web-web calling tutorial
• Web-phone calling tutorial
• Instant messaging tutorial