How can I get an access token Spotify API?

Question

I've been looking at the Spotify api for a few days now and example source code and I still can't figure out how to get an access token to access a user's playlist data. I've gotten to the point where I pull up the login window, the user logs in, and then I receive an authorization code. At this point, I tried doing things like:

window.open("https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token?
grant_type=authorization_code&code="+code+"&redirect_uri=myurl&client_id=3137b15
2f1424defa2c6020ae5c6d444&client_secret=mysecret");

and

$.ajax(
    {
      url: "https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token?grant_type=authorization_code&code="+code+"&redirect_uri=myurl&client_secret=mysecret&client_id=myid", 
      success: function(result){
        alert("foo");
      }
    }
);

But either way I get a result like:

{"error":"server_error","error_description":"Unexpected status: 405"}

instead of a token. I'm sure this is simple but I'm terrible at JS. Please help! Thank you!

(edit) I forgot to mention:

Link to api authentication guide: https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/authorization-guide/

I'm stuck on step 4. I see that there is an alternative method on sending a "header parameter" or cURL request which might work. But seing as how I have no idea how to do these things I've stuck with sending the client_id and client_secret as body request parameters like I did before for the user login/code.

PS: I'm only using this application I'm writing for myself. Is there a way I could hardcode a token in without going through this process instead?

Frxstrem · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-06T04:27:24.453

11

When the authorization code has been received, you will need to exchange it with an access token by making a POST request to the Spotify Accounts service, this time to its /api/token endpoint:

So you need to make a POST request to the Spotify API, with the parameters in the request body:

$.ajax(
  {
    method: "POST",
    url: "https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token",
    data: {
      "grant_type":    "authorization_code",
      "code":          code,
      "redirect_uri":  myurl,
      "client_secret": mysecret,
      "client_id":     myid,
    },
    success: function(result) {
      // handle result...
    },
  }
);

(As a sidenote, "Unexpected status: 405" refers to the HTTP status code 405 Method Not Allowed, which indicates that the request method you tried—a GET request—is not allowed on that URL.)

edited Oct 06 '16 at 04:27

answered Oct 06 '16 at 04:14

Frxstrem

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Interesting, seems simple enough. Giving it a shot right now, I'll let you know how it goes in a minute. – Ashwin Gupta Oct 06 '16 at 04:16
Ok tried this. I got `XMLHttpRequest cannot load https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token. No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource. Origin 'www.mysite.com' is therefore not allowed access.`. I know for a fact I've got a valid code, secret id, id, and url. As for grant_type I just put in "authorization_code" – Ashwin Gupta Oct 06 '16 at 04:23
@AshwinGupta There's [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/28406268) to this exact problem: *"The request to https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token needs to be made server side and not as an AJAX request."* – Frxstrem Oct 06 '16 at 04:25
Ah okay! Sorry, should've looked that up. Thanks for your help, the part I was confused on was the POST vs GET and how to send the ajax so that was awesome advice! – Ashwin Gupta Oct 06 '16 at 04:29
One quick question: In the post you linked me too it says you can't use a client-side request. Does that include the entire POST request with the code, redirect_uri, etc. Or just the header part with the client_id and client_id ? – Ashwin Gupta Oct 06 '16 at 04:32

How can I get an access token Spotify API?

1 Answers1