Authorization - Help (HTTP or OAuth)

[alafunnell]

Hi,

I’ve been struggling authorizing my application. I’m looking to make a simple app for searching data on companies house but I’m falling at the first hurdle.

I first attempted authorizing through a REST API key using postman. Using the Basic Authorization option in postman I set my username to my API key. This is an example below

Once this failed and gave me an invalid authorization I tried using OAuth 2.0.

The issue I faced with OAuth 2.0 was the client id not being recognised? The authorization URL I used is:
https://identity.company-information.service.gov.uk/oauth2/authorise

Any suggestions on how to get either of these working? I just want to be able to access the search I don’t even need the extras granted by OAuth 2.0.

Thank you

[voracityemail]

If you are just using the Companies House Public Data API you do not need OAuth (and I don’t think it works with the data api, documents api or streaming API - I think it is only used for e.g. the Filing API e.g. if you want to make a filing / update company information).

When you registered did you choose the “live” system?
Have you registered your server IP with Companies House, OR used the workaround for “localhost” use, OR registered a javascript url (I’m not sure which you’d need for your Postman use)?

If not certain about any of these see the following threads (and also the localhost one above):

Postman API call

@jeremy where did you do this? I have not had to do set this anywhere? @berto did you get this working evenutally

Invalid Authorization error in API

Sounds like you’re still having issues. The exact details depend on exactly what Postman expects in its fields and what you’re doing within it. That’s why I use something simple e.g. curl where you can see exactly what data is being passed to and fro. (Postman may do this also, I just don’t know it). I highly recommend you try this to confirm that your API key / registered IP address / local host setup (if relevant) etc. all works - outside of whatever tool you’re using (e.g. Postman So I can…

Good luck

[alafunnell]

Thanks for the help, I didn’t choose live system when registering and this was the issue! I deleted the application and created a new one as “live” and this worked. Appreciate the help.