Enterprise Connect

Enterprise Connect is alternative way of White-Label API applications obtaining authorization to access user’s calendars. Instead of each end-user giving authorization individually, a Service Account is used to obtain authorization programmatically.

The flow to obtain authorization on an organization level looks like this:

The Authorization Process #

To get started, you will need the following:

1. A web application
2. A client_id and client_secret for your application from the Cronofy Developer Dashboard
3. A Service Account on a Google Workspace, Office 365 or Exchange installation configured to access one or more user mailboxes.

Once you have these you are then in a position to proceed with the first stage of authorization which is for the Service Account. More details below but this process is modelled as an OAuth2 flow. You redirect from your application to an authorization page and which in return redirects back to your application with a code for subsequent access_token redemption.

Once you have an access_token for a Service Account you then use that to request individual access_tokens for user and resource calendars. You then store and use the access_tokens in exactly the same way with the Cronofy API as you do with those generated through direct end-user authorization.

Service Accounts #

Service Accounts are organization level accounts that can be created in both Microsoft and Google Workspace domains. They can be granted permissions on a set of mailboxes within the domain. They can also be given permissions to access Resource Calendars (eg meeting rooms) and Shared Mailboxes.

The Enterprise Connect - Guide for System Administrators gives more information on how to setup and configure Service Accounts.

Service Account Authorization #

As described above, obtaining an authorization for a Service Account is modelled as an OAuth2 flow. The outcome of this flow is an access_token for the Service Account.

The documentation describes the full set of parameters but of particular note are scope and delegated_scope .

scope refers to the permissions you are requesting that directly apply to the Service Account. For instance if you want access to User mailboxes you would request service_account/accounts/manage and if you also want Resource Calendars then you would add service_account/resources/manage . These are presented as a space separated list.

delegated_scope refers to the maximum set of possible permissions your application will need for the User and Resource calendars. These are similar to the scope values you would request as part of direct end-user authorization.

User and Resource Calendar Account Authorization #

Once you have a Service Account authorization, you can then request access to an individual User or Resource Calendar. This is similar to an OAuth flow but without user involvement.

The diagram below shows how you can obtain a code for a user or resource, which can then be exchanged for an access_token, which is used to authenticate user-specifc or resource-specific requests to the Cronofy API.

A request for Delegated Access is made which has similar parameters to an OAuth2 authorization. The redirect_uri is replaced by a callback_url.

The callback_url will need to be publicly accessible so during development we recommend using a service like ngrok.

The code is returned to this callback_url and an Access Token Request is made with the code.

Again, replace redirect_uri with callback_url.

{
  "client_id": "{CLIENT_ID}",
  "client_secret": "{CLIENT_SECRET}",
  "grant_type": "authorization_code",
  "code": "{CODE}",
  "callback_url": "{CALLBACK_URL}"
}

You can then store the access_token and refresh_token returned against the user in your application.

Refreshing Access Tokens Obtained Through Enterprise Connect #

This is identical to the process for tokens generated by end-user authorization. Refresh an Access Token.

Using Access Tokens Obtained Through Enterprise Connect #

We’ve designed the Enterprise Connect process to ensure you can use the tokens generated with the Cronofy API in exactly the same way as those generated by end-user authorization.

Revoking User Authorization #

When a user wants to terminate their service, you will need to revoke the authorization between their account and your application.

This can be done by calling the Revoke Authorization API endpoint.