Authentication Setup for Nettskjema API

Add Credentials to Your .Renviron File

To prevent hardcoding your credentials in your scripts, add the following entries to your .Renviron file. The .Renviron file is a hidden file in your home directory that R reads on startup.

1. Open your .Renviron file. You can create or edit it with:

file.edit(fs::path_home(".Renviron"))

2. Add your credentials:

NETTSKJEMA_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
NETTSKJEMA_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret

Replace your_client_id and your_client_secret with the actual values you received from Nettskjema.

3. Save and close the file.

4. Restart your R session to the load changes.

Retrieve the Access Token

Use the ns_auth_token function to retrieve your access token. This function exchanges your client credentials for a valid token. The token is cached by default for efficiency.

library(nettskjemar)

# Try getting your user information
ns_get_me()
#> $isPersonalDataResponsible
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $displayName
#> [1] "athanasm@uio.no"
#> 
#> $logoutLink
#> [1] "/signout"
#> 
#> $isSuperUser
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $isAuthenticated
#> [1] TRUE
#> 
#> $userType
#> [1] "FEIDE_USER"
#> 
#> $hasAcceptedTos
#> [1] TRUE
#> 
#> $isSupportUser
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $isAdministrativeUser
#> [1] TRUE
#> 
#> $isInLdapGroupUioTils
#> [1] TRUE

If this returns a list of objects, you have successfully retrieved a token from Nettskjema and can use the remaining functions in the package.

By default, the token is stored in your home directory as .nettskjema_token.rds with a 24-hour validity period (max validity of a token). The token is automatically refreshed after the 24–hour period is over, and you as a user should not even notice that this happens.

You can configure the caching path using the cache_path argument of the function, if you are comfortable doing that.