I’m working on a web application and need to set up integration with Spotify. Here’s what I want to achieve:
When users visit a specific endpoint on my website like:
https://myapp.com/auth/spotify-connect
They should see a connection button. After clicking it and completing the authorization process, my Spotify application should receive the necessary authentication credentials.
What’s the proper way to implement this OAuth flow? I’m looking for guidance on handling the redirect process and securely transferring the API tokens to my application. Any code examples or step-by-step instructions would be really helpful.
I’ve been struggling with this for a while and can’t figure out the correct approach for managing the authentication handshake between the browser and Spotify’s API.
You need to set up backend endpoints to handle the OAuth dance. When users click connect, redirect them to Spotify’s auth URL with your client ID, response type, redirect URI, and scopes. Here’s where it gets tricky - Spotify redirects back to your URI with an auth code. Your backend has to grab this code and swap it for access/refresh tokens via POST to Spotify’s token endpoint. Store those tokens with the user session. I screwed this up at first because I didn’t URL-encode the redirect URI and skipped validating the state parameter (bad for security). Double-check your redirect URI matches exactly what’s in your Spotify app settings.
hey, totally get it, it can be tricky! first, make sure you register your app on spotify’s dev site for your client_id and secret. then, redirect users to the auth endpoint with your redirect URL. after they approve, you’ll receive an auth code to exchange for access tokens. just keep those tokens safe!
The key thing with OAuth is managing token lifecycles properly. Once you get the access token from Spotify’s endpoint, you’ll need refresh token logic since access tokens expire quickly. When Spotify redirects back with the authorization code, exchange it fast - these codes don’t last long. Store your tokens server-side in a secure database, not client-side. And definitely add good error handling for expired or invalid tokens - your users will thank you.