With the Autodesk Vault API, how do you login if it's not an interactive app, like a Windows Service or batch application?

Question

I've been struggling with this for a few years, ever since Autodesk moved to the Named-User licensing for Vault. When you login to Vault, Vault wants you to be authenticated with your Autodesk ID - just to prove that you have the rights to use Vault. This is just fine when it's an interactive application - but is terrible for batch applications, Windows Services and some web applications.

I had been spending time trying to keep a logged in Windows user, making sure that the Windows user session is the same as my Service/App Pool, leveraging desktop connector so that the Autodesk ID's LoginState would be extended forever - but then STILL dealing with Autodesk Vault Licensing Error 319 when the Autodesk ID had some kind of problem.

It's just crazy that Autodesk doesn't have a better mechanism for this!?!?

Answer 1

I've recently discovered the answer to this, and I'm somewhat annoyed that Autodesk hasn't done more to promote it. I've been a Vault developer for more than 15 years, and it's the first I've heard of it - but it's been around for a few years.

There's an alternate login method:

var loginResult = 
 Autodesk.DataManagement.Client.Framework.Vault.Library.ConnectionManager.LogInWithUserLicense( 
  fileServer, vaultName, userName, password, token, 
  AuthenticationFlags.Standard, null);

The key is: You have to have a token. This appears to be ANY Forge/APS authorized 3-legged access token. The token proves who the user is to Autodesk/Vault.

Yes, you'll need to register a Forge App and build out some infrastructure to be able to get 3-legged tokens and then refresh them when they're expired - but that's a solvable problem! It beats the heck out of relying on Desktop Connector and the LoginState.xml file for the current Windows user.

Hope this helps someone else...