How to get Access Token from ASP.Net Web API 2 via AngularJS $http?

Question

I try like this:

$http({ method: 'POST', url: '/token', data: { username: $scope.username, password: $scope.password, grant_type: 'password' } }).success(function (data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.output = data;
}).error(function (data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.output = data;
});

then tried changing the grant_type to a param:

$http({ method: 'POST', url: '/token', data: { username: $scope.username, password: $scope.password }, params: { grant_type: 'password' } }).success(function (data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.output = data;
}).error(function (data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.output = data;
});

Still get the dreaded: {"error":"unsupported_grant_type"}

So I do what no AngularJS developer should ever do, resorted to jQuery:

var data = $('#regForm').serialize() + "&grant_type=password";
$.post('/token', data).always(showResponse);

function showResponse(object) {
    $scope.output = JSON.stringify(object, null, 4);
    $scope.$apply();
};

Which works like a champ... so my question is: how do we replicate the jQuery $.post() call above using AngularJS $http() so we can grab an access token from the OWIN middleware based /token endpoint in ASP.Net Web API 2?

Answer 1

Do this:

$http({
        url: '/token',
        method: 'POST',
        data: "userName=" + $scope.username + "&password=" + $scope.password + 
              "&grant_type=password"
})

Answer 2

I think, adding the header {headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' } to your post request would do the trick. It should be something like this:

$http.post(loginAPIUrl, data,
    {headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' }})

Answer 3

You are getting that error because the default implementation of the OWIN OAuth provider is expecting the post to the "/Token" service to be form encoded and not json encoded. There is a more detailed answer here How do you set katana-project to allow token requests in json format?

But you can still use AngularJs you just have to change the way the $http post is made. You can try the answer here if you don't mind using jquery to change your params How can I post data as form data instead of a request payload? Hope that helps.

Answer 4

You can always watch for the requests being made using the developer console in your browser and see the difference in the request.

But by looking at your jquery code &grant_type=password is being passed in the body not the querystring so the $http call should be

$http({ method: 'POST', url: '/token', data: { username: $scope.username, password: $scope.password ,grant_type:password} }).success(function (data, status, headers, config) {