Authenticating to Oracle Eloqua
Connect via Login
The standard method of authentiation to Oracle Eloqua is via the login method. The Login method requires you to set Company and to set User, and Password to the credentials you use to log in. This method uses HTTP Basic authentication over SSL.Connect via OAuth
Using OAuth Authentication
Custom Credentials
Headless Machines
Creating a Custom OAuth App
You may want to create a custom OAuth app to change the information displayed when users log into the Oracle Eloqua. You can register an app to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret,.
See Creating a Custom OAuth App for a procedure.
Custom Credentials
This section describes desktop authentication using the credentials for your custom OAuth app. See Creating a Custom OAuth App for more information.
Desktop Authentication with your OAuth App
Follow the steps below to authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth app. See Creating a Custom OAuth App.
Get an OAuth Access Token
After setting the following, you are ready to connect:
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
- CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URL in your app settings.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
- Extracts the access token from the callback URL and authenticates requests.
- Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.
Web Authentication with your OAuth App
When connecting via a Web application, you need to register a custom OAuth app with Oracle Eloqua. See Creating a Custom OAuth App. You can then use the provider to get and manage the OAuth token values.
Get an OAuth Access Token
Set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuthAccessToken:
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
You can then call stored procedures to complete the OAuth exchange:
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Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB and set the CallbackURL input to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings. If necessary, set the Permissions parameter to request custom permissions.
The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.
- Open the URL, log in, and authorize the application. You are redirected back to the callback URL.
- Call the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB. Set the Verifier input to the "code" parameter in the query string of the callback URL. If necessary, set the Permissions parameter to request custom permissions.
To connect to data, set the OAuthAccessToken connection property to the access token returned by the stored procedure.
Headless Machines
Using OAuth on a Headless Machine
To create Oracle Eloqua data sources on headless servers or other machines on which the provider cannot open a browser, you need to authenticate from another machine. Authentication is a two-step process.
- Instead of installing the provider on another machine, you can follow the steps below to obtain the OAuthVerifier value. Or, you can install the provider on another machine and transfer the OAuth authentication values, after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow.
- You can then configure the provider to automatically refresh the access token from the headless machine.
Using the Credentials for a Custom OAuth App
Create a Custom OAuth App
See Creating a Custom OAuth App for a procedure. You can then follow the procedures below to authenticate and connect to data.
Obtain a Verifier Code
Set the following properties on the headless machine:
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to OFF.
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the App Id in your app settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the App Secret in your app settings.
You can then follow the steps below to authenticate from another machine and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.
- Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl stored procedure with the CallbackURL input parameter set to the exact Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
- Open the returned URL in a browser. Log in and grant permissions to the provider. You are then redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
- Save the value of the verifier code. You will set this in the OAuthVerifier connection property.
On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuth authentication values:
- OAuthVerifier: Set this to the verifier code.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to persist the encrypted OAuth authentication values to the specified file.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
Connect to Data
After the OAuth settings file is generated, set the following properties to connect to data:
- OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the file containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this file gives read and write permissions to the provider to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
Transfer OAuth Settings
Follow the steps below to install the provider on another machine, authenticate, and then transfer the resulting OAuth values.
On a second machine, install the provider and connect with the following properties set:
- OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to a writable text file.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH.
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
- CallbackURL: Set this to the Callback URL in your app settings.
Test the connection to authenticate. The resulting authentication values are written, encrypted, to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. Once you have successfully tested the connection, copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine. On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to connect to data:
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the path to your OAuth settings file. Make sure this file gives read and write permissions to the provider to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
Creating a Custom OAuth App
To obtain an OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, CallbackURL, and you first need to create an app linked to your Oracle Eloqua account.
Create and Configure a Custom OAuth App
You can follow the procedure below to obtain the client credentials, the client Id (app Id) and client secret:
- Log in to Oracle Eloqua.
- Click Settings -> AppCloud Developer (under Platform Extensions) -> Create New App.
- Enter a name, icon, and description for the app to be displayed to users when they connect to Oracle Eloqua. The OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret will be displayed.
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If you are creating a desktop application, set the CallbackURL to http://localhost:3000, or another port of your choice.
If you are creating a Web application, set the Callback URL to a page on your Web app you would like the user to be returned to after the user has authorized your application. Note that Eloqua requires that the Callback URL begins with https://. You must specify a port.
When you connect the add-in opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.
Fine-Tuning Data Access
You can use the following properties to gain more granular control over how the provider surfaces the functionality of the underlying Oracle Eloqua APIs. The provider uses the bulk API when possible; you can fine-tune the connectivity to the bulk API with the following connection properties:
- UseBulkAPI
- BulkPollingInterval
- BulkQueryTimeout
- DataRetentionDuration
- RetryCount
- RetryInterval
Customizing the SSL Configuration
Connecting Through a Firewall or Proxy
HTTP Proxies
In addition, to authenticate to an HTTP proxy, set ProxyAuthScheme, ProxyUser, and ProxyPassword, in addition to ProxyServer and ProxyPort.
Other Proxies
Set the following properties:
- To use a proxy-based firewall, set FirewallType, FirewallServer, and FirewallPort.
- To tunnel the connection, set FirewallType to TUNNEL.
- To authenticate, specify FirewallUser and FirewallPassword.
- To authenticate to a SOCKS proxy, additionally set FirewallType to SOCKS5.
Troubleshooting the Connection
To show provider activity from query execution to network traffic, use Logfile and Verbosity. The examples of common connection errors below show how to use these properties to get more context. Contact the support team for help tracing the source of an error or circumventing a performance issue.
- Authentication errors: Typically, recording a Logfile at Verbosity 4 is necessary to get full details on an authentication error.
- Queries time out: A server that takes too long to respond will exceed the provider's client-side timeout. Often, setting the Timeout property to a higher value will avoid a connection error. Another option is to disable the timeout by setting the property to 0. Setting Verbosity to 2 will show where the time is being spent.
- The certificate presented by the server cannot be validated: This error indicates that the provider cannot validate the server's certificate through the chain of trust. If you are using a self-signed certificate, there is only one certificate in the chain.
To resolve this error, you must verify yourself that the certificate can be trusted and specify to the provider that you trust the certificate. One way you can specify that you trust a certificate is to add the certificate to the trusted system store; another is to set SSLServerCert.