A token is a security credential that authenticates identities and protects your cloud services from unauthorized access. For ApsaraVideo Real-time Communication (ARTC), your app server is responsible for generating a token and sending it to the client. The client-side ARTC SDK then uses the token to join a channel. Access is granted only upon successful authentication of the provided token.
Prerequisites
An Alibaba Cloud account is created, and ApsaraVideo Live is activated.
An ARTC application is created, and the AppID and AppKey are obtained.
Sample code
Server-side (recommended)
ApsaraVideo Live provides token generation code samples for multiple languages, including Go, Java, and Python. For details, visit GitHub repository.
Client-side (for development and testing only)
Token generation requires an AppKey. Hardcoding the AppKey on the client creates a security risk. For production environment, generate tokens on your business server and send them to the client.
During the development and testing phase, if your own server-side token generation is not yet implemented, you can use the sample code in APIExample to generate temporary tokens. The sample code is as follows:
Android: Android/ARTCExample/KeyCenter/src/main/java/com/aliyun/artc/api/keycenter/ARTCTokenHelper.java
iOS: iOS/ARTCExample/Common/ARTCTokenHelper.swift
How it works
Procedure
The client requests a token from your app server. The app server generates a token according to predefined rules and returns it to the client.
The client uses the received token, along with other required information such as
appId,channelId, anduserId, to send a request to join the specified channel.The ARTC server verifies the token and admits the client into the channel upon successful verification.
Token generation method
The following table describes the fields for token generation.
Field | Description |
AppID | The ARTC application ID and key that are automatically generated after you create the application in the console. For more information, refer to Obtain development parameters. |
AppKey | |
ChannelID | The custom channel ID. It must be a string and can contain digits, letters, hyphens (-), and underscores (_), with a maximum length of 64 characters. All participants in the same session (the host and co-hosts) must use the same |
UserId | The custom user ID. It must be a string and can contain digits, letters, hyphens (-), and underscores (_), with a maximum length of 64 characters. |
Nonce | A nonce string. We recommend leaving this field empty. |
Timestamp | The expiration timestamp for the token, in seconds. We recommend setting it to 24 hours. To do so, add 86400 (24 × 60 × 60) to the current UNIX timestamp. |
Token generation procedure:

Code example:
// 1. Concatenate the following fields: AppID+AppKey+ChannelID+UserID+Nonce+Timestamp
// 2. Use the sha256 function on the concatenated string to generate the token.
token = sha256(AppID+AppKey+ChannelID+UserID+Nonce+Timestamp)
// Example:
AppID = "abc",AppKey="abckey",ChannelID="abcChannel",UserID="abcUser",Nonce="",Timestamp=1699423634
token = sha256("abcabckeyabcChannelabcUser1699423634") = "3c9ee8d9f8734f0b7560ed8022a0590659113955819724fc9345ab8eedf84f31"General ARTC scenarios
This section introduces how to use a token to authenticate a client that requests to join a channel and provides examples for Android and iOS.
The ARTC SDK provides two methods for joining a channel: single-parameter and multi-parameter. These are foundational methods applicable to all ARTC scenarios.
Single-parameter method (recommended)
The ARTC SDK provides a simplified, single-parameter API for joining a channel. This method is recommended as it functions like syntactic sugar, designed to prevent join failures caused by inconsistencies between parameters generated on your server and those passed by the client.
To use this method, combine the Token, AppID, ChannelID, Nonce, UserID, and Timestamp parameters into a JSON object. Then, Base64-encode the JSON string to generate a new authentication string (Base64 token).
When you submit a ticket for troubleshooting, provide the Base64 token or the userName passed in the joinChannel call.

Server-side: Generate Base64 token
Java
package com.example;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.security.MessageDigest;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.util.Base64;
import java.util.Calendar;
import org.json.JSONObject;
public class App {
public static String createBase64Token(String appid, String appkey, String channelid, String userid) {
// Calculate the expiration timestamp (24 hours from now)
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.add(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 24);
long timestamp = calendar.getTimeInMillis() / 1000;
// Concatenate the strings
String stringBuilder = appid + appkey + channelid + userid + timestamp;
// Calculate the SHA-256 hash
String token = sha256(stringBuilder);
// Create the JSON object
JSONObject base64tokenJson = new JSONObject();
base64tokenJson.put("appid", appid);
base64tokenJson.put("channelid", channelid);
base64tokenJson.put("userid", userid);
base64tokenJson.put("nonce", "");
base64tokenJson.put("timestamp", timestamp);
base64tokenJson.put("token", token);
// Convert the JSON object to a string and encode it in Base64
String jsonStr = base64tokenJson.toString();
String base64token = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(jsonStr.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
return base64token;
}
private static String sha256(String input) {
try {
MessageDigest digest = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-256");
byte[] hash = digest.digest(input.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
StringBuilder hexString = new StringBuilder();
for (byte b : hash) {
String hex = Integer.toHexString(0xff & b);
if (hex.length() == 1)
hexString.append('0');
hexString.append(hex);
}
return hexString.toString();
} catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
String appid = "your_appid";
String appkey = "your_appkey";
String channel_id = "your_channel_id";
String user_id = "your_user_id";
String base64token = createBase64Token(appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id);
System.out.println("Base64 Token: " + base64token);
}
}
Go
package main
import (
"crypto/sha256"
"encoding/base64"
"encoding/hex"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"time"
)
func createBase64Token(appid, appkey, channelID, userID string) (string, error) {
// Calculate the expiration timestamp (24 hours from now)
timestamp := time.Now().Add(24 * time.Hour).Unix()
// Concatenate the strings
stringBuilder := appid + appkey + channelID + userID + fmt.Sprintf("%d", timestamp)
// Calculate the SHA-256 hash
hasher := sha256.New()
hasher.Write([]byte(stringBuilder))
token := hasher.Sum(nil)
// Convert the hash to a hexadecimal string using encoding/hex
tokenHex := hex.EncodeToString(token)
// Create the JSON object
tokenJSON := map[string]interface{}{
"appid": appid,
"channelid": channelID,
"userid": userID,
"nonce": "",
"timestamp": timestamp,
"token": tokenHex,
}
// Convert the JSON object to a string and encode it in Base64
jsonBytes, err := json.Marshal(tokenJSON)
if err != nil {
return "", err
}
base64Token := base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(jsonBytes)
return base64Token, nil
}
func main() {
appid := "your_appid"
appkey := "your_appkey"
channelID := "your_channel_id"
userID := "your_user_id"
token, err := createBase64Token(appid, appkey, channelID, userID)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Error creating token:", err)
return
}
fmt.Println("Base64 Token:", token)
}Python
#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
import hashlib
import datetime
import time
import base64
import json
def create_base64_token(app_id, app_key, channel_id, user_id):
expire = datetime.datetime.now() + datetime.timedelta(days=1)
timestamp = int(time.mktime(expire.timetuple()))
h = hashlib.sha256()
h.update(str(app_id).encode('utf-8'))
h.update(str(app_key).encode('utf-8'))
h.update(str(channel_id).encode('utf-8'))
h.update(str(user_id).encode('utf-8'))
h.update(str(timestamp).encode('utf-8'))
token = h.hexdigest()
jsonToken = {'appid':app_id,
'channelid':channel_id,
'userid':user_id,
'nonce':'',
'timestamp':timestamp,
'token':token
}
base64Token = base64.b64encode(json.dumps(jsonToken).encode())
return base64Token
def main():
app_id = 'your_appid'
app_key = 'your_appkey'
channel_id = 'your_channel_id'
user_id = 'your_user_id'
base64Token = create_base64_token(app_id, app_key, channel_id, user_id)
print(base64Token)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()Node.js
'use strict'
const crypto = require('crypto')
function create_base64_token(appid, appkey, channelid, userid) {
let timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000 + 24 * 60 * 60)
let string_builder = appid + appkey + channelid + userid + timestamp.toString()
let token = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(string_builder).digest('hex')
let base64tokenJson = {
appid:appid,
channelid:channelid,
userid:userid,
nonce:'',
timestamp:timestamp,
token:token
}
let base64token = Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(base64tokenJson), 'utf-8').toString('base64')
return base64token
}
let appid = "your_appid";
let appkey = "your_appkey";
let channel_id = "your_channel_id";
let user_id = "your_user_id";
let base64token = create_base64_token(appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id)
console.log(base64token)Rust
use chrono::{Duration, Utc};
use sha2::{Sha256, Digest};
use serde_json::json;
use base64::encode;
fn create_base64_token(appid: &str, appkey: &str, channel_id: &str, user_id: &str) -> String {
// Calculate the expiration timestamp (24 hours from now)
let timestamp = (Utc::now() + Duration::hours(24)).timestamp();
// Concatenate the strings
let string_builder = format!("{}{}{}{}{}", appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id, timestamp);
// Calculate the SHA-256 hash
let mut hasher = Sha256::new();
hasher.update(string_builder);
let token = hasher.finalize();
let token_hex = format!("{:x}", token);
// Create the JSON object
let token_json = json!({
"appid": appid,
"channelid": channel_id,
"userid": user_id,
"nonce": "",
"timestamp": timestamp,
"token": token_hex
});
// Convert the JSON object to a string and encode it in Base64
let base64_token = encode(token_json.to_string());
base64_token
}
fn main() {
let appid = "your_appid";
let appkey = "your_appkey";
let channel_id = "your_channel_id";
let user_id = "your_user_id";
let token = create_base64_token(appid, appkey, channel_id, user_id);
println!("Base64 Token: {}", token);
}Client-side: Call joinChannel
The client receives the Base64 token from the server and calls the joinChannel API to join a channel:
Android:
// You can pass null for channelId and userId, as their values are included in the Base64 token. If you do provide them, they must match the values used to generate the token. This feature can be used to verify parameter consistency between your server and the client. // base64Token is the Base64-encoded token. // username is an identity that you can pass for troubleshooting. mAliRtcEngine.joinChannel(base64Token, null, null, "username");iOS:
// You can pass null for channelId and userId, as their values are included in the Base64 token. If you do provide them, they must match the values used to generate the token. This feature can be used to verify parameter consistency between your server and the client. // base64Token is the Base64-encoded token. // username is an identity that you can pass for troubleshooting. [self.engine joinChannel:base64Token channelId:nil userId:nil name:@"username" onResultWithUserId:nil];
Multi-parameter method
The ARTC SDK also provides an API to join a channel with multiple parameters. This method uses the AliRtcAuthInfo data structure to hold the token and user information.
The channelId and userId must match those used to generate the token.
Android:
// Pass the token and user information. AliRtcAuthInfo authInfo = new AliRtcAuthInfo(); authInfo.appId = appId; authInfo.channelId = channelId; authInfo.userId = userId; authInfo.timestamp = timestamp; authInfo.nonce = nonce; authInfo.token = token; // Join the channel. mAliRtcEngine.joinChannel(authInfo, "");iOS:
// Pass the token and user information. let authInfo = AliRtcAuthInfo() authInfo.appId = appId authInfo.channelId = channelId authInfo.nonce = nonce authInfo.userId = userId authInfo.timestamp = timestamp authInfo.token = authToken // Join the channel. self.rtcEngine?.joinChannel(authInfo, name: nil)
Co-streaming scenarios
The ARTC SDK supports a streamlined authentication method specifically for co-streaming scenarios. You can append Token, AppID, ChannelID, Nonce, UserID, and Timestamp fields as query parameters to the artc:// URL for co-streaming. For details about ARTC URL generation, see URLs for co-streaming.
The following diagram illustrates the workflow:
Example URLs for co-streaming or live battle
Push URL:
artc://live.aliyun.com/push/633?timestamp=1685094092&token=fe4e674ade****6686&userId=718&sdkAppId=xxxPull URL:
artc://live.aliyun.com/play/633?timestamp=1685094092&token=fe4e674ade****6686&userId=718&sdkAppId=xxxlive.aliyun.com is a fixed prefix for co-streaming URLs and is not a resolvable domain name. It cannot be used for domain-related operations, such as ping, traceroute, or telnet.
Token expiration handling
When a token is created, the Timestamp field specifies its expiration time.
After a user joins a channel with a token:
30 seconds before the token expires, the SDK triggers the
onAuthInfoWillExpirecallback. Call therefreshAuthInfomethod to update the authentication information.When the token expires, the SDK triggers the
onAuthInfoExpiredcallback. To remain in the channel, the user must join the channel again.