Understanding Authentication

This page outlines Adobe authentication and available libraries, for Developers planning to work with Adobe APIs in their custom applications.

Adobe services like Creative SDK, Photoshop, Adobe Analytics, etc. use the OAuth 2.0 protocol for authentication and authorization. Using Adobe OAuth 2.0, you can generate access tokens to make API calls from your web server or browser-based apps. You can learn more about it at the Developer Guide's User Authentication page.

API services tied to entitled Adobe products such as Campaign and Target require a JSON Web Token (JWT) to retrieve access tokens for use against authenticated endpoints. This document serves as a quick-start guide for first-time users.

Certain products, like Adobe Analytics 2.0, allow both types of integrations. You may choose to use an OAuth client if you are creating an application that requires an end user to authenticate before calling the Adobe Analytics APIs, or a JWT client if creating an application that needs to programmatically authenticate calls to Adobe Analytics APIs.

The Adobe I/O IMS SDK Library can simplify your interaction with Adobe authentication. You can configure and try it out at Adobe I/O IMS SDK Library