API Authentication

LinkedIn Learning APIs use two-legged OAuth 2.0 for access. Two-legged OAuth is also known as OAuth 2.0 application access using the Client Credentials Flow. This flow allows your application to authorize with LinkedIn's API directly - outside the context of any specific user. To generate an access token, you will need a client ID and client secret which can be obtained by following the steps in Request Access.

Generating an access token

Generate an access token by issuing a POST request to the following endpoint:

POST https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Required
grant_type	The value of this parameter should always be client_credentials.	Yes
client_id	The client ID obtained by following the steps in Request Access.	Yes
client_secret	The client secret obtained by following the steps in Request Access.	Yes

Request

  curl -X POST https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken  -d 'grant_type=client_credentials&client_id={client_id}&client_secret={client_secret}' -H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'

Response

{
  "access_token": "AQXt...",
  "expires_in": 7775999
}

Field schema

Field	Description
access_token	The access token that must be included in a request header in each call to LinkedIn Learning APIs. This value must be kept secure.
expires_in	The number of seconds remaining, from the time it was requested before the token will expire. You can request a new token once your previous token expires.

Once you have generated an access token, you can start using LinkedIn Learning APIs. See the Making authenticated requests section for how to call the API with the access token.

If you call the LinkedIn Learning API with an invalid access token, you will receive a 401 Unauthorized error. An access token could be invalid because it has expired or was revoked. When you integrate with the API, it is important to code your application to properly handle 401 Unauthorized errors. For example, if you receive the error, you can use the client ID and client secret to generate a new access token and retry your request.

Making authenticated requests

Each request to LinkedIn Learning APIs must include a header that contains an access token, generated by following the steps in the Generating an access token section. To include the access token in your request to the API, set an Authorization header in your request, with the access token in the header value (note the "Bearer" authorization type preceding the access token; this value is required by the authorization protocol):

Request

curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer AQXt…' \
'https://api.linkedin.com/v2/learningAssets?q=criteria&assetFilteringCriteria.keyword=java&fields=urn,title&count=3'

{
    "metadata": {
        "assetTypeFacetMetadata": [
            {
                "count": 3000,
                "assetType": "VIDEO"
            },
            {
                "count": 116,
                "assetType": "COURSE"
            },
            {
                "count": 2,
                "assetType": "LEARNING_PATH"
            }
        ],
        "difficultyLevelFacetMetadata": [
            {
                "difficultyLevel": "INTERMEDIATE",
                "count": 1427
            },
            {
                "difficultyLevel": "BEGINNER",
                "count": 727
            },
            {
                "difficultyLevel": "ADVANCED",
                "count": 173
            }
        ]
    },
    "elements": [
        {
            "urn": "urn:li:lyndaCourse:669544",
            "title": {
                "locale": {
                    "country": "US",
                    "language": "en"
                },
                "value": "Learning Java"
            }
        },
        {
            "urn": "urn:li:lyndaCourse:375490",
            "title": {
                "locale": {
                    "country": "US",
                    "language": "en"
                },
                "value": "Java Essential Training for Students"
            }
        },
        {
            "urn": "urn:li:lyndaCourse:107061",
            "title": {
                "locale": {
                    "country": "US",
                    "language": "en"
                },
                "value": "Advanced Java Programming"
            }
        }
    ],
    "paging": {
        "total": 3118,
        "count": 3,
        "start": 0,
        "links": [
            {
                "rel": "next",
                "href": "/v2/learningAssets?assetFilteringCriteria.keyword=java&count=3&q=criteria&start=3",
                "type": "application/json"
            }
        ]
    }
}