Oauth2 Token Not Refreshing

[jmuccia]

Describe the problem/error/question

Hello,

I am using the HTTP Request node to connect to the Zoho Invoice API because the ZOHO CRM node does not include the scope I need. I am using the OAuth2 API under the Generic Credential Type and I successfully get an initial connection. The problem is that I am unable to get a refresh token so every hour (3600 second time limit), I need to manually refresh the connection in order to make any API calls.

What should my Auth URI Query Parameters be in order to get an automatic refresh token?

What is the error message (if any)?

• No refresh token

Please share your workflow

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Share the output returned by the last node

Information on your n8n setup

• n8n version: 1.21.0
• Database (default: SQLite):
• n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
• Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): n8n cloud
• Operating system: Mac OS Sonoma

[liam]

You should set it up as a custom OAuth2 credential, then you won’t need to update anything manually. That is more secure anyway.

This is pretty tricky with Zoho but once you know the steps it’s not too bad. Thankfully I have a lot of experience with Zoho so I can help you out. It’s really annoying the first time you do it

I’ll go step by step for you.

These steps will work for any Zoho service for anyone in the future reading this, you’ll just need to change the URI link from the docs

Go to the api docs

For you it will be here.

We need a few things from the docs:

• The redirect URI
• The scopes
• Authorization URL
• Access Token URL

In your case that info is:

The redirect URI:
http://www.zoho.com/invoice

Scopes:
ZohoInvoice.invoices.CREATE,ZohoInvoice.invoices.READ,ZohoInvoice.invoices.UPDATE,ZohoInvoice.invoices.DELETE

Authorization URL (should be the same for all Zoho services):
https://accounts.zoho.com/oauth/v2/auth

Access Token URL (should be the same for all Zoho services):
https://accounts.zoho.com/oauth/v2/token

Save that information for a future step

Go to n8n credential settings

Create a new OAuth2 API credential.
Unfortunately searching doensn’t narrow it down much, you’ll need to find it in the list.

Then press create. Save that page in a separate tab, we’ll need the OAuth Redirect URL in that page for the next step.

Go here to create new zoho “client”

Go to this link and press “create client” in the top right

Then select “server based client”, though multiple will work, this is just the easiest.

Fill out the form like this. The link in the redirect section should be the redirect link from the n8n credential settings.

Once you press create it will display your client and secret id. Copy and paste those into your n8n credential page.

Back to n8n credential settings

Now you should have all of the info needed for your credential page’s settings.

Only other thing you need to do is add access_type=offline to the Auth URI Query Parameter. That was also found in the Zoho docs.

Your credential form should look like this

NOTE: Best practice is to only use the required scopes for security reasons. Although most people just add all of the scopes for convince.

All done

Just press “Connect my account” button and give access and you’re all set up. You won’t ever have to touch those credentials again.


Let me know if you have any issues

[jmuccia]

Hey Liam,

Thank you for your help! I had done just about everything you had mentioned except put my homepage link as my n8n link and that was what made the difference.

Much appreciated!