========================
Temporary URL middleware
========================

To discover whether your Object Storage system supports this feature,
check with your service provider or send a **GET** request using the ``/info``
path.

A temporary URL gives users temporary access to objects. For example, a
website might want to provide a link to download a large object in
Object Storage, but the Object Storage account has no public access. The
website can generate a URL that provides time-limited **GET** access to
the object. When the web browser user clicks on the link, the browser
downloads the object directly from Object Storage, eliminating the need
for the website to act as a proxy for the request.

Furthermore, a temporary URL can be prefix-based. These URLs
contain a signature which is valid for all objects which share
a common prefix. They are useful for sharing a set of objects.

Ask your cloud administrator to enable the temporary URL feature. For
information, see :ref:`tempurl` in the *Source Documentation*.

Note
~~~~

To use **POST** requests to upload objects to specific Object Storage
locations, use :doc:`form_post_middleware` instead of temporary URL middleware.

Temporary URL format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A temporary URL is comprised of the URL for an object with added query
parameters:

**Example Temporary URL format**

.. code::

    https://swift-cluster.example.com/v1/my_account/container/object
    ?temp_url_sig=da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709
    &temp_url_expires=1323479485
    &filename=My+Test+File.pdf

The example shows these elements:


**Object URL**: Required. The full path URL to the object.

**temp\_url\_sig**: Required. An HMAC-SHA1 cryptographic signature that defines
the allowed HTTP method, expiration date, full path to the object, and the
secret key for the temporary URL.

**temp\_url\_expires**: Required. An expiration date as a UNIX Epoch timestamp
or ISO 8601 UTC timestamp. For example, ``1390852007`` or
``2014-01-27T19:46:47Z`` can be used to represent
``Mon, 27 Jan 2014 19:46:47 GMT``.

For more information, see `Epoch & Unix Timestamp Conversion
Tools <http://www.epochconverter.com/>`__.

**filename**: Optional. Overrides the default file name. Object Storage
generates a default file name for **GET** temporary URLs that is based on the
object name. Object Storage returns this value in the ``Content-Disposition``
response header. Browsers can interpret this file name value as a file
attachment to be saved.

A prefix-based temporary URL is similar but requires the parameter
``temp_url_prefix``, which must be equal to the common prefix shared
by all object names for which the URL is valid.

.. code::

    https://swift-cluster.example.com/v1/my_account/container/my_prefix/object
    ?temp_url_sig=da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709
    &temp_url_expires=2011-12-10T01:11:25Z
    &temp_url_prefix=my_prefix

.. _secret_keys:

Secret Keys
~~~~~~~~~~~

The cryptographic signature used in Temporary URLs and also in
:doc:`form_post_middleware` uses a secret key. Object Storage allows you to
store two secret key values per account, and two per container. When validating
a request, Object Storage checks signatures against all keys. Using two keys at
each level enables key rotation without invalidating existing temporary URLs.

To set the keys at the account level, set one or both of the following
request headers to arbitrary values on a **POST** request to the account:

-  ``X-Account-Meta-Temp-URL-Key``

-  ``X-Account-Meta-Temp-URL-Key-2``

To set the keys at the container level, set one or both of the following
request headers to arbitrary values on a **POST** or **PUT** request to the
container:

-  ``X-Container-Meta-Temp-URL-Key``

-  ``X-Container-Meta-Temp-URL-Key-2``

The arbitrary values serve as the secret keys.

For example, use the **swift post** command to set the secret key to
*``MYKEY``*:

.. code::

    $ swift post -m "Temp-URL-Key:MYKEY"

Note
~~~~

Changing these headers invalidates any previously generated temporary
URLs within 60 seconds, which is the memcache time for the key.

HMAC-SHA1 signature for temporary URLs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Temporary URL middleware uses an HMAC-SHA1 cryptographic signature. This
signature includes these elements:

-  The allowed method. Typically, **GET** or **PUT**.

-  Expiry time. In the example for the HMAC-SHA1 signature for temporary
   URLs below, the expiry time is set to ``86400`` seconds (or 1 day)
   into the future. Please be aware that you have to use a UNIX timestamp
   for generating the signature (in the API request it is also allowed to
   use an ISO 8601 UTC timestamp).

-  The path. Starting with ``/v1/`` onwards and including a container
   name and object. The path for prefix-based signatures must start with
   ``prefix:/v1/``. Do not URL-encode the path at this stage.

-  The secret key. Use one of the key values as described
   in :ref:`secret_keys`.

These sample Python codes show how to compute a signature for use with
temporary URLs:

**Example HMAC-SHA1 signature for object-based temporary URLs**

.. code::

    import hmac
    from hashlib import sha1
    from time import time
    method = 'GET'
    duration_in_seconds = 60*60*24
    expires = int(time() + duration_in_seconds)
    path = '/v1/my_account/container/object'
    key = 'MYKEY'
    hmac_body = '%s\n%s\n%s' % (method, expires, path)
    signature = hmac.new(key, hmac_body, sha1).hexdigest()

**Example HMAC-SHA1 signature for prefix-based temporary URLs**

.. code::

    import hmac
    from hashlib import sha1
    from time import time
    method = 'GET'
    duration_in_seconds = 60*60*24
    expires = int(time() + duration_in_seconds)
    path = 'prefix:/v1/my_account/container/my_prefix'
    key = 'MYKEY'
    hmac_body = '%s\n%s\n%s' % (method, expires, path)
    signature = hmac.new(key, hmac_body, sha1).hexdigest()

Do not URL-encode the path when you generate the HMAC-SHA1 signature.
However, when you make the actual HTTP request, you should properly
URL-encode the URL.

The *``MYKEY``* value is one of the key values as described
in :ref:`secret_keys`.

For more information, see `RFC 2104: HMAC: Keyed-Hashing for Message
Authentication <http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2104.txt>`__.

If you want to transform a UNIX timestamp into an ISO 8601 UTC timestamp,
you can use following code snippet:

.. code::

    import time
    time.strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ', time.gmtime(timestamp))

Using the ``swift`` tool to generate a Temporary URL 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``swift`` tool provides the  tempurl_ option that
auto-generates the *``temp_url_sig``* and *``temp_url_expires``* query
parameters. For example, you might run this command:

.. code::

    $ swift tempurl GET 3600 /v1/my_account/container/object MYKEY

This command returns the path:

.. code::

    /v1/my_account/container/object
    ?temp_url_sig=5c4cc8886f36a9d0919d708ade98bf0cc71c9e91
    &temp_url_expires=1374497657

To create the temporary URL, prefix this path with the Object Storage
storage host name. For example, prefix the path with
``https://swift-cluster.example.com``, as follows:

.. code::

    https://swift-cluster.example.com/v1/my_account/container/object
    ?temp_url_sig=5c4cc8886f36a9d0919d708ade98bf0cc71c9e91
    &temp_url_expires=1374497657

Note that if the above example is copied exactly, and used in a command
shell, then the ampersand is interpreted as an operator and the URL
will be truncated. Enclose the URL in quotation marks to avoid this.

.. _tempurl: http://docs.openstack.org/developer/python-swiftclient/cli.html#tempurl