Using OAuth to Share Post Or Link on LinkedIn

#oauth

#oauth2

#javascript

#linkedin

Goal

Provide the easiest way (less than 15 lines of code) to use OAuth to share a post or link on a LinkedIn account on behalf of a LinkedIn user using Javascript.

Code Example

You can test this snippet by trying to login with your LinkedIn account, or tweak it without requiring any configuration, coding, etc.

https://jsfiddle.net/ntu1qyg7/

Code Explanation

HTML

<a id="linkedin-button" class="btn btn-block btn-social btn-vimeo">
  <i class="fa"></i> Share a Post with LinkedIn
</a>

CSS

None

Javascript

$('#linkedin-button').on('click', function() {
// Initialize with your OAuth.io app public key
OAuth.initialize('YOUR_OAUTH_IO_KEY');
  OAuth.popup('linkedin2').then(linkedin => {
    linkedin.post({
      url: "/v1/people/~/shares?format=json",
      data: JSON.stringify({
        "comment": "Hello world!",
        "visibility": {
          "code": "anyone"
        }
      }),
      headers: {
         "x-li-format": "json",
         "Content-Type": "application/json"
      }
    }).then(data => {
      console.log("success:", data);
    }).fail(err => { console.log("err:",err) });
  })
})

External Requirements

This Javascript code has external requirements:

jQuery - HTML element manipulation
- https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.min.js
bootstrap, font-awesome - Look-and-feel of social buttons and icons
oauth-io javascript library - Simplifies OAuth usage by hiding the nuances in the OAuth implementation of various OAuth providers, e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. behind the ratified standard OAuth2 interface
- https://cdn.rawgit.com/oauth-io/oauth-js/c5af4519/dist/oauth.js

Step-by-step Guide

Here is a summary of the steps to create this social button to share a post or link on LInkedIn on a user's behalf using OAuth2.

Create a LinkedIn account, if you do not have one
Create an app on LinkedIn using this simple step-by-step guide
Copy your LinkedIn app client id and client secret
Signup for OAuth.io account
Link your LinkedIn app with OAuth.io by pasting your LinkedIn app client id and client secret into OAuth.io
Copy the OAuth javascript snippet (https://jsfiddle.net/ntu1qyg7/) on to your web page