What is the preferred way to validate an Access Token

[justinmy]

Particle API Team,

What is the preferred way to validate an Access Token? I want to verify that a token is still good and although I could call /devices and throw away the data, I was curious what endpoint had the lowest impact / quickest return.

Thanks!

[Moors7]

Check this thread:

@bryce

Because an access token can expire at any time, the only way to validate a token is to try and use it. If there was an endpoint to validate an access token, it could return "yes, valid", the token could expire immediately after, and then when you try to use the token, it does not work.

[justinmy]

Thanks. I’ll follow that thread. Currently I’m doing the same (calling /devices), but hate the data waste. I’m aware that the token could be invalidated at any point and have precautions around that already.

[bryce]

Calling /v1/user is pretty quick and low impact. I don’t think we have any routes that don’t hit the database at the moment.