Destinations & Authentication

Destinations & Authentication

The Destinations model is the framework that allows a connector plugin to manage authenticated connections to a partner platform in a structured, reusable way. Understanding it is required before implementing any connector that supports self-service authentication.

Key concepts

Data activation on the platform follows a four-level hierarchy:

Connector  →  Destination  →  Preset  →  Feed

From a developer's perspective, each level maps to a concrete artefact:

Level	What it is	Who manages it
Connector	The plugin itself (a specific plugin version)	mediarithmics connector team
Destination	An authenticated instance of the connector for one partner account	The customer, self-service
Preset	A reusable configuration built on top of a destination	The customer
Feed	A concrete delivery instance tied to an audience segment	The customer

A single connector (plugin) can have many destinations (one per partner account), each with many presets, each with many feeds.

Authentication flag

Each plugin version has an auth_flag boolean that controls whether authentication is managed by the plugin.

auth_flag value	Effect
true	The platform enforces the authentication flow. The destination status follows the state machine described below. The plugin must implement the methods corresponding to the configured auth type.
false	Authentication is skipped. The destination status is set to Unknown and no credential flow is triggered. Use this for migration or connectors that do not require authentication.

This flag is set in the Computing Console on the plugin version configuration page.

Authentication types

When auth_flag is true, the plugin version must declare one of the following authentication types:

Type	Description	Typical use case
OAUTH2	OAuth 2.0 redirect flow. The user is redirected to the partner login page. A refresh token is stored securely in the platform vault.	LinkedIn, Google, Amazon Ads
TOKEN	A single secret string input (API token or access key).	Facebook
LOGIN_PASSWORD	A pair of string inputs: one non-secret (login) and one secret (password).	Batch CEP
NO_AUTH	No authentication required. The destination creation modal skips the auth step.	Migration connectors, unsupported connectors

The auth type controls which UI fields are displayed to the user during destination creation and which plugin methods the platform calls.

Destination status state machine

When auth_flag = true, a destination follows this lifecycle:

User creates destination
        │
        ▼
  Status: Not Ready
        │
        ├── User authenticates ──► Plugin returns success ──► Status: Ready
        │
        └── Plugin returns error ──► Status: Connection Error
                                            │
                                            └── User re-authenticates ──► (back to choice above)

When the destination status is Connection Error, the platform prevents new presets or feeds from being created on top of that destination. The error is surfaced to the user in the interface so they can re-authenticate without contacting support.

In this section

• Configuring a plugin version - Set up the auth type, layout, and property levels in Computing Console.

• Authentication methods - Implement the SDK methods that handle the credential flow in your plugin code.