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Viames Marino edited this page May 10, 2026 · 2 revisions

Pair Mobile Android Stack

This page documents the reusable native Android stack for apps that talk to Pair APIs. It matches the iOS stack goal: avoid rebuilding auth, session handling, networking, and image loading differently in every project.

This is not a mechanical port of PairMobileKit. Android gets Android-native defaults: OkHttp for transport and cache, Kotlin coroutines for async work, Kotlin serialization for app models, private SharedPreferences for migratable sessions, and no imposed UI framework.

The iOS counterpart is Mobile iOS stack.

Boundaries

Pair provides:

  • stable API contracts for login, registration, /auth/me, and logout
  • built-in Pair v4 mobile auth endpoints in Pair\Api\ApiController
  • short-lived Bearer access tokens and optional persistent refresh tokens
  • Bearer tokens stored in api_tokens
  • mobile remember_me enabled by default
  • mobile sessions separated from cookies, PHP sessions, and web remember-me records
  • the Android library PairMobileAndroid in mobile/android/PairMobileAndroid

Each app provides:

  • domain-specific models, such as municipality, venue, customer, or tenant
  • native Android UI and navigation
  • city, tenant, or default-context management
  • application endpoints beyond authentication

Android library

The library lives at:

mobile/android/PairMobileAndroid

Main components:

  • PairOkHttpClientFactory: OkHttp client with cookies disabled, HTTP cache, conservative timeouts, and shared cache locations
  • PairOkHttpTransport: transport adapter used by the Pair API client
  • PairApiClient: JSON client with Bearer auth, data envelopes, and 401 invalidation
  • PairAuthService: login, registration, refresh, and logout with remember_me=true forced and hidden from users
  • PairAuthSession and PairStoredAuthSession: token metadata, user snapshot, expiration, and optional app context
  • PairSharedPreferencesSessionStore: migratable session store using private app preferences
  • PairAuthSessionManager: startup bootstrap, token refresh, and single-flight refresh coalescing
  • PairRemoteImageClient: remote image bytes and bitmap loading through the shared HTTP cache
  • PairMobileStack: convenience facade that wires the default components for common apps

Minimum API contract

Pair v4 ships a default mobile auth action in Pair\Api\ApiController. Applications that expose the standard API module can use:

  • POST /api/v1/auth/login
  • POST /api/v1/auth/register
  • POST /api/v1/auth/refresh
  • GET /api/v1/auth/me
  • POST /api/v1/auth/logout

Auth endpoints use JSON and respond with a data envelope.

Login:

POST /api/v1/auth/login
{
  "email": "mario@example.test",
  "password": "password",
  "remember_me": true
}

Registration:

POST /api/v1/auth/register
{
  "name": "Mario Rossi",
  "email": "mario@example.test",
  "password": "password",
  "privacy_accepted": true,
  "remember_me": true
}

Response:

{
  "data": {
    "user": {
      "id": 1,
      "email": "mario@example.test",
      "name": "Mario Rossi"
    },
    "access_token": "short-lived-access-token",
    "refresh_token": "persistent-refresh-token",
    "expires_in": 900
  }
}

expires_at may be returned instead of expires_in. The refresh token is optional in the model, but short-lived access-token deployments should return one so the app can refresh without sending the user back to login. Backends may rotate the refresh token; apps must persist the refreshed snapshot only after the refresh response succeeds.

Refresh:

POST /api/v1/auth/refresh
{
  "refresh_token": "persistent-refresh-token"
}

The response has the same token payload as login and may contain a rotated refresh_token.

PairAuthService.refresh(refreshToken:) calls the standard refresh endpoint. PairAuthSessionManager still receives a refresh closure so the host app can update the shared API client, preserve app context, and adapt custom endpoint paths when needed.

Logout:

POST /api/v1/auth/logout
{
  "refresh_token": "persistent-refresh-token"
}

The refresh token is optional on logout. Sending it lets the backend revoke the persisted token row even when the current access token is no longer useful.

Backend storage

Pair v4 stores mobile bearer sessions in api_tokens. Apply the Pair auth migrations, including migrations/20260510_api_tokens.sql and migrations/20260510_api_tokens_device_metadata.sql, before enabling the default mobile auth endpoints in an application.

The table stores only SHA-256 token hashes. Access tokens are short lived and refresh tokens are optional but rotated atomically by ApiToken::refresh(). Concurrent refresh calls using the same old refresh token result in one successful rotation; later calls fail because the old hash no longer matches. Applications can also persist a safe device_hash and password_version_hash for device-scoped logout and password-change invalidation without storing raw credentials.

Token lifetimes are configured with:

PAIR_MOBILE_ACCESS_TOKEN_LIFETIME=900
PAIR_MOBILE_REFRESH_TOKEN_LIFETIME=2592000

Applications can override mobileAuthUserSnapshot(), mobileAuthContext(), and mobileAuthRegisterUser() in their API controller. The default registration hook returns NOT_IMPLEMENTED so each product owns its signup validation and consent requirements. See Mobile auth app setup for the end-to-end application guide.

Session and device transfer

The default Android store writes the session snapshot to app-private SharedPreferences. The snapshot includes the access token, optional refresh token, access-token expiration, user snapshot, and optional app context. This keeps implementation lightweight and allows the snapshot to participate in Android backup and device-transfer flows when the host app allows backup.

The default store deliberately does not use Android Keystore encryption because hardware-backed keys normally do not migrate to another phone. Projects that prefer device-only storage can implement PairSessionStore and keep the rest of the stack unchanged.

Startup must run through PairAuthSessionManager.bootstrap(validate:refresh:) before showing internal screens:

  • if there is no snapshot, the result is Missing
  • if the access token is valid, the manager validates the session
  • if the access token is expired or inside the refresh leeway, the manager refreshes it first
  • if validation succeeds, the result is Valid
  • if validation or refresh fails because the network is unavailable, the result is Offline and the saved snapshot is preserved
  • if validation or refresh fails with a definitive auth error, the result is Invalidated and local storage is cleared

Before authenticated API calls, use validAccessToken(refresh:). Concurrent callers share one refresh operation, so rotated refresh tokens do not race each other.

Separation from web login

Native apps must not use Pair cookies, sid, PHPSESSID, or user_remembers records. Mobile uses only Bearer tokens in api_tokens.

App login must not close or renew web login. Web login must not revoke mobile tokens except for account deactivation or explicit revocation.

Android example

import kotlinx.serialization.Serializable
import dev.pair.mobile.android.PairMobileStack

@Serializable
data class AppUser(
    val id: Int,
    val email: String,
    val name: String
)

val pair = PairMobileStack.create(
    context = applicationContext,
    apiBaseUrl = "https://example.test/api/v1",
    userSerializer = AppUser.serializer()
)

val session = pair.auth.login(
    email = "mario@example.test",
    password = "password"
)

pair.sessionManager.save(pair.storedSession(session = session, context = "crotone"))

Adoption rules

  1. Use PairOkHttpClientFactory or an equivalent cookie-free transport.
  2. Do not expose a remember me toggle in native apps.
  3. Store the auth snapshot only in the configured PairSessionStore.
  4. Gate internal screens behind PairAuthSessionManager.bootstrap(validate:refresh:).
  5. Use validAccessToken(refresh:) before authenticated API calls.
  6. Clear the session store on logout, account deactivation, or definitive auth failure.
  7. Preserve session snapshots for network and offline errors.
  8. Keep application models out of PairMobileAndroid.
  9. Keep UI decisions in the host Android app.

Required checks

Every Android stack change must pass:

./gradlew testDebugUnitTest

Pair CI runs this command on Ubuntu, separately from the PHP matrix and the iOS mobile job.

See also: Mobile auth app setup, Mobile iOS stack, API, ApiToken, ApiController, User, Upgrade-to-v4.

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