Refresh access_token via refresh_token in Keycloak

I need to make the user keep login in the system if the user’s access_token get expired and user want to keep login. How can I get newly updated access_token with the use of refresh_token on Keycloak?

I am using vertx-auth for the auth implementation with Keycloak on vert.x. Is it possible to refresh access_token with vertx-auth or Keycloak‘s REST API itself? Or what will be another implementation of this?

Answer

keycloak has REST API for creating an access_token using refresh_token. It is a POST endpoint with application/x-www-form-urlencoded

Here is how it looks:

Method: POST
URL: https://keycloak.example.com/auth/realms/myrealm/protocol/openid-connect/token
Body type: x-www-form-urlencoded
Form fields:    
client_id : <my-client-name>
grant_type : refresh_token
refresh_token: <my-refresh-token>

This will give you new access token using refresh token.

NOTE: if your refresh token is expired it will throw 400 exception in that you can make user login again.

Check out a sample in Postman, you can develop and corresponding API using this.