How to generate "join" URL given ID and password?

Hey @david3,

You can generate the join_url via the create or get meeting endpoint.

Thanks,
Tommy

Tommy, thank you for the information.

  1. This endpoint appears to retrieve meeting information only for those
    who are authorized as creators of the meeting. I wish to generate full
    URLs for meetings I did not create, for the convenience of combining the
    meeting ID and password into one URL, as I indicated in my original posting.

  2. The documentation is confusing. Please provide a full and working
    example of simple URL creation using browser address bar or cURL.

David Spector
Springtime Software

2 Likes

Hey @david3,

An authorized user or the creator of the meeting would need to generate these urls.

Thanks,
Tommy

Since Zoom omits this functionality, I suggest that you add a new method
to generate a URL+password from any meeting Id and its password.

There is no reason not to include this functionality.

Don’t be lazy. Improve Zoom instead of using it as a cash cow.

David Spector
Springtime Software

2 Likes

Hey @david3,

I hope you also realize that what you are suggesting would be a huge security vulnerability, if an unauthorized user could get meeting links with passwords,

Thanks,
Tommy

Nonsense. If you are able to get a URL+link, it is equivalent to getting
an ID and password, since the information in a URL+link is the same as
the information in an ID and password.

Equivalent information means equivalent security, nothing more, nothing
less. It is just that a URL is more convenient than a pair of ID and
password.

David

2 Likes

Hey @david3,

You can do this programmatically if you own the meetingID:

  1. Create a JWT App
  2. Use the JWT Token to call the get meeting endpoint, passing in the meetingID
  3. A join_url with the encrypted password is returned

Thanks,
Tommy

Dear Tommy, I have explained patiently, several times, that I want a
solution where we do not necessarily own the Meeting ID.

A URL+encoded password is supposed to be equivalent authorization to
join a meeting as compared with the meeting ID and password separately,
regardless of whether we created the meeting or not.

Please answer the question directly instead of changing the question or
making statements that aren’t true. Zoom has lots of quirky limitations
without misinformation being thrown into these answers.

If my request absolutely cannot be done, please have the courtesy of
saying so. Nobody believes that Zoom is perfect, so you don’t have to
feel the need to defend it to the death.

Thank you,

David Spector
Springtime Software

3 Likes

Hey @david3,

I am offering you the ways to generate a join url with the encoded password via the Zoom API.

Help me understand your use case for generating these urls? How are you getting the meeting passwords and not the encoded password in the join url?

Thanks,
Tommy

The use case that prompted this question was a PDF file that contained a
URL+password hyperlink, an ID, and a password for a meeting I wanted to
attend. You can click a link in a PDF reader to visit the link in a
browser, but you can’t copy the link value, at least not easily. So I
wanted a simple tool that would take an ID and a password and create the
URL+password so I could put it into a file for later use to join the
meeting.

Another part of the use case is that the Zoom dialog box for entering a
meeting remembers the last few meeting IDs but, strangely, not their
passwords. So, when a meeting has a password, you have to enter the
password manually. Even LastPass doesn’t seem to be of help.

So I want to maintain simple text file containing URLs+password so I can
visit any of a set of meetings using my text editor, which can open URLs
in my browser.

A simple use case, yet one that Zoom apparently doesn’t support and
can’t even understand, even after message after message clarifying the
question!

David

3 Likes

Hi David,

At the moment we don’t support this. For now, we would prefer the techniques we use to encode these passwords stay internal. Very sorry for any inconvenience this might cause.

Thank you for using Zoom!

2 Likes

Hi David,

I hear you. Initially I thought the password from the URL might be a simple hash value, but it seems to have been salted somehow.

I encountered this issue when preparing appointments for my children as they have just received meeting ID and password, but no link. It would make life easier for them if I just gave them the corresponding URL.

Phil

3 Likes

The only way I have found is to join the meeting and copy the invite link. On Android app you even have an option in settings to automatically copy the invite link when you join a meeting.

If the host has allowed others to start the meeting before them you could get the URL ahead of time by joining in anytime.

As far as I know, the link has meeting ID and hashed password.

1 Like

Adnan, I think you are right. If only the Zoom company would let us know what the hash function is… I guess they erroneously believe that keeping the hash function secret increases security. They should ask a security expert and learn that it doesn’t. That’s not how hashing is used to make passwords secure!

The Zoom company has funny ideas about security. They have convinced some hosts to disable private chat, and require that private messages be sent via the host, manually! They have convinced some hosts that participants should wait until the host lets them into the room, one by one! Both pieces of advice interfere with ease of use for questionable benefit.

Companies that are open and request feedback and suggestions, produce far more useful products. Zoom has great technical innards, but a clumsy, awkward user interface that can fail for some use cases. And they clearly simply don’t care. Unfortunately, their newfound popularity due to the pandemic has only reinforced their unwillingness to improve their Meeting product.

2 Likes

I’m not even intending on developing anything. I’m just a user where my fitness instructor sent me a meeting ID and password, and I just wanted to convert it to a URL so I could bookmark it. That’s how I found this question.

As it stands, the “click here to join meeting” URL structure is something like this:
https://us02web.zoom.us/w/<some number here, probably the user ID of the meeting creator>?tk=<something else, probably some hashed value of the meeting ID>&pwd=<definitely not the password as it appears in the email, so probably the hashed value of that or something>

If I use just the regular values in my bookmark and try to navigate to it, will Zoom correctly redirect me?

1 Like

Tessa, I don’t know the specific answer to your question (you can experiment), but the main problem is that the “PWD=” argument in the meeting link URL is NOT the password, but a value computed from the password. In this thread I have been arguing with Zoom about this user-unfriendly design and their response above is that they will not change it.

So, currently, you cannot change a meeting ID and password into a URL to bookmark it or create a command from it. That was Zoom’s conscious and stupid decision and it will stand perhaps until another company captures the enormous Zoom market by offering more flexibility, more convenience, and less arrogance toward users.

2 Likes

Hi David3, You have explained your question perfectly. I ended up here because I was looking for the same solution. I received a Zoom invite with the Personal ID and the password. I play computer for a living and can figure out how to connect. Users who do NOT play computer would never be able to get to the meeting. Someone else setup the meeting. I need to forward that meeting invite (with their permission) to a group of people. Rather than send Personal ID and password, convert those to a URL. Because the PW part is a hash, completely secure. Actually much safer than sending Personal ID and PW in clear text. There should be a simple tool to take that info and covert it to a URL. So when I forward the meeting invite, I can send: Click this URL for our Zoom meeting. All the banter is this thread is BS. Your original question was to the point and a simple question. No deep thought required to parse the question.

1 Like

Thank you all for investigating this before me. I personally have an ID and PW. I wanted to include the link on my calendar. Seems like it should be a straight forward task. I am sad that ZOOM doesn’t even seem open to considering it. The security breech that they are concerned about is puzzling because I already have the ID and PW! I’m hoping that some forward thinking innovated ZOOM employee will reconsider this and the company-customer methodology.

2 Likes

jodiann, I think your observation of this thread is intelligent and accurate. There appears to be something seriously wrong with Zoom, the company. Perhaps it is that it has grown way too quickly as a result of the pandemic. Perhaps their behavior is due to company politics, or to simple arrogance or even to ignorance of the incredible range of software design and implementation possibilities. It is hard to tell from the few words they have shared in this thread.

As I continue to attend and host Zoom meetings, I find one limitation after another in the product (and even, rarely, bugs). Zoom meetings could easily be several times better in terms of ease of use, flexibility, and features. Why is this company so dead-set against gathering ideas and suggestions? Why will it not improve the product? Why is it so attached to their status quo? Why must it act like so many other software companies?

2 Likes

Hey Everyone,

Due to security and privacy reasons we do not plan to expose how we are generating the encoded password for meetings.

That being said, you can securely get the join_url with the password via our API.

Thanks for your understanding,
Tommy

1 Like