Guide to Creating and Configuring a Custom Application – THRON Guide

A Custom Application is the mechanism by which you authorize an external system — a CMS, a site, a connector — to distribute content from your THRON library in a controlled and secure manner.

Configuring it correctly is the prerequisite to activate any connector (Drupal, Storyblok, Live Story and others).

Prerequisites

Have access to the Applications and Connectors section and see THRON Custom Application Manager among the available apps. Otherwise, contact your THRON Customer Success
Have the Administrator role on the platform
Have necessary rights in the source folder that the application will need to expose to the external system (e.g., /channels/website)

Create the Custom Application

Select THRON Custom Application Manager, then click on the Activate button in the upper right corner.

In the creation modal, fill in the following fields:

Application name — a descriptive name (e.g., wordpress-site-en)
Application ID to display on the URL — the identifier cannot be changed after creation
Public folders — Select a top-level folder; all subfolders will be included and the application will be able to access the content within them.

Accept the various terms of use.

Click on Activate. You will be automatically redirected to the app configuration panel.

Configure the application panel

Once activated, perform these steps in the management panel:

Note the AppID shown at the top of the panel — used for authentication and invoking web services.
In the Content management section, you can enable Can insert new content and choose the user who will be impersonated by the app for content operations:
- Application owner (default)
- Specific user
- New user
In the Access rights to the folder and its contents section, you can choose which rights to give the application
Scroll down and note the AppKey — the private key for secure authentication.

The AppID, AppKey and username values can be retrieved later by accessing the applications page.

Credentials reference

Credential	Description	Where it is
AppID	Application identifier, used for authentication and API calls	At the top of the configuration panel
AppKey	Private key for secure authentication	At the bottom of the panel, Create and manage access keys section
pKey	Public folder key, used for content distribution via THRON player	Generated from the Create new sharing section (see below)
Client ID	THRON tenant identifier (the domain used to access the platform)	Visible in the THRON login URL
Username	The user impersonated by the app for content operations	Chosen during Content Management configuration

Create the pKey for content distribution

The pKey is not generated automatically: it must be created explicitly from the Create new sharing section in the app panel. Click on + Add sharing.

In the modal choose the sharing type:

Type	Behavior	When to use it
Public Sharing	Free access to all folder content; content is indexed by search engines	Public content, open websites
Secure Sharing	Content is distributed only if a valid user token is provided; not indexed by search engines	Reserved content, B2B portals, protected areas

Select the Player Template to associate with the embed and click on Confirm. The generated pKey is visible at the top of the modal and in the embed script under the sessId parameter.

📸 [Screenshot: Enable Sharing modal — selection of Public/Secure sharing, Player Template and Confirm button]

Activate and deactivate the pKey at any time using the checkbox in the Create new sharing section of the panel. If you deactivate it, all embeds using it will immediately stop working on the channels.

Manage existing applications

From the Applications and Connectors panel you can:

View all active apps, with name, type and connected folder
Modify the name and configuration of an existing app
Revoke an application — the external systems that use it immediately stop working

Warning: only the owner user of the app can modify it. A Custom Application cannot create another application.

📦 Recommended Configuration

If you are configuring a Custom Application to connect a CMS connector (WordPress, Drupal, Storyblok or similar), use this preset as a starting point:

Parameter	Recommended value
App name	`[cms-name]-[channel]` (e.g., `wordpress-website-en`)
Application ID to display on the URL	Same as the name, lowercase without spaces (e.g., `wordpress-website-en`)
Source folder	Folder dedicated to the channel, not the root (e.g., `/channels/website`)
Impersonated user	Dedicated user with access only to the source folder — do not use the main admin
Sharing type	Public Sharing for public sites; Secure Sharing for protected areas

Why a dedicated folder? Connecting a specific folder instead of the root limits the exposure of content: the external system sees only the assets it needs to see, nothing more.

Technical note for developers — authentication via API

To obtain a valid session token, invoke the su web service via a POST call to the following endpoint:

//{clientId}-view.thron.com/api/xadmin/resources/apps/su

Required parameters in the body:

{
  "clientId": "",
  "appId": "",
  "username": "",
  "appKey": ""
}

The token returned in the response must be used in all subsequent calls. The pKey can also be used as a parameter for all /public web services to include content on pages. The dynamic parameter in the embed script is xcontentId, to be replaced with the ID of the specific content to embed (it must be content from the folder connected to the app).

Need help?

For questions on activation or for technical problems, write to support@thron.com.

Channel Activation