Image source URI requiring authorization

Question

On my WPF Window I have an Image whose UriSource is set to the URL of some image on the internet.

<Image>
    <Image.Source>
        <BitmapImage UriSource="http://tinyurl.com/anmucph" />
    </Image.Source>
</Image>

Everything works properly when I use a publicly accessible image on the internet: the WPF framework does the necessary HTTP GET request and displays the image.

What I want to do is use a UriSource that is a URL that requires the HTTP GET request to come with an Authorization header. (I have the required Authorization header string that I want to use.)

How do I use a UriSource that requires authorization? Is there something built into WPF? Or does this require a custom solution? If so, how can I hook into the WPF framework to provide custom logic for performing the HTTP GET?

Answer 1

i know this is an old thread but i wanted to follow up with the solution i found.

.net has a cool feature to let you override it's core with your own methods on a system or application level. this can be done for the WebRequest.Create method

see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bc0fhzk5.aspx

this post is a full example including IWebRequestCreate so you don't get stuck in recursion.

Add header to all* HTTP requests on a machine

after all this, everything in your application scope will be forced to use your create method.

NOTE: before adding your auth header, make sure you are on the right domain so you don't give out your auth to other places :)

Answer 2

Do you have the username and password for the resource? You can specify the domain name like this if it's just standard HTTP auth:

http://username:password@tinyurl.com/anmucph

Answer 3

This can't be done with the tools built into WPF.

An alternative would be to create a lightweight and local HTTP proxy that has a single

• GET http://localhost:####/proxy?uri={uri}&authorization={authorization}

operation (where port #### is behind firewall) that in turn makes a

• GET {uri}

request with the supplied authorization header value.

You could then set UriSource to http://localhost:####/proxy?uri=X&authorization=Y where X is the URI-encoded URI of the secured resource you want to show and Y is the URI-encoded authorization header to send with the GET request.