Calling a rest api with username and password - how to

Question

I am new to rest api's and calling them via .NET

I have an api: https://sub.domain.com/api/operations?param=value&param2=value

The notes for the api say that to authorize I need to use the basic access authentication - how do I do that?

I currently have this code:

        WebRequest req = WebRequest.Create(@"https://sub.domain.com/api/operations?param=value&param2=value");
        req.Method = "GET";
        //req.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
        HttpWebResponse resp = req.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;

However I get a 401 unauthorized error.

What am I missing, how do I form api calls using the basic access auth?

Answer 1

If the API says to use HTTP Basic authentication, then you need to add an Authorization header to your request. I'd alter your code to look like this:

    WebRequest req = WebRequest.Create(@"https://sub.domain.com/api/operations?param=value&param2=value");
    req.Method = "GET";
    req.Headers["Authorization"] = "Basic " + Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.Default.GetBytes("username:password"));
    //req.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
    HttpWebResponse resp = req.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;

Replacing "username" and "password" with the correct values, of course.

Answer 2

You can also use the RestSharp library for example

var userName = "myuser";
var password = "mypassword";
var host = "170.170.170.170:333";
var client = new RestClient("https://" + host + "/method1");            
client.Authenticator = new HttpBasicAuthenticator(userName, password);            
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST); 
request.AddHeader("Accept", "application/json");
request.AddHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");            
request.AddParameter("application/json","{}",ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

Answer 3

Here is the solution for Rest API

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        BaseClient clientbase = new BaseClient("https://website.com/api/v2/", "username", "password");
        BaseResponse response = new BaseResponse();
        BaseResponse response = clientbase.GetCallV2Async("Candidate").Result;
    }


    public async Task<BaseResponse> GetCallAsync(string endpoint)
    {
        try
        {
            HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(endpoint + "/").ConfigureAwait(false);
            if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
            {
                baseresponse.ResponseMessage = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                baseresponse.StatusCode = (int)response.StatusCode;
            }
            else
            {
                baseresponse.ResponseMessage = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                baseresponse.StatusCode = (int)response.StatusCode;
            }
            return baseresponse;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            baseresponse.StatusCode = 0;
            baseresponse.ResponseMessage = (ex.Message ?? ex.InnerException.ToString());
        }
        return baseresponse;
    }
}


public class BaseResponse
{
    public int StatusCode { get; set; }
    public string ResponseMessage { get; set; }
}

public class BaseClient
{
    readonly HttpClient client;
    readonly BaseResponse baseresponse;

    public BaseClient(string baseAddress, string username, string password)
    {
        HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler()
        {
            Proxy = new WebProxy("http://127.0.0.1:8888"),
            UseProxy = false,
        };

        client = new HttpClient(handler);
        client.BaseAddress = new Uri(baseAddress);
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
        var byteArray = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(username + ":" + password);

        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new System.Net.Http.Headers.AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic", Convert.ToBase64String(byteArray));

        baseresponse = new BaseResponse();

    }
}