Basic Authentication

Basic authentication is a technique some endpoints use to control access to their web resources. To make a successful request to these endpoints, you’ll need to add an Authorization header to the outbound mapping in your delivery step.

Next, you’ll need to enter a value for the “flow field or raw value” field. Most endpoints require you to encode a particular value or set of values for this. This information can typically be found in their documentation. Some examples of values that need to be encoded include API keys and username/password combinations.

For example, if your endpoint requires you to base64 encode a username and password separated by a colon, you would:

1. Visit a website that performs base64 encoding (e.g., http://ostermiller.org/calc/encode.html)
2. Paste the requested value into their form (e.g., “yourusername:yourpassword”) and click “encode”
3. Copy the base64 encoded version of the combination, which may look something like this: eW91cnVzZXJuYW1lOnlvdXJwYXNzd29yZA==
4. Paste that value into the “flow field or raw value” field associated with the Authorization header
5. Prepend that base64 value with the word “Basic” and a space (see below)

• lc_basic_authentication_01.png10 KB
• lc_basic_authentication_02.png20 KB