Basic Authentication with Retrofit - retrofit

Question

I am trying to build a client for a REST API using Retrofit. The API uses basic auth and I have been unable to authenticate using Retrofit.
I tested the API using the curl below and it works as expected
curl -H "Accept: application/json" -H "Content-type: application/json" -X POST -d '{some_json}' -u api_key: https://apitest.com/api/v1/customers
Below is the Retrofit client
public interface UserService {
String HOST = "https://apitest.com";
public static OkHttpClient.Builder httpClient = new OkHttpClient.Builder();
public static Retrofit.Builder builder =
new Retrofit.Builder()
.baseUrl(HOST)
.addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create());
/*
* CREATE/UPDATE User
*/
#POST("api/v1/customers")
Call<UserAPIResponse> userUpdate(#Body UserUpdateRequest userUpdateRequest);
static UserService newInstance(String userAPIKey) {
String credentials = userAPIKey + ":";
final String basic = "Basic "+ Base64.encodeBase64(credentials.getBytes());
httpClient.addInterceptor(new Interceptor() {
#Override
public Response intercept(Interceptor.Chain chain) throws IOException {
Request original = chain.request();
Request.Builder requestBuilder = original.newBuilder()
.header("Authorization", basic);
requestBuilder.header("Accept", "application/json");
requestBuilder.method(original.method(),original.body());
Request request = requestBuilder.build();
return chain.proceed(request);
}
});
OkHttpClient client = httpClient.build();
Retrofit retrofit = builder.client(client).build();
return retrofit.create(BlueshiftUserService.class);
}
When I call updateUser on the UserService
Response<UserAPIResponse> response = UserService.userUpdate(userUpdateRequest).execute();
The response.code is 401 (unauthorized/authentication failed)
The curl command with -u and the same credentials works as expected.

Answer 1

The issue was with the credentials encoding. I wasnt sending it as string.
byte[] encodedAuth= Base64.encodeBase64(credentials.getBytes());
final String basic = "Basic " + new String(encodedAuth);

Answer 2

use these libraries in Gradle file
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit:retrofit:1.9.0'
compile 'com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp:2.3.0'
compile 'com.cookpad.android.rxt4a:rxt4a:0.9.0'
compile 'io.reactivex:rxjava:1.0.12'
and put this classes in your project
public class ServiceGenerator {
private static final String TAG = erviceGenerator.class.getSimpleName();
public static final int READ_TIMEOUT = 10000;
public static final int CONNECT_TIMEOUT = 100000;
// No need to instantiate this class.
private ServiceGenerator(){}
public static <S> S createService(Class<S> serviceClass, String
endpoint) {
// Call basic auth generator method without user and pass
return createService(serviceClass, endpoint, null, null); }
public static <S> S createService(Class<S> serviceClass, String
endpoint, String username, String password) {
OkHttpClient okHttpClient = new OkHttpClient();
okHttpClient.setReadTimeout(READ_TIMEOUT, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
okHttpClient.setConnectTimeout(CONNECT_TIMEOUT, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
// Set endpoint url and use OkHTTP as HTTP client
RestAdapter.Builder builder = new RestAdapter.Builder()
.setEndpoint(endpoint)
.setConverter(new GsonConverter(new Gson()))
.setClient(new OkClient(okHttpClient));
if (username != null && password != null) {
// Concatenate username and password with colon for authentication
final String credentials = username + ":" + password;
builder.setRequestInterceptor(new RequestInterceptor() {
#Override
public void intercept(RequestFacade request) {
// Create Base64 encoded string
String string = "Basic " + Base64.encodeToString(credentials.getBytes(), Base64.NO_WRAP);
request.addHeader("Authorization", string);
request.addHeader("Accept", "application/json");
}
});
}
RestAdapter adapter = builder.build();
return adapter.create(serviceClass); } }
and this interface
public class TodolyClient {
private static final String TAG = TodolyClient.class.getSimpleName();
public static final String ENDPOINT = "your base URL";
public interface TodolyService {
#GET("/wp-json/wc/v2/products")(your remaining url)
Observable<Object> isAuthenticated();
}
}
and call the below method in your main activity
private void createProject() {
final TodolyClient.TodolyService service =ServiceGenerator.createService(
TodolyClient.TodolyService.class, TodolyClient.ENDPOINT, "your user name",
"your password");
Observable<Object> observable = service.isAuthenticated();
AndroidCompositeSubscription compositeSubscription = new AndroidCompositeSubscription();
observable
.lift(new OperatorAddToCompositeSubscription<Object>(compositeSubscription))
.subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
.observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
.subscribe(new Observer<Object>() {
#Override
public void onNext(Object project) {
android.util.Log.d(TAG, "onNext: "+project.toString());
}
#Override
public void onCompleted() {
android.util.Log.d(TAG, "onNext:commm " );
}
#Override
public void onError(Throwable e) {
android.util.Log.d(TAG, "onNext: eeeeeeeee"+e.getMessage());
}
});
}

Answer 3

This is so far the easiest method i have ever tried for "Basic Authentication".
Use the below code to generate the auth header (API/Repository class), You can add any character set for encoding as the third parameter here.
var basic = Credentials.basic("YOUR_USERNAME", "YOUR_PASSWORD")
Pass this as header to the webservice call (API/Repository class)
var retrofitCall = myWebservice.getNewsFeed(basic)
Add the basic header as parameter (Retrofit Webservice interface class)
#GET("newsfeed/daily")
fun getNewsFeed(#Header("Authorization") h1:String):Call<NewsFeedResponse>
Sorry, my code is in Kotlin, but can be easily translated to Java.
References: https://mobikul.com/basic-authentication-retrofit-android/