Java:
Sending an HTTP request with basic authentication
How to:
Java makes it pretty straightforward to send HTTP requests with basic authentication using the HttpURLConnection class. Here’s a quick example:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.util.Base64;
public class BasicAuthRequest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
URL url = new URL("http://example.com/resource");
HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
String userCredentials = "user:password";
String basicAuth = "Basic " + new String(Base64.getEncoder().encode(userCredentials.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)));
connection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", basicAuth);
int responseCode = connection.getResponseCode();
System.out.println("Response Code: " + responseCode);
if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
String inputLine;
StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
response.append(inputLine);
}
in.close();
System.out.println(response.toString());
} else {
System.out.println("GET request not worked");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}Sample Output:
Response Code: 200
{ "message": "This is a response from a protected resource!" }Deep Dive
Basic authentication has been around since the early days of HTTP. It works by transmitting base64-encoded credentials in the header, making it simple but not very secure without HTTPS, as credentials can be easily decoded.
Alternatives like OAuth add another layer of security by using tokens instead. Token-based authentication is preferred nowadays, particularly for RESTful APIs.
When implementing basic access authentication in Java, the recommended way since Java 11 is using the new HttpClient class. It’s more versatile and supports HTTP/2 out of the box. Still, for basic requirements or legacy systems, HttpURLConnection remains a viable option.