REST API: Request Token without sending user/password in the Request Body

[SN Emy]

Hey everyone,

I can't figure out the best way to pass the user/password to this post request. Has anyone done this before? The API works just fine when I pass the user/password on the Request body, but I am pretty sure this is not the best way to do this  -  

POST https://{appl}/rest/login-sessionsX-Api-Version: 1000
{
    "password":"mypassword",
    "userName":"administrator",
    "loginMsgAck":"true"
}

Thanks,

[jaheerhattiwale]

@SN Emy You can create basic auth profile. please check below link.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-application-development/page/integrate/outbound-rest/task/t_...

Please mark as correct answer if this solves your issue.

[SN Emy]

POST https://{appl}/rest/login-sessions

X-Api-Version: 1000
{
    "password":"mypassword",
    "userName":"administrator",
    "loginMsgAck":"true"
}

This 3rd party API requires the user/pwd to be sent on the request body. When I try with basic authentication only I keep getting an error 

Method failed: (/rest/login-sessions) with code: 400

{"errorCode":"INVALID_ARGUMENT_ERROR","message":"Invalid argument error.","recommendedActions":["Please supply a valid argument and try again."],"details":"","errorSource":null,"nestedErrors":[],"data":[],"canForce":false}

[Richard Hine · Accepted solution]

SN Emy,

You can pass the username and password in an Authorization header, you concatenate them with a colon between and then base64 encode them before putting it into the header in the form

'Authorization' : 'Basic <base64encodedString>'

For example if the username is scott, password is tiger, you would then concatenate them to scott:tiger and base64 encode that for the basic authorization header.

Perhaps if you can advise what API you are sending to we can offer further advice.

Hope this helps,

Richard