HttpClient 4.2, Basic Authentication, and AuthScope

Question

I have an application connecting to sites that require basic authentication. The sites are provided at run time and not known at compile time.

I am using HttpClient 4.2.

I am not sure if the code below is how I am supposed to specify basic authentication, but the documentation would suggest it is. However, I don't know what to pass in the constructor of AuthScope. I had thought that a null parameter meant that the credentials supplied should be used for all URLs, but it throws a NullPointerException, so clearly I am wrong.

m_client = new DefaultHttpClient();
UsernamePasswordCredentials credentials = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(m_userName, m_password);
((DefaultHttpClient)m_client).getCredentialsProvider().setCredentials(new AuthScope((HttpHost)null), credentials);

Answer 1

AuthScope.ANY is what you're after: http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/httpclient/apidocs/org/apache/http/auth/AuthScope.html

Try this:

    final HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
    client.getParams().setAuthenticationPreemptive(true);
    client.getState().setCredentials(AuthScope.ANY, new UsernamePasswordCredentials(user.getUsername(), user.getPassword()));
    final GetMethod method = new GetMethod(uri);
    client.executeMethod(method);