Spring 4.0.0 basic authentication with RestTemplate

Question

I am currently working on integration of a third party application with our local reporting system. I would like to implement REST calls with basic authentication but facing issues in Spring 4.0.0. I have a simple solution what works nicely:

final RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
final String plainCreds = "username:password";
final byte[] plainCredsBytes = plainCreds.getBytes();
final byte[] base64CredsBytes = Base64.encodeBase64(plainCredsBytes);
final String base64Creds = new String(base64CredsBytes);

final HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
headers.add("Authorization", "Basic " + base64Creds);
final HttpEntity<String> request = new HttpEntity<String>(headers);

final ResponseEntity<MyDto> response = restTemplate.exchange("myUrl", HttpMethod.GET, request, MyDto.class);
final MyDto dot = response.getBody();

but wanted to rewrite this to use ClientHttpRequestFactory in the following way:

final RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate(createSecureTransport("username", "password"));

private ClientHttpRequestFactory createSecureTransport(final String username, final String password) {
    final HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
    final UsernamePasswordCredentials credentials = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(username, password);
    client.getState().setCredentials(new AuthScope(null, 9090, AuthScope.ANY_REALM), credentials);
    return new CommonsClientHttpRequestFactory(client);
}

This code is not compiling as the CommonsClientHttpRequestFactory class not exists anymore in Spring 4.0.0. Do somebody know any alternative solution to this? I am quite new in this REST world therefore any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

I know that this is an old question, but I was looking for the answer to this myself. You need to add a RestTemplate interceptor when configuring the RestTemplate. An example below in annotation configuration:

@Bean
public RestTemplate restTemplate() {

    final RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();

    restTemplate.setMessageConverters(Arrays.asList(
            new FormHttpMessageConverter(),
            new StringHttpMessageConverter()
    ));
    restTemplate.getInterceptors().add(new BasicAuthorizationInterceptor("client", "secret"));

    return restTemplate;
}

Javadoc for BasicAuthorizationInterceptor.

I was stuck on this for a good few hours. Maybe it will help somebody out in the near future.