401 Error on connecting to github API from c# console app

Question

Good evening all.

Am a bit new to C#, but am having a play with the github api, and I'm trying to get my head around some basic authentication. I've written a console app who's sole aim is to link up the github site and pull down my profile from there. When I do a call that doesn't require authentication, then it works fine.

However if I try and authenticate using basic authentication, I get a 401 error, even though I've put in the right user name and password. I've googled, and it looks like my code is correct, but I can't figure out why I'm not authorised.

I've attached the code below, and all the using stuff is present and correct.

class gitHubConnection : ConnectionManager
{
    public override string getRepositories()
    {
        string web_response = null;
        try
        {
            CredentialCache cache = new CredentialCache();
            NetworkCredential nc = new NetworkCredential("githubUsername", "githubPassword");
            cache.Add(new Uri("https://api.github.com/user"), "Basic", nc);
            WebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("https://api.github.com/user");

            request.Credentials = nc;
            WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();

            web_response = response.ToString();
        }
        catch (UriFormatException e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("rats!!!!" + e.StackTrace);
        }
        catch (IOException ioe)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("something went pop " + ioe.StackTrace);
        }
        return web_response;
    }
}

Many thanks for your time to look at this. I'm sure I've forgotten something but I just don't know what.

Welshboy

In case you're interested your question got me curious, so I've tried some research why your code didn't work. That leaded me to ask the following question: http://stackoverflow.com/q/19764113/849741 — Jos Vinke, Nov 04 '13 at 08:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '13 at 23:47

1

It works if you add the authentitication header like this:

WebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("https://api.github.com/user");
request.Headers.Add(HttpRequestHeader.Authorization, "Basic " + Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes("user:password")));

WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();

answered Nov 03 '13 at 23:47

Jos Vinke

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Thanks Jos, that's excellent, thank you very much indeed :-) It worked perfectly. – Nov 03 '13 at 23:51

401 Error on connecting to github API from c# console app

1 Answers1