HTTP Request Data Formatting

[cr-rschapman]

Describe the issue/error/question

I am attempting to to authenticate with an API but I’m not sure how to send data for the credentials like I see in the example below where we in curl you’d usually pass it as a -d parameter. I would appreciate any points on how to format such requests.

What is the error message (if any)?

I’m currently running into a 401 issue due to a formatting issue it appears.

API Example curl integration

curl -X POST https://[hostname]:[port]/login.html -d "username=<username>&password=<my password>" --header "Content-Type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -c cookie.txt

Information on your n8n setup

• n8n version: 1.3.0
• Database you’re using (default: SQLite):
• Running n8n with the execution process [own(default), main]:
• Running n8n via [Docker, npm, n8n.cloud, desktop app]: desktop app

[dickhoning]

Hi @cr-rschapman welcome to the community

Have you tried the http node with Basic Authentication and Credentials?

Example of the http node:

This is without the credentials, which you have to create yourself.

[cr-rschapman]

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I did try something similar to that initially but had missed the header set but even after trying to add it now I’m getting a 401. I’ve verified credentials work. The platform allows you to initiate a login and use the session cookies sent back to continue to interact for a short time. It sends the data via curl’s -d data function too. I’m curious how I replicate the curl -d functionality.

curl -X POST https://[hostname]:[port]/login.html -d @login.txt --header "ContentType:application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -c cookie.txt

[dickhoning]

@cr-rschapman You’re very welcome! Unfortunately, I do not know how to handle session cookies and hope somebody else can answer this question.

[MutedJam]

Hey all, the cookies are usually exchanged through the headers. @pemontto shared an example showing this for n8n’s own UI recently:

Credential unauthorized

I had to workaround this for my backup workflow. Some /rest endpoints now need a JWT in addition to basic auth. You’ll need to do a single auth request before this, then add a Cookie header in subsequent requests. The JWT expiry seems to be a week, so you should only have to do it once per workflow rather than before each request.

Relevant here is the full response option of the first HTTP Request node (to see the cookie header coming back after logging in):

And the cookie header configured on the second HTTP Request node.
Have a look at the above thread to see if this can also apply to you and give me shout if you run into any trouble here.

[cr-rschapman]

This is very helpful. Thank you!

The question I think I still have is how do I send the data the initial time. I can reuse the cookie but I still need to complete the initial auth.

If I were to do it in python it would look like this:

import requests

username = "<your user name>"
password = "<password>"
server = "<server URL>"
port = "443"

data = {
    "username": username,
    "password": password
}
headers = {"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"}

base_url = "https://" + server + ":" + port
login_url = base_url + "/login.html"

session = requests.session()
response = session.post(login_url, data=data, headers=headers, verify=True)

print response.status_code
print session.cookies.items()

[MutedJam]

So it looks like you are sending a POST request with a urlencoded username and password. I think this should do the trick: