{"id":1929,"date":"2020-01-04T00:23:10","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T16:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/?p=1929"},"modified":"2020-05-12T14:07:31","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T06:07:31","slug":"how-to-send-a-http-basic-authentication-request-from-your-esp32-development-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/how-to-send-a-http-basic-authentication-request-from-your-esp32-development-board\/","title":{"rendered":"How to send a HTTP Basic Authentication request from your ESP32 development board"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you connect your ESP32 board to the internet, you may need to send HTTP Basic Authentication requests.<\/p>\n

In this situation, we can rely on the HttpClient library<\/a> from the Arduino core for ESP32<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given that, this post shows how you can send a HTTP<\/a> Basic Authentication request from your ESP32 development board.<\/p>\n

Enabling ESP32 Development on Arduino IDE<\/h2>\n

Before continuing, be sure that you have enable ESP32 Development on Arduino IDE<\/a>. <\/p>\n

After you have done so, you should be able to use the HttpClient library from your Arduino sketch.<\/p>\n

Writing the Arduino Sketch to send a HTTP Basic Authentication request from your ESP32 development board<\/h2>\n

When you want to construct a HTTP request to an endpoint with HTTP Basic Authentication<\/a> from scratch, there are several steps to follow. However, the HttpClient library had simplified these steps for us.<\/p>\n

Given that, let's look at an example Arduino Sketch that sends HTTP Basic Authentication requests to a server endpoint:<\/p>\n

\r\n#include <HTTPClient.h>\r\n#include <WiFiMulti.h>\r\n\r\nconst char *AP_SSID = "yourAPSSID";\r\nconst char *AP_PWD = "yourAPPwd";\r\n\r\nWiFiMulti wifiMulti;\r\nvoid setup() {\r\n  Serial.begin(9600);\r\n\r\n  delay(4000);\r\n  wifiMulti.addAP(AP_SSID, AP_PWD);\r\n  \r\n}\r\n\r\nvoid loop() {\r\n\r\n  \/\/ Block until we are able to connect to the WiFi access point\r\n  if (wifiMulti.run() == WL_CONNECTED) {\r\n    HTTPClient httpClient;\r\n    \r\n    httpClient.begin("https:\/\/httpbin.org\/basic-auth\/username\/password");\r\n    httpClient.setAuthorization("username", "password");\r\n\r\n    int statusCode = httpClient.GET();\r\n\r\n    if (statusCode > 0) {\r\n\r\n      Serial.println("Able to send HTTP request out of the board.");\r\n      \r\n      if(statusCode == HTTP_CODE_OK) {\r\n        Serial.println("Server responded with HTTP status 200.");\r\n        String payload = httpClient.getString();\r\n        Serial.println(payload);\r\n      }\r\n      else {\r\n        Serial.printf("Got HTTP status: %d", statusCode);\r\n        String payload = httpClient.getString();\r\n        Serial.println(payload);\r\n      }\r\n    }\r\n    else {\r\n      Serial.printf("Error occurred while sending HTTP Get: %s\\n", httpClient.errorToString(statusCode).c_str());\r\n    }\r\n\r\n    \/\/ Release the resources used\r\n    httpClient.end();\r\n  }\r\n\r\n  delay(3000);\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
So what is the above Arduino Sketch doing?<\/p>\n
First, it imports the HTTPClient<\/code> and WiFiMulti<\/code><\/a> libraries to help with connect to the internet.<\/p>\n
After that, we define the SSID and password of the wireless access point that our ESP32 board will connect with. If you are using a different set of wireless credentials, then be sure to change them<\/strong>. <\/p>\n
Next up, we create an instance of WiFiMulti<\/code>.<\/p>\n
Inside the setup<\/code> function<\/h3>\n
When our ESP32 board runs our setup<\/code> function, it defines a baud rate of 9600 for the board's serial connection. After that, it waits for 4 seconds before adding the wireless credentials to wifiMulti.<\/p>\n
Inside the loop<\/code> function<\/h3>\n
After setting up the WiFi connection, our ESP32 board will run the loop<\/code> function.<\/p>\n
Whenever the loop function is ran, we call wifiMulti.run()<\/code> to establish a connection to the wireless network. At this point in time, code execution will stall until our ESP32 board is able to connect to the wireless network.<\/p>\n
When the connection is established successfully, the code will attempt to send the HTTP Basic Authentication request.<\/p>\n
In order for that to happen, we first create an instance of HTTPClient<\/code>. After that we include the full URL of the server endpoint with a call to httpClient.begin<\/code>. In case you are wondering, the URL will reach a server endpoint for testing out basic authentication requests with (username, password) as the credentials.<\/p>\n
After that we call httpClient.GET<\/code> to send the HTTP request<\/a> with GET as the request method. When the call returns, we will get the status code of the HTTP response<\/a> that the server returns back to us.<\/p>\n
At this point in time, we will know whether the HTTP request had been sent out successfully. When we get a positive number, we know that the server has returned us with a response.<\/p>\n
If statusCode == HTTP_CODE_OK<\/code>, then we proceed to print the response body out to serial. However, if statusCode<\/code> is not HTTP_CODE_OK<\/code>, we print out the status code that we have received. When you change the credentials in the URL, you should be able to see this condition block being executed.<\/p>\n
In case statusCode<\/code> is negative, we print the error message to serial. After the checks on statusCode<\/code>, we call httpClient.end<\/code> to release the resources being used.<\/p>\n
Finally, the last statement of the loop<\/code> function delays the execution of the loop by 3 seconds.<\/p>\n\n