Authentication of HP ALM 12 REST API using Java

Question

I am using Java to get the test case information. I am using the AuthenticateLoginLogoutExample code as reference.I was able to authenticate the user but I receive the HTTP 401 status code when I use GET method to retrieve simple information like testcase information etc through REST API.

Answer 1

Although correctly documented, unfortunately I was not able to deduce a running snippet of code from microfocus's instructions: https://admhelp.microfocus.com/alm/en/12.60/api_refs/REST/Content/REST_API/Authenticate_LWSSO.html#alm_authenticate_Authentication

I was not able to have my tests read or updated in qc following a migration from 11 to 12.60 and I will share how it worked for me:

Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
    map.put("Authorization", "Basic " + Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString("$userX:$passwordY".getBytes() )) ;
    map.put("Content-Type", "application/json");
    String loginUrl = "http://qc/qcbin/api/authentication/sign-in" ;
    response = null ;
    try
    {
        response = con.httpGet( loginUrl , "" , map  ) ;
    }
    catch (Exception e )
    {
        fail(e.getMessage() );
    }
    functions.method_log(String.valueOf( response.getStatusCode() + response.toString()  ) ); //shoudl be empty, like the manual in a browser, an empty page is returned
    loginUrl = "http://qc/qcbin/rest/domains/$DOMAIN/projects/$PROJECT/tests/?fields=id,name,user-04&query={user-04["+testUniqueIdentifier+"]}" ;
    try
    {
        response = con.httpGet( loginUrl , "" , map  ) ;
    }
    catch (Exception e )
    {
        log(e.getMessage() );
    }
    log(String.valueOf( response.getStatusCode() + response.toString()  ) );

So it is a simple 2 successive GETs. Think to add the signout in the end, which I am not describing here.

Answer 2

If you are using the AuthenticateLoginLogoutExample as reference it should be OK.

Possible causes of response you recieved:

1. The user is not assigned to a project you're interested in;
2. You have performed a logout operation;
3. Not ideal cookie management. The ALM requires the session keeping on REST interoperation. It is implemented with LWSSO_COOKIE_KEY coolie in request. It is sended with response from server as resul of successful session opening. If you loose it you will be faced with such response code.

Answer 3

Getting HTTP 401 Status code is normal. In Fact that meas you are able to ping the server. Furthermore try to Capture the response using "{Host}/qcbin/rest/is-authenticated" using "http get" method. You will find http get methond in Rest Connector class in Documentation.

Answer 4

HP has their own base64encoder.java class that you need to use. You can't use the one that's standard in java. You must use their version. I was getting the same 401 error until I found their encoder class.

public class Base64Encoder {
    private final static char[] ALPHABET =
        "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/".toCharArray();

            private static int[] toInt = new int[128];

            static {
                for (int i = 0; i < ALPHABET.length; i++) {
                    toInt[ALPHABET[i]] = i;
                }
            }

            /**
             * Translates the specified byte array into Base64 string.
             *
             * @param buf the byte array (not null)
             * @return the translated Base64 string (not null)
             */
            public static String encode(byte[] buf) {
                int size = buf.length;
                char[] ar = new char[((size + 2) / 3) * 4];
                int a = 0;
                int i = 0;
                while (i < size) {
                    byte b0 = buf[i++];
                    byte b1 = (i < size) ? buf[i++] : 0;
                    byte b2 = (i < size) ? buf[i++] : 0;

                    int mask = 0x3F;
                    ar[a++] = ALPHABET[(b0 >> 2) & mask];
                    ar[a++] = ALPHABET[((b0 << 4) | ((b1 & 0xFF) >> 4)) & mask];
                    ar[a++] = ALPHABET[((b1 << 2) | ((b2 & 0xFF) >> 6)) & mask];
                    ar[a++] = ALPHABET[b2 & mask];
                }
                switch (size % 3) {
                    case 1:
                        ar[--a] = '=';
                    case 2:
                        ar[--a] = '=';
                }
                return new String(ar);
            }
}