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Generic basic authentication

Discover how to configure a generic basic authentication connection.


You do not need to configure much to setup a connection with Actioner's generic basic authentication option. Actioner automatically populates authentication fields where each user can enter their username and password. However if your tool requires any other fields, you can add them while configuring your connection.

Base URL

Base URL: is the URL prefix for all API paths in your tool. Typically, a base URL format is https://api.example.com or https://userdomain.example.com. If you are not sure, check in with your tool's API (or developer) documents to get the base URL for your connection.

Tip

Enter base URL in https://api.example.com or https://companydomain.example.com format.

Request parameters

Setup URL params and Headers here. By default, below is configured on connection Headers:

Authorization: Basic {{Buffer.from(auth.username + ":" + auth.password).toString('base64')}}

Authentication fields

Actioner's generic Basic Authentication includes username and password fields by default. If your tool requires additional fields other than username and password, click + Add field to add them on this tab.

Adding an authentication field

Click + Add field to add any field your tool requires for basic authentication. On the opening screen, fill out the below properties:

Label: Enter the field's friendly name. It is the name visible to users while authenticating.

Key: Enter a unique key, such as email. You can add {{auth.email}} in URL, URL Params and/or Headers to insert the value of this field.

Field type: Use Text field for most text input, or Password to obscure text for secret values.

Mandatory: Enable, if users are required to enter a value to this field while authenticating.

Placeholder: Enter a text displayed when no value is entered in this field. You can provide a tip to direct users on what info to enter while authenticating.

Helper text: Enter a helper text for additional notes or hints. It is placed as a small note under the field.

Configuring generic basic authentication connection

  1. Add your fields on Authentication fields. Typically basic authentication only requires username and password. By default, these two fields are present in generic basic authentication configurations. If your tool does not require any additional fields, you can skip this step. Otherwise click + Add field to add any additional fields. In addition to username and password; any field added here will be requested from users while entering credentials for this connection. Let's assume you created an additional field for user email. Users will be prompted to enter username, password and user email on credentials screen.

    Tip

    Make sure to setup keys, labels, field types and mandatory attribute properly. Note that fields here will be shown to users while entering credentials in the order added here.

  2. Enter Base URL.

  3. Under URL Params and Header tabs, click + Add parameter to insert parameters in key:value format. When you want to append an authentication field into URL Params and Header, type {{auth.field_key}}.

    username and password are preset fields in Generic Basic Auth forms. Use {{auth.username}} and {{auth.password}} to add username and password fields in URL params or Headers.

    Tip

    When you need other additional fields, add them under Authentication fields.

Generic basic authentication with an example

In this example, let's setup a Zendesk connection with Basic Authentication. Note that Actioner has connection options with Zendesk, but we'll only demonstrate how to setup a generic basic authentication connection.

  1. Go to your app's Connections section on App settings tab and add a new connection by selecting Generic basic authentication option.

    Add a new generic basic authentication connection

  2. Enter base URL https://yourdomain.zendesk.com. Replace yourdomain with your Zendesk instance name.

  3. Enter /api/v2/users/me on test endpoint field and click Save.

    Generic API key connection with Airtable

  1. Click Test connection and enter your username and password.

    Test Airtable connection