HP ALM REST API - Authentication

Aneejian · Mar 20, 2017 · 5 mins read.

HP ALM REST API - Authentication

Tutorial on how to authenticate HP ALM Session using REST API. Includes VB.NET and C# code for Sign-in and Sign-out resources.

HP ALM provides two resources for Authentication.

  • Sign-in
  • Sign-out

Sign-in

The sign-in resource request authorization. To successfully authenticate we have to post user and password in BASE64 encoding in the Authorization header.

Sign-in resource sets the authentication cookies required for future requests.

  • ALM_USER
  • LWSSO_COOKIE_KEY
  • QCSession
  • XSRF-TOKEN

Sign-in URI

Uri for sign-in is /qcbin/api/authentication/sign-in
e.g. http://youralmserver:port/qcbin/api/authentication/sign-in

For ALM Versions prior to 12.53, uri for sign-in is /qcbin/authentication-point/authenticate?login-form-required=y e.g. http://youralmserver:port/qcbin/authentication-point/authenticate?login-form-required=y

If this URI is provided directly to the browser, you will get a prompt to enter your user name and password. Once you enter the correct credentials you will be taken to a blank screen.

Doing it with code

Parameters Required

Parameter Example
HP ALM Base URL http://youralmurl:port/qcbin
HP ALM User Name userName
HP ALM Password Password

Sample Response

****  Request ***
POST /qcbin/api/authentication/sign-in HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic 123456789abcdef=
Host: myserver:8081

****  Response ***
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Set-Cookie: LWSSO_COOKIE_KEY=0123456789abcdef;Path=/;HTTPOnly
Set-Cookie: QCSession=0123456789abcdef;Path=/;HttpOnly
Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT
Set-Cookie: ALM_USER=0123456789abcdef;Path=/
Set-Cookie: XSRF-TOKEN=0123456789abcdef;Path=/
Content-Length: 0

Sign-in Code

VB.NET code to get Authentication Cookies

Private Function GetAuthenticationCookieContainer(almBaseUrl, almUserName, almPassword) As CookieContainer
 Dim authCookies = new CookieContainer()
 Dim auth As HttpWebRequest = WebRequest.Create(almBaseUrl + "/api/authentication/sign-in")
 Dim credentials As String = $"{almUserName}:{almPassword}"
 auth.CookieContainer = authCookies
 auth.Headers.Set(HttpRequestHeader.Authorization, "Basic " + Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(credentials)))
 Dim authResult As WebResponse = auth.GetResponse()
 Return authCookies
End Function
Usage
Dim AuthenticationCookieContainer = GetAuthenticationCookieContainer("http://youralmurl:port/qcbin", "aneejian", "Password")

C# code to get Authentication Cookies

private static CookieContainer GetAuthenticationCookie(string almBaseUrl, string almUserName, string almPassword)
{
    var authCookies = new CookieContainer();
    var auth = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(almBaseUrl + "/api/authentication/sign-in");
    var credentials = $"{almUserName}:{almPassword}";
    auth.CookieContainer = authCookies;
    auth.Headers.Set(HttpRequestHeader.Authorization, "Basic " + Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(credentials)));
    var authResult = auth.GetResponse();
    return authCookies;
}
Usage
var authenticationCookieContainer = GetAuthenticationCookie("http://youralmurl:port/qcbin", "aneejian", "Password");

For ALM Versions prior to 12.53, in the code replace /api/authentication/sign-in with /authentication-point/authenticate.

Sign-out

The sign-out resource logs the user off the system. It cancels the cookies returned by Sign-in.

  • LWSSO_COOKIE_KEY
  • QCSession
  • ALM_USER
  • XSRF-TOKEN

Sign-out URI

Uri for sign-out is /qcbin/api/authentication/sign-out
e.g. http://youralmserver:port/qcbin/api/authentication/sign-out

For ALM Versions prior to 12.53, uri for sign-out is /qcbin/authentication-point/logout e.g. http://youralmserver:port/qcbin/authentication-point/logout

If you pass this to the browser where you signed in, it will sign you out from ALM.

Sign-out Code

VB.NET code to Sign-out

Private Sub Signout(almBaseUrl As String, AuthenticationCookieContainer)
 Dim auth = CType(WebRequest.Create(almBaseUrl + "/api/authentication/sign-out"), HttpWebRequest)
 auth.CookieContainer = AuthenticationCookieContainer
 Dim authResult = auth.GetResponse()
End Sub
Usage
SignOut("http://youralmurl:port/qcbin", AuthenticationCookieContainer)

C# code to Sign-out

private static void SignOut(string almBaseUrl, CookieContainer authenticationCookieContainer)
{
 var auth = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(almBaseUrl + "/api/authentication/sign-out");
 auth.CookieContainer = authenticationCookieContainer; //authenticationCookieContainer is the CookieContainer you got from GetAuthenticationCookieContainer function.
 var authResult = auth.GetResponse();
}
Usage
SignOut("http://youralmurl:port/qcbin", authenticationCookieContainer);

For ALM Versions prior to 12.53, in the code replace /authentication/sign-out with /authentication-point/logout

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