C# Credential validation against Jira using the REST API

Question

I'm working on a C# Windows Form application and I would like to have the ability to test a users' credentials against Jira. Basically the user would input their username and password, click OK and the program will tell them if their credentials are accepted or not.

I already have working code (see below) that uses basic authentication via HttpWebRequest to create new tickets (aka issues), close tickets, add watchers, etc - so I figured this would be easy but I'm struggling with it.

As an analog, you can do a credentials check against Active Directory very easily using the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace. Basically the method authenticateAD() will simply return true or false:

private bool authenticateAD(string username, string password)
{
    PrincipalContext pc = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "example.com");
    bool isValid = pc.ValidateCredentials(username,password);
    return isValid;
}

This is exactly the kind of thing I want to do with Jira.

For reference, here's the code I'm using to add/close/update tickets in jira - maybe it can be modified to do what I want?

private Dictionary<string, string> sendHTTPtoREST(string json, string restURL)
{
    HttpWebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(restURL) as HttpWebRequest;
    request.Method = "POST";
    request.Accept = "application/json";
    request.ContentType = "application/json";
    string mergedCreds = string.Format("{0}:{1}", username, password);
    byte[] byteCreds = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(mergedCreds);
    request.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Basic " + byteCreds);
    byte[] data = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(json);
    try
    {
        using (var requestStream = request.GetRequestStream())
        {
            requestStream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
            requestStream.Close();
        }
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        displayMessages(string.Format("Error creating Jira: {0}",ex.Message.ToString()), "red", "white");
        Dictionary<string, string> excepHTTP = new Dictionary<string, string>();
        excepHTTP.Add("error", ex.Message.ToString());
        return excepHTTP;
    }
    response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
    var reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
    string str = reader.ReadToEnd();
    var jss = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
    var sData = jss.Deserialize<Dictionary<string, string>>(str);

    if(response.StatusCode.ToString()=="NoContent")
    {
        sData.Add("code", "NoContent");
        request.Abort();
        return sData;
    }
    else
    {
        sData.Add("code", response.StatusCode.ToString());
        request.Abort();
        return sData;
    }
}

Thanks!

Answer 1

The HttpClient would be simple and best to use check credentials with GetAsync.

The sample code is below

using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
            {
                client.BaseAddress = new Uri(JiraPath);
                // Add an Accept header for JSON format.
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
string mergedCreds = string.Format("{0}:{1}", username, password);
byte[] byteCreds = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(mergedCreds);
                var authHeader = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic", byteCreds);
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = authHeader;
                HttpResponseMessage response = client.GetAsync(restURL).Result;  // Blocking call!
                if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
                {
                    strJSON = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(strJSON))
                        return strJSON;
                }
                else
                {
                    exceptionOccured = true;
                    // Use "response.ReasonPhrase" to return error message

                }
            }

Answer 2

How about attempting to access the root page of JIRA and see if you get an HTTP 403 error?

        try
        {
            // access JIRA using (parts of) your existing code
        }
        catch (WebException we)
        {
            var response = we.Response as HttpWebResponse;
            if (response != null && response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.Forbidden)
            {
                // JIRA doesn't like your credentials
            }
        }