How RapidAPI helps developers authenticate APIs?

API authentication is most useful for securing your API. It helps you prevent DDoS attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and more. There are different API authentication methods available.

RapidAPI Studio is an API management platform that can help you authenticate and monetize your APIs. In this piece, let’s discuss the different authentication methods that RapidAPI Studio supports. So without any further ado, let’s jump in!

RapidAPI Auth

Managing your APIs with RapidAPI Studio comes with many perks, for instance, built-in RapidAPI Auth to authenticate your API. It adds an authentication layer to your API without needing to write additional code.

With RapidAPI Auth, your users will need to use their RapidAPI API key to access your API. The RapidAPI API key was provided to them when they first signed up for RapidAPI.

OAuth2 API Authentication Method

OAuth 2.0 (Open Authorization) is a standard developed to allow users access to resources from a third-party application. It is an authorization protocol designed only to grant access to resources, and it works by using access tokens.

The access token is information that provides authorization to access resources on behalf of the user. Usually, the JSON Web Token (JWT) format is used for the access token.

RapidAPI Studio supports OAuth2. You can set it up by selecting Grant Type first. Grant Type defines how an application gets an access token.

There are two types of Grant Types, i.e., Client Credentials and Authorization code. The first is a 2-legged process, whereas the other is a 3-legged process.

Header API Authentication Method

Header authentication lets API providers require API consumers to add one or more authentication-related headers to API requests. For instance, if your API requires a secret header with a value of request-accepted, the user will have to make a request like this:

js
Copy
const options = {
	method: 'GET',
	headers: {
		secret: 'request-accepted',
	}
};
fetch('api', options)
	.then(response => response.json())
	.then(response => console.log(response))
	.catch(err => console.error(err));

With RapidAPI Studio, you can add header authentication and define key/s. The API consumers will have to provide valid values for the key/s. The API call will fail if the provided value is not what is expected.

Please ensure that you verify the value inside the code while using this API authentication method and return a proper response if the value is correct.

Query API Authentication Method

Query authentication is very similar to header authentication. If you have implemented this in the API, the API consumer will have to provide one or more query string parameters with their authenticated values.

One simple example will be adding a secret query string parameter with its authenticated value of request-accepted to the API request and then validating this value of the server.

js
Copy
fetch('api?secret=request-accepted')
	.then(response => response.json())
	.then(response => console.log(response))
	.catch(err => console.error(err));

RapidAPI Studio supports query authentication, so if you have implemented it in the API, you can easily set it up on the Studio. The API call will fail if the provided value is not what is expected.

Please ensure that you verify the value inside the code while using this API authentication method and return a proper response if the value is correct.

Basic API Authentication Method

With basic authentication, the API consumer has to provide a valid username and password to access the API. These credentials are encoded to base64 and passed to the request header as Authorization: Basic.

You can also set up basic authentication with RapidAPI Studio.

No Auth

With No Auth, your API will be publicly available without needing to provide any API key. Anyone will be able to call it.

It is not recommended since it will severely compromise your API security and make it vulnerable to attacks.

Wrap Up

That’s all, folks! We have discussed all the API authentication methods that RapidAPI supports. With RapidAPI, your API is more secure than it was ever before.

If you want to learn more about RapidAPI Studio, I recommend you look at this article.