using spring RestTemplate and 2 factor authenication to add issues to github

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Last month, I figured out how to use Spring’s RestTemplate to add issues to github programmatically figuring it would save me time in the future.  Well, the future is here.  I needed to add 16 issues (one per milestone.)  I run my program and get a 401.  In particular, I got

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Apr 20, 2014 6:42:18 PM org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate handleResponseError
 
WARNING: GET request for "https://api.github.com/repos/boyarsky/repoName/issues" resulted in 401 (Unauthorized); invoking error handler
 
Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.web.client.HttpClientErrorException: 401 Unauthorized
 
at org.springframework.web.client.DefaultResponseErrorHandler.handleError(DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java:91)
 
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.handleResponseError(RestTemplate.java:588)
 
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.doExecute(RestTemplate.java:546)
 
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.execute(RestTemplate.java:502)
 
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.exchange(RestTemplate.java:444)
 
at jb.Trial2.main(Trial2.java:29)

Right.  I’ve changed my password AND enabled two factor authentication on github in the past month.  Luckily, it was easy to switch my program to two factor.  Here’s what I did.

Create personal use token

I created a second personal use token just like I did for for my git commmand line use by going to the applications page and clicking “generate new token”.  I chose to create a separate token so I could revoke access as soon as I’m done running the web service.

Testing the token

Per the getting started with oauth doc, I ran a command line to test the token:

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curl -i -H 'Authorization: token notMy40CharToken' \
 
https://api.github.com/user

 Wrote another trial program

I adapted my second trial program from the initial iterations to test out two factor.

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package jb;
 
import org.springframework.http.*;
import org.springframework.web.client.*;
 
/**
 * Call a web service that uses authenticated user to test passing credentials
 *
 * @author jeanne
 *
 */
public class Trial3 {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String url = "https://api.github.com/repos/boyarsky/oca-ocp-book/issues";
 
        HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
 
        String personalToken = "notMy40CharToken";
        headers.add("Authorization", "token " + personalToken);
 
        // ignore result because just testing connectivity
        HttpEntity<String> request = new HttpEntity<String>(headers);
        RestTemplate template = new RestTemplate();
        template.exchange(url, HttpMethod.GET, request, Object[].class);
        System.out.println("success");
    }
 
}

I then replaced the authentication part of my real program and it worked like a charm.  Even with the changes to the program, it was faster than creating 16 issues by hand with the proper text/assignee/milestone.

Delete the personal token

I deleted the token to ensure it never gets used again.  I don’t want to run the program by accident with my credentials.  Or accidentally post the token here.

2 thoughts on “using spring RestTemplate and 2 factor authenication to add issues to github”

  1. Pingback: using spring RestTemplate to add issues to github | Down Home Country Coding With Scott Selikoff and Jeanne Boyarsky

  2. Pingback: github and two factor authentication | Down Home Country Coding With Scott Selikoff and Jeanne Boyarsky

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