Authentication in HTTP Endpoints

Authenticating using the Users Service

The @anvil.server.route decorator accepts the optional keyword argument authenticate_users (default False).

If this is set to True, it will automatically authenticate users against the Users Service in your app using HTTP Basic Authentication. The username and password are the same as the user would enter into the Users Service login form.

If the user visits the endpoint in a web browser, it will present them with a login form:

Commandline HTTP tools often have convenient means to supply credentials for HTTP Basic Authentication, for example curl:

curl -u user123@gmail.com:mySuperS3cretPassw0rd https://your-app.anvil.app/_/api/users/42

You can get the logged-in user from the Users table using anvil.server.request.user. Of course, you can also retrieve the logged-in user with the usual anvil.users.get_user() mechanism.

If authentication fails, a 401 Unauthorized response will be sent back automatically.

import anvil.server
from anvil.server import request

@anvil.server.route("/protected", authenticate_users=True)
def serve_protected_content():
  print(f"Authenticated {request.user['email']}, who signed up on {request.user['signed_up']}.")

  # User is now authenticated.

Checking credentials yourself

The @anvil.server.route decorator accepts the optional keyword argument require_credentials (default False).

If this is set to True, remote users must provide a username and password through HTTP Basic Authentication (as above).

If credentials are not provided, a 401 Unauthorized response will be sent back automatically.

Unlike with the authenticate_users option, it is your responsibility to check the provided username and password and return an appropriate response if the validation fails.

from anvil.server import route, request

@route("/protected", require_credentials=True)
def serve_protected_content():
  print(f"User {request.username} connected with password {request.password}")

  # Check username and password before continuing...

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