GeoFence: How to authenticate to WFS service?

Question

I have Geoserver and Geofence properly installed and configured. I have rules in place for different users and their access to various layers. HOWEVER, when I send a WFS request for a layer, how can I add authentication info for that user?

Ex: http://myserver:8080/geoserver/ows?service=WFS&version=1.0.0&request=GetFeature&typeName=rapid%3Aecologically_significant_areas&maxFeatures=200&outputFormat=text%2Fjavascript&format_options=callback%3A%20getJson&callback=getJson&_=1463949789269

I tried putting the authorization in a header to no avail. On the server logs I see the following when I make the request:

Requesting access for RuleFilter[user:""+ role:ANY inst:name+:default-gs ip:"---.---.---.---"+ serv:"WFS"+ req:"GETFEATURE"+ ws:"rapid"+ layer:"ecologically_significant_areas"+]

How do I tell Geofence which user to use?

Answer 1

That depends on the authentication filters setup in your GeoServer instance: http://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/security/auth/index.html

If you have it configured as out of the box, you can add HTTP basic authentication headers: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication

Of course, best use that only along with SSL encryption to protect the user credentials (HTTPS)