Authentication to use the DoS API using HTTP basic auth
Authentication to the API uses HTTP basic auth. Authentication is used to track API usage and to authorize write access to the data where this is permitted. All resources require authentication.
HTTP basic auth is built in to all HTTP clients and requires the Authorization request header with the username and password colon delimited and base 64 encoded. For example using username/password eps/3xamp1e would produce:
$ curl --basic -v --user eps:3xamp1e eps-dos.service.nhs.uk/epsdispenser/byLocationAndTime?postcode=B98+0HU'
> GET /epsdispenser/byLocationAndTime?postcode=B98+0HU HTTP/1.1
> Host: eps-dos.service.nhs.uk
> Authorization: Basic ZXBzOjN4YW1wMWU=
> Accept: */*
NHS Digital will be responsible for issuing and managing credentials.
Attempting to access resources without authentication will result in a 403 error.