How to set the authorization header to a cURL request in PHP?

This article provides a brief tutorial on how to set the authorization header to a cURL request in PHP.

The article covers the basics of setting up a cURL request, including how to set the custom header to a cURL request.

Send using the cURL basic authentication method:

If you’re using PHP to access a resource that requires HTTP authentication, you can use the CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH and CURLOPT_USERPWD options to set the username and password.

<?php
	$user_name = "foo";
	$password = "bar"
	
	//initiate the cURL
	$curl = curl_init();
	
	curl_setopt_array($curl, [
		CURLOPT_URL 			=> 'https://codehasbug.com',
		CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER 	=> TRUE,
		CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION	=> TRUE,
		CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER	=> FALSE,
		CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH 		=> CURLAUTH_BASIC,
		CURLOPT_USERPWD 		=> "$user_name:$password"
	]);

	$response = curl_exec($curl);	
	curl_close($curl);

	echo $response;
?>

Send using the cURL custom header method:

You can also authenticate using the cURL custom header. Let’s check the below code:

<?php
	$publicKey  = "abcd1234";
	$secKey		= "efgh5678"
	
	//initiate the cURL
	$curl = curl_init();
	
	curl_setopt_array($curl, [
		CURLOPT_URL 			=> 'https://codehasbug.com',
		CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER 	=> TRUE,
		CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION	=> TRUE,
		CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER	=> FALSE,
		CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER 		=> array(
			"Content-Type: application/json",
			"Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode($publicKey . ':' . $secKey)
		),	
	]);


	$response = curl_exec($curl);	
	curl_close($curl);

	echo $response;
?>

Final Words:

I think the above methods will help you to set the authorization header to a cURL request. That’s all for today’s tutorial. You can also learn something new in PHP from our PHP Tutorial. If you have any questions please comment below.