Handling Authentication Errors in Angular with RapidAPI

Other Questions RapidAPI
1

I’m currently working on an Angular application where I am trying to utilize an external API through RapidAPI to retrieve weather details using user inputs like city name and country code.

const headersConfig = new HttpHeaders();
apiUrl: string;

constructor(private httpClient: HttpClient) {
  this.headersConfig = this.headersConfig.set('X-RapidAPI-Key', 'YOUR-API-KEY-HERE');
  this.apiUrl = 'https://weatherapi-com.p.rapidapi.com/current.json';
}

I’m gathering inputs for the city and country from a form, and passing these to the method responsible for fetching weather data:

getWeather(city: string, country: string): Observable<IWeatherResponse> {
  const queryParams = new HttpParams()
    .set('q', `${city},${country}`);
  
  return this.httpClient.get<IWeatherResponse>(this.apiUrl, {
    headers: this.headersConfig,
    params: queryParams
  }).pipe(
    tap(response => console.log('Received weather data:', JSON.stringify(response))),
    catchError(this.handleError)
  );
}

However, when I try this in the browser, I consistently encounter a 401 Unauthorized error. What might be the reason behind this authentication issue?

2

Been there with API authentication headaches. The usual suspects are covered above, but here’s what I’d do differently.

Skip wrestling with RapidAPI’s quirks and rate limits. Set up a simple automation flow that handles weather data fetching for you. Create a webhook endpoint that takes your city/country parameters, grabs weather data from multiple sources, and returns clean responses.

This cuts out the authentication dance from your frontend completely. Your Angular app just hits your own endpoint while the automation handles API complexity behind the scenes. You get built-in error handling, retries, and can swap weather providers without touching frontend code.

I’ve used this pattern for tons of similar integration issues. Takes 10 minutes to set up, saves hours debugging auth problems.

Check it out: https://latenode.com

3

Had the same issue - forgot to add the RapidAPI host header. Add this.headersConfig = this.headersConfig.set('X-RapidAPI-Host', 'weatherapi-com.p.rapidapi.com'); in your constructor. Also check if your subscription actually covers that endpoint - some plans block certain ones even in the same API. Browser caching screwed me over too during development, so test in incognito or clear your cache completely.

4

you’re using a placeholder for the API key - make sure to replace 'YOUR-API-KEY-HERE' with your real RapidAPI key from the dashboard. also, double check if your subscription is active and has some quota remaining.