Spring Boot RestTemplate failing with 401 error when accessing AirTable API

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m trying to use Spring’s RestTemplate to call the AirTable API. It works fine in Postman and IntelliJ’s Rest Client with my API key. But when I try it in my Spring Boot app I get a 401 error. Here’s my code:

RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
headers.set("Authorization", "Bearer " + apiKey);
HttpEntity<String> entity = new HttpEntity<>("params", headers);
return restTemplate.getForObject(myUrl, String.class, entity);

I’m using the same URL and API key that work in other tools. What am I doing wrong here? Why does RestTemplate fail when other clients succeed? Any help would be great. I’m stuck and can’t figure out why it’s not working.

2

hey man, ive run into this before. check ur api key again - sometimes its easy to miss a character or have a trailing space. also, try printing out the full url ur hitting. maybe theres a typo there? if not, maybe airtable changed smthing on their end. worth checkin their docs or reaching out to support. good luck!

3

I’ve encountered a similar issue when working with RestTemplate and other APIs. The problem might be in how you’re setting up the HttpEntity. Instead of using getForObject(), try using the exchange() method, which allows you to explicitly set the HttpEntity with headers.

Here’s what worked for me:

RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
headers.set("Authorization", "Bearer " + apiKey);
HttpEntity<String> entity = new HttpEntity<>(headers);

ResponseEntity<String> response = restTemplate.exchange(
    myUrl,
    HttpMethod.GET,
    entity,
    String.class
);

String result = response.getBody();

This approach ensures that your headers are properly sent with the request. Also, double-check that your apiKey variable contains the correct key and there are no extra spaces or characters. If you’re still having issues, you might want to enable logging for RestTemplate to see the exact request being sent. Hope this helps!

4

Have you considered using WebClient instead of RestTemplate? It’s more modern and flexible, especially for RESTful APIs. Here’s a quick example:

WebClient webClient = WebClient.builder()
    .baseUrl(\"https://api.airtable.com/v0/\")
    .defaultHeader(HttpHeaders.AUTHORIZATION, \"Bearer \" + apiKey)
    .build();

String response = webClient.get()
    .uri(yourEndpoint)
    .retrieve()
    .bodyToMono(String.class)
    .block();

This approach is non-blocking and provides better error handling. It also automatically adds headers to all requests, which might solve your authorization issue. If you’re still getting 401 errors, double-check your API key and ensure it has the necessary permissions for the endpoint you’re accessing.