Authentication and Access to Data

A brief summary of how authentication credentials are passed in the HTTP header (whether the request is through a browser or an application), and the format for passing Webtrends credentials.

HTTP Basic Authentication
The Webtrends Data Extraction API uses HTTP basic authentication over SSL. All methods require authentication.

In a browser, authentication works like this:

1. You compose the URI, beginning with https://.
2. The browser presents a user name and password dialog.
   Note: There are no parameters for user name or password.
3. You provide your Webtrends credentials in the format account\username and password.
4. The browser places the credentials in the HTTP header and resubmits the request.

In platforms such as Flash, Silverlight, and .NET Winforms, you use application tools and frameworks to assemble the header with the credentials and resubmit the request.

Parent Accounts, Sub-Accounts and Authentication
Webtrends can contain a hierarchy of accounts with many profiles and web sites under each account. The hierarchy contains accounts and sub-accounts, and users can be defined at any level in that hierarchy. For example, a user may have been created at the parent level account and certain permissions granted to view particular data within several sub-accounts, or a user login may have been created at the sub-account level (and is thus unaware of sibling sub-accounts). Profiles can be created at any of these locations (at the parent, child or sibling accounts). The Data Extraction API enables you to log into a parent account and query profiles from any of its sub-accounts, if you have permissions for them.

Templates and Access to Report Data
Only the reports that you have access to via a template are listed. If you need a report that is not listed, add it to one of your available templates.