add request header on backbone

The easiest way to add request header in Backbone.js is to just pass them over to the fetch method as parameters, e.g.

MyCollection.fetch( { headers: {'Authorization' :'Basic USERNAME:PASSWORD'} } );

Models in Backbone retrieve, update, and destroy data using the methods fetch, save, and destroy. These methods delegate the actual request portion to Backbone.sync. Under the hood, all Backbone.sync is doing is creating an ajax request using jQuery. In order to incorporate your Basic HTTP authentication you have a couple of options.

fetch, save, and destroy all accept an additional parameter [options]. These [options] are simply a dictionary of jQuery request options that get included into jQuery ajax call that is made. This means you can easily define a simple method which appends the authentication:

sendAuthentication = function (xhr) {
  var user = "myusername";// your actual username
  var pass = "mypassword";// your actual password
  var token = user.concat(":", pass);
  xhr.setRequestHeader('Authorization', ("Basic ".concat(btoa(token))));
}

And include it in each fetch, save, and destroy call you make. Like so:

 fetch({
  beforeSend: sendAuthentication 
 });

This can create quite a bit of repetition. Another option could be to override the Backbone.sync method, copy the original code and just include the beforeSend option into each jQuery ajax request that is made.

Hope this helps!