In this deep-dive walkthrough, I implement complete Basic Authentication setup using Salesforce Named Credentials and a Node.js backend, simulating a real-world integration that expects a base64-encoded Authorization header.

This isn’t theory—it’s a fully debugged, ground-up demo. You’ll see me:

• ⚙️ Explain what Basic Authentication is and how it works under the hood
• 🔍 Show how browsers behave when the server uses basic auth — including how the login prompt is triggered
• 👨‍💻 Build a custom Node.js + Express server that validates the Authorization header
• 🌐 Expose the local server using Ngrok
• 🌍 Call the secured endpoint from Microsoft Edge and inspect live headers using Developer Tools (Network tab)
• 🔐 Set up Salesforce Named Credentials to send basic auth headers automatically
• 🖥️ Monitor real-time headers and traffic in the Node.js terminal for full request-response visibility

If you’re working with legacy systems or APIs that don’t support OAuth but rely on Basic Authentication, this approach is clean, secure (when used with HTTPS), and easy to simulate locally before deploying.

Timestamps
0:00 What is Basic Authentication
6:45 How browsers handle Basic Authentication
14:31 Create a custom API which implements Basic Authentication
53:33 Implement Basic Authentication using Named Credentials
1:15:33 Implement Basic Authentication using Apex Only Code
1:18:36 Advantages of Named Credentials over Apex Only Code
1:21:35 Miscellaneous

Link to all the files used in this walkthrough – Github

How to setup Ngrok and Node.js – Setup Ngrok and Node.js

Named Credentials – Custom Authentication – Click Here for full blog post