# REST API Auth Question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-api-auth-question/109419>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 14, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-api-auth-question/109419 "2007-07-14T18:23:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marstoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@marstoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marstoni)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-api-auth-question/109419/1 "2007-07-14T18:23:14Z")

</div>

Just wanted to get some opinions and we’re about to implement a REST  
based API. We want to implement a basic API similar to Highrise or  
the new API released by Wasabi.

Is there a benefit to using a long random API key over say just the  
username/password a given user would already have? Also are there any  
other auth systems you guys would recommend that might be better or  
more efficient?

We’re using the restful\_authentication plugin. Thanks for any tips.