title: Authentication with a REST API
body: <p>I'm building a REST API in asp.net mvc. My system uses forms authentication. Username/password or openId/fbconnect, etc. If I have the <code>[Authorize]</code> attribute on an action, how would an android app or a desktop app get access to the method?</p>
  
  <p>Or the better question is, how would I be designing the desktop app to authenticate? Would I need to pass an API key or some token of some sort? Or would the desktop app behave like a browser and use internal cookies? I'm not quite sure how a RESTful API would work outside of a web browser with authentication.</p>