String username = "i4niac"
String password = "mypassword"

// Create authorization header using Base64 encoding
String userpass = username + ":" + password;
String basicAuth = "Basic " + javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary(userpass.getBytes());

// Create URL
URL url = branchesUrl.toURL()

// Open connection
URLConnection connection = url.openConnection()

// Set authorization header
connection.setRequestProperty ("Authorization", basicAuth)

// Open input stream
InputStream inputStream = connection.getInputStream()

// Get JSON output
def branchesJson = new groovy.json.JsonSlurper().parseText(inputStream.text)

// Close the stream
inputStream.close()