function Get-BasicAuthHeader {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Turns a PSCredential into a basic auth header for usage with Invoke-WebRequest

.DESCRIPTION
    Turns a PSCredential into a basic auth header for usage with Invoke-WebRequest
    When given a credential object, returns an object with a property Authorization and value set accordingly
    When given no credential object, returns a $null value

.PARAMETER Credential
    [PSCredential] Optional parameter - When omitted will return a null string.

.EXAMPLE
    Get-BasicAuthHeader

> Get-BasicAuthHeader
< $null

.EXAMPLE
    Get-BasicAuthHeader -Credential $credential

> $credential = (Get-AlkamiCredential "test" "test")
> Get-BasicAuthHeader $credential
< @{ Authorization = "Basic dGVzdDp0ZXN0" }
#>
    [CmdletBinding()]
    [OutputType([System.Collections.Hashtable])]
    Param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
        [PSCredential]$Credential = $null
    )

    $loglead = (Get-LogLeadName)

    if($null -eq $Credential) {
        Write-Verbose "$loglead : No credential specified. Returning empty object."
        return @{}
    }

    Write-Verbose "$loglead : Credential specified. Building basic authentication header for user $($Credential.UserName)"

    ## Encode credentials into a basic auth header. "$($user):$($pass)";
    ## Basic Authorization header are base64 encoded credential pairs
    $encodedCreds = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(
        ("{0}:{1}" -f $Credential.UserName, (Get-PasswordFromCredential $Credential))
    ))

    $basicAuthValue = "Basic $encodedCreds"
    $header = @{
        Authorization = $basicAuthValue
    }
    return $header
}