diff --git a/shellscripts/api-client.sh b/shellscripts/api-client.sh
index 25a881567b012a52f398fffdd99adeb70463dd4e..3b9256ea511f0ab039463ad7e708c75b72f54ab4 100644
--- a/shellscripts/api-client.sh
+++ b/shellscripts/api-client.sh
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ function makeRequest(){
     echo $apiMethod ${apiHost}${apiRequest}
     echo $line
 
-    if [ ! -z $secret ]; then
+    if [ ! -z "$secret" ]; then
 
         # --- date in http format
         LANG=en_EN