Tutorials
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Mar 28, 2025

ERP API Integration Guides & Resources

1. Introduction

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems—like Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, and SAP—form the backbone of modern operations, from finance and procurement to supply chain and human resources. But in a digital world where companies rely on countless specialized apps, simply having an ERP isn’t enough. ERP API integration ensures these systems exchange data seamlessly—reducing manual tasks, improving accuracy, and creating a single source of truth across the organization.

In this guide, we’ll show you the benefits of ERP API integrations, the key data models to know, real-world use cases, and a roadmap to help you build and manage these integrations more effectively.

You can use Knit, the leading unified API platform, to connect your product with several ERP systems through the platform’s Accounting Unified API.

2. What Is ERP API Integration?

ERP API integration is the process of connecting ERP systems with other software platforms—like CRM, HRIS, or eCommerce—using application programming interfaces (APIs). By tapping into an ERP’s API, businesses can synchronize data (e.g., inventory levels, invoices, orders) in real time or near-real time without the hassle of repetitive manual entry.

Two Types of ERP API Integration

  1. Internal Integrations: Connects ERP systems to other internal apps, like HR software or analytics platforms, to speed up workflows.
  2. Customer-Facing Integrations: SaaS providers can integrate a client’s ERP so the end-user can sync data effortlessly.

Fun Fact: According to Gartner’s ERP Insights, ERP adoption is rising rapidly as businesses seek more cohesive data management. However, unlocking its full potential requires robust integration with other tools.

3. Why ERP API Integrations Matter

  1. Greater Operational Efficiency
    Automatically sync financial, inventory, and customer data, cutting down on tedious copy-paste tasks.
  2. Lower Operational Costs
    Reducing manual work lowers labor costs, prevents data-entry errors, and saves rework time.
  3. Improved Customer Experience
    When your ERP talks directly to CRMs or eCommerce tools, customers see faster shipping, accurate stock levels, and smoother order handling.
  4. Competitive Advantage
    Offering built-in ERP integrations helps you stand out in the market, especially if you integrate with multiple ERP platforms.
  5. Scalable Digital Transformation
    As your business adopts new apps or faces new demands, ERP API integration ensures quick, frictionless data flow.

4. Key Data Models in ERP APIs

While exact fields vary across ERP systems, here are common entities you’ll likely encounter:

  • Customer Data: Customer ID, contact details, loyalty points, billing/shipping addresses, status
  • Product Data: Product ID, name, category, price, SKU, stock levels
  • Order Data: Order ID, customer ID, order date, item details, total amount, order notes, shipping status
  • Invoice Data: Invoice ID, associated order ID, line items, due date, payment status
  • Supplier Data: Supplier ID, contact info, payment terms, products supplied
  • Employee Data: Employee ID, personal details, department, hire date, salary
  • Financial Data: Transaction logs, accounting fields, ledgers, amounts, statuses

Pro Tip: Always plan for data validation and mapping. Even slight differences (like date formats) can break your integration if not handled properly.

5. Common Use Cases for ERP API Integration

Here’s how ERP APIs fit into real-world scenarios:

  1. CRM + ERP Integration
    • Benefit: View customer purchase history and financial data in one place, faster quote-to-cash cycle.
  2. Business Intelligence + ERP Integration
    • Benefit: Pull real-time financial metrics into dashboards for deeper analytics and trend insights.
  3. File Storage + ERP Integration
    • Benefit: Automatically back up invoices, purchase orders, or product info. Quick retrieval across teams.
  4. eCommerce Inventory Management Integration
    • Benefit: Keep online store stock levels up to date, trigger restock or shipping workflows.
  5. HRIS/Payroll + ERP Integration
    • Benefit: Automate payroll calculations or manage employee expenses with direct integration to the ERP.

6. Top Challenges of ERP API Integrations

  1. Complex Business Processes
    ERPs handle finance, supply chain, HR, and more—each with unique rules and data flows.
  2. Limited API Availability and Documentation
    Some ERP vendors have paywalled or poorly documented APIs, slowing dev work.
  3. Data Sync Inconsistencies
    Volume spikes and mismatched data formats can cause timeouts, errors, or partial updates.
  4. High Development Costs
    Building custom ERP connectors can cost $10k+ each and require ongoing maintenance.
  5. ERP Expertise Gaps
    Not all dev teams have the domain knowledge for complex ERP logic or data structures.

7. ERP API Integration Best Practices

  1. Prioritize Security & Compliance
    • Encrypt data in transit (HTTPS, TLS) and at rest.
    • Enforce strict authentication (OAuth, Basic Auth, or API keys) and role-based access.
  2. Create a Scoring Framework
    • Evaluate each ERP connector by potential ROI, customer demand, complexity. Implement the most critical first.
  3. Plan Data Validation & Mapping
    • Thoroughly map fields and handle format differences (e.g., date, currency).
  4. Choose an Integration Strategy
    • Decide among native integrations, embedded iPaaS, or a unified API approach depending on scope.
  5. Automate Monitoring & Logging
    • Real-time alerts on any sync failures, along with retry logic to handle rate limits or transient errors.

8. Unified vs. Direct Connectors for ERP Integration

Many businesses start with direct connectors—building one-off integrations for each ERP. While that works for a small number of systems, it can quickly become a maintenance nightmare.

Unified ERP API platforms, such as Knit, streamline this process by allowing you to integrate with multiple ERPs (like NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics) through a single API.

This approach is:

  • Faster to Scale: One integration effort unlocks connectivity to multiple ERP systems.
  • Easier to Maintain: The unified API provider handles version updates or new endpoints.
  • Cost-Effective: Eliminates $10k+ repeated spend per ERP connector.
  • Developer-Friendly: Freed engineering bandwidth to focus on core product features, not endless custom connectors.

Learn more about Unified APIs in our in-depth guide.

9. Step-by-Step Integration Roadmap

Follow these steps to launch a successful ERP API integration:

  1. Define Objectives
    • Which data flows do you need (orders, inventory, financials)?
    • Are you targeting internal needs or customer-facing capabilities?
  2. Pick Your Integration Approach
    • Build Direct if you only need 1–2 simple integrations.
    • Use iPaaS for internal, low-code workflow automations.
    • Adopt a Unified API if you need to scale dozens of ERP connectors for diverse clients.
  3. Plan Data Mapping & Security
    • Validate fields, define transformations, and implement robust encryption.
  4. Develop & Test
    • Use a sandbox environment and test with real or sample data.
    • Monitor logs for errors, rate-limit issues, and partial sync events.
  5. Launch & Monitor
    • Roll out in phases or to select pilot users.
    • Maintain real-time alerts so you can fix broken integrations fast.
  6. Iterate & Expand
    • Gather feedback, add more connectors or data flows as business needs grow.

10. FAQ

Q1: What is the difference between ERP integration and ERP API integration?

  • ERP integration can happen through APIs, custom scripts, or file-based exchanges.
  • ERP API integration specifically refers to connecting systems via the ERP’s application programming interface for near-real-time data sync.

Q2: Which ERP APIs are most popular?

  • NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, Oracle ERP Cloud, Odoo, and ERPNext. Your choice depends on your target market and existing customer demands.

Q3: How much time does an ERP API integration usually take?

  • A single custom-built ERP connector can take several weeks—or even months—depending on API complexity, documentation, and testing.
  • Using a unified API solution can drastically reduce this time to a matter of days.

Q4: Are there security risks in ERP API integration?

  • Yes, especially if data is sensitive (financial, customer info). Always use authentication/authorization best practices, encryption, and constant monitoring.

Q5: How do I decide whether to build or buy ERP integrations?

  • Consider the number of ERP systems you need, engineering resources, time to market, and long-term maintenance. If you need many connectors or want speed, a unified API or embedded iPaaS might be best.

11. TL;DR

ERP API integrations allow organizations to automate financial, operational, and customer workflows by connecting their ERP system(s) with other critical software.

  • Benefits: Improved efficiency, cost savings, better customer experience, and easy scalability.
  • Challenges: Complex data structures, limited documentation, high dev costs for custom connectors, and security concerns.
  • Solutions: Start small with direct connectors if you only need a few. For larger-scale needs—especially when customers require many ERP options—unified APIs simplify and accelerate integrations significantly.

Ready to Simplify ERP API Integrations with Knit?

If you’re looking to integrate multiple ERP systems at once—and free your developers from building endless connectors—Knit’s Unified API is here to help. We handle the heavy lifting of data normalization, webhook-based syncing, and ongoing maintenance while you focus on your core product.

Book a Demo to discover how Knit can power your ERP integrations faster, more securely, and at a fraction of the usual cost.

Tutorials
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Mar 28, 2025

Outlook Calendar API Integration (In-Depth)

Introduction

Let us consider a world, where setting appointments, contacting people, and organizing your time seems like a never-ending struggle. People find themselves often busy sending and reading their emails back and forth, missing deadlines or appointments and booking overlapping meetings. This surely demotivates one to be productive. Scheduling work is among the most difficult tasks in organizations.

Employees primarily depend on calendars for effective work organization and planning while manual changes most of the time result in getting overbooked, not receiving updates and wasting time on management. Installing Outlook Calendar API eliminates such problems by relieving the manual work of booking appointments and coordinating, instead of working constantly on the management of the calendar across multiple platforms.

However, API integration isn’t always straightforward. Developers encounter challenges such as complex authentication, navigating API endpoints, and ensuring permissions are set up correctly. This guide simplifies the process for you.

1. What Is Outlook Calendar API Integration?

1.1 Overview of Microsoft Graph Calendar API

The Outlook Calendar API is part of the Microsoft Graph suite. It allows developers to interact with calendar data programmatically, enabling operations like creating, updating, and retrieving events.

Key Features:

  • Managing Users and Shared Calendars:  Another important component is team scheduling, where users can calendar colleagues and receive live updates on the changes in the events.
  • Automatic Email Notifications and Reminders: Keep up with a wide range of events with plenty of customizable alerts, never missing an important meeting, date, or appointment. Choose the best format for you - be it an email, a reminder or even a desktop notification - to set a reminder you would like.
  • Handle Events and Timezones: Efficiently perform multiple calendar operations simultaneously, such as creating or updating multiple events at once. Easily find specific events based on various criteria, such as attendees, location, and keywords. The API intelligently handles time zone conversions, ensuring accurate scheduling across different locations.
  • Personalized Experiences: Construct individual applications that will be capable of recommending suitable meeting times by looking at the user's available time and preferences.
  • Intelligent Assistants: Integrate with AI-powered assistants to schedule meetings, set reminders, and manage your calendar with voice commands.

Microsoft Graph provides resource access to the Microsoft 365 platforms and ecosystems. It has the concept of integrated uniformity which provides the application programmers with direct application development of integration with Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and other Microsoft services.

1.2 Importance of Scheduling and Collaboration

Integrating the API enhances scheduling by:

  • Reducing Manual Processes: Automation reduces human error and saves time.
  • Real-Time Synchronization: Ensures up-to-date calendar data across platforms.
  • Shared Calendar Management: Simplifies team collaboration by providing transparent scheduling options and avoiding conflicts.

Scheduling is often at the core of organizational productivity. Seamless integration ensures that meetings, events, and deadlines are easily accessible, fostering better communication and coordination among teams.

2. Setting Up Your Outlook Calendar API Authentication

2.1 Create Your Microsoft 365 Developer Account

This section introduces the importance of setting up a Microsoft 365 Developer Account to access and manage API services.

Step-by-Step Guide:

  1. Visit Microsoft 365 Developer Program.
  2. Sign up for a developer account.
  3. Navigate to the Azure Portal and create a new application.
  4. Configure the app by registering it with Microsoft Identity Platform.
    • Provide a name for your app.
    • Note down the Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID.
  5. Assign required API permissions, such as Calendars.ReadWrite.
  6. Generate a client secret for authentication.

Essential Configurations in the Azure Portal:

  • Add a redirect URI for authentication flows.
  • Enable multi-tenant access if you plan to use the app across different organizations.

2.2 Manage Access and Authentication

Proper authentication ensures secure communication between your app and the API. Understanding and managing Outlook Calendar API Permissions is crucial for ensuring secure access to calendars and events while avoiding common errors during integration.

Generating API Tokens and Configuring Permissions:

  1. OAuth 2.0 Framework: Provides a standardized mechanism for apps to access user data securely while minimizing risks associated with exposing credentials. Use OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication.
    • Call the /authorize endpoint to prompt user consent.
    • Exchange the authorization code for an access token by calling the /token endpoint.
  2. Authorization Endpoint: Ensures the user explicitly consents to data access, enhancing transparency and trust.
  3. Token Exchange: Tokens grant time-limited access, ensuring secure and controlled interactions with the API.

Understanding OAuth 2.0 and Microsoft Graph Authentication: OAuth 2.0 is a robust framework that allows applications to obtain limited access to user resources. Microsoft Graph builds on this by:

  • Requiring apps to authenticate via Azure AD.
  • Supporting authorization flows like Authorization Code Grant and Client Credentials Grant.

For example, a single-page app can use the implicit flow for quick access, while a backend app might prefer the client credentials flow.

Resolving Common Authentication Issues:

  • Ensure the redirect URI matches the one registered in Azure.
  • Verify the API permissions assigned to your app.
  • Use tools like Microsoft’s Graph Explorer to debug authentication errors.

2.3 Obtaining Necessary Approvals

Challenges of Direct Integration: Direct integration with Outlook Calendar API often requires administrative approval, particularly for permissions that access sensitive data. The process involves:

  • Submitting a detailed request to the tenant administrator.
  • Justifying the need for permissions, such as Calendars.ReadWrite.Shared.

Potential Hurdles with Manual Approval:

  • Approval delays due to administrative bottlenecks.
  • Rejection of requests if the justification is insufficient.
  • Misalignment between app requirements and organizational policies.

Avoid the Hustle with Knit: Knit simplifies this process by:

  • Pre-configuring permissions for common use cases.
  • Automating the approval workflow within its platform.
  • Providing guided steps to resolve permission-related issues quickly.

3. Exploring Outlook Calendar API Endpoints

You can integrate Outlook Calendar functionalities into your workflow. The APIs enable the creation, management, and retrieval of Outlook Calendar API Events, providing a streamlined approach to event scheduling and updates.

3.1 Key Endpoints

Understanding the available endpoints is crucial for effective API usage. Here are a few key endpoints for the calendar, events, and users:

  • List All Users Calendars:
    • All user's calendars.
    • Endpoint:
      • GET /me/calendars
      • GET /users/{id | userPrincipalName}/calendars 
  • List Calendar Groups:
    • Get the user's calendar groups.
    • Endpoint: 
      • GET /me/calendarGroups
      • GET /users/{id | userPrincipalName}/calendarGroups
  • Get free/busy Schedule:
    • Get the free/busy availability information for a collection of users, distribution lists, or resources (rooms or equipment) for a specified period.
    • Endpoint: 
      • POST /me/calendar/getSchedule
      • POST /users/{id|userPrincipalName}/calendar/getSchedule
  • Create Event:
    • Create an event in the user's default calendar or specified calendar
    • Endpoint: 
      • POST /me/events
      • POST /users/{id | userPrincipalName}/events
  • Update Event Message:
    • Update the properties of an eventMessage object.
    • Endpoint: 
      • PATCH /me/messages/{id}
      • PATCH /users/{id | userPrincipalName}/messages/{id}
  • List Events:
    • Retrieve a list of events in a calendar.
    • Endpoint: 
      • GET /me/calendar/events
      • GET /users/{id | userPrincipalName}/calendar/events
      • GET /groups/{id}/calendar/events
  • Get Calendar Permission
    • Get the specified permissions of a user's primary calendar.
    • Endpoint: 
      • GET /users/{id}/calendar/calendarPermissions/{id}

3.2 Crafting Effective API Requests

Well-structured API requests ensure smooth interaction with the calendar system. For reliable API requests:

  1. Include the Authorization header with the Bearer token.
  2. Specify Content-Type as application/json.
  3. Ensure the JSON payload matches the API’s expected structure. For example:

Example1: Create an event in the specified time zone, and assign the event an optional

transactionId value.

Request Body:

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/events

Prefer: outlook.timezone="Pacific Standard Time"

Content-type: application/JSON

{

  "subject": "Let's go for lunch",

  "body": {

    "contentType": "HTML",

    "content": "Does noon work for you?"

  },

  "start": {

      "dateTime": "2017-04-15T12:00:00",

      "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time"

  },

  "end": {

      "dateTime": "2017-04-15T14:00:00",

      "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time"

  },

  "location":{

      "displayName": "Harry's Bar"

  },

  "attendees": [

    {

      "emailAddress": {

        "address": "samanthab@contoso.com",

        "name": "Samantha Booth"

      },

      "type": "required"

    }

  ],

  "allowNewTimeProposals": true,

  "transactionId": "7E163156-7762-4BEB-A1C6-729EA81755A7"

}

Response Body: The response body shows the start and end properties.

3.3 Understanding the API Data Model

The API data model organizes resources into logical structures for streamlined management.

Outlook Calendar API Data Model

4. Building Your Outlook Calendar API Integration

4.1 Make Your First API Call

To fetch events from the user’s calendar, follow these steps:

  1. Authenticate Using OAuth 2.0
    • Generate an access token by providing your client ID, and client secret, and redirect URI.
    • Use the /authorize endpoint to obtain an authorization code and exchange it at /token for a Bearer token.
  2. Retrieve Events with a GET Request
    • Use the following curl command to make a GET request:

curl -X GET \ -H "Authorization: Bearer {access_token}" \

     "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/events"

  • Ensure you replace {access_token} with a valid token obtained during authentication.
  1. Parse the Response
    • The API will return a JSON object containing event details such as id, subject, start, and end.
    • Example response snippet:

{

  "value": [

    {

      "id": "AAMkADk2",

      "subject": "Team Meeting",

      "start": {

        "dateTime": "2025-01-20T10:00:00",

        "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time"

      },

      "end": {

        "dateTime": "2025-01-20T11:00:00",

        "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time"

      }

     "locations": [

        {

            "displayName": "Conf Room Rainier",

            "locationType": "default",

            "uniqueId": "",

            "uniqueIdType": "unknown"

        }

     ],

    "attendees": [

        {

            "type": "required",

            "status": {

                "response": "none",

                "time": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"

            },

            "emailAddress": {

                "name": "Engineering",

                "address": "abc@contoso.com"

            }

        }

     ],

    "organizer": {

        "emailAddress": {

            "name": "Engineering",

            "address": "abc@contoso.com"

        }

     },

     }

     ]

   }

  • Use your preferred programming language to process the data and display it within your application.

4.2 Advanced Integration Techniques

Recurring Events

Recurring events are common in calendars. To create them:

  • Use the recurrence property in the event payload.
  • Define recurrence patterns such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

Example JSON payload for a daily recurring event:

{

  "recurrence": {

    "pattern": {

      "type": "daily",

      "interval": 1

    },

    "range": {

      "type": "endDate",

      "startDate": "2025-01-01",

      "endDate": "2025-01-31"

    }

  }

}

  • Recurring events help automate repetitive scheduling tasks and improve user efficiency. With Outlook Calendar API Scheduling, organizations can automate booking workflows, synchronize team calendars, and manage recurring events efficiently.

Time Zone Handling

Time zones can cause discrepancies in event scheduling. The timeZone field ensures consistency:

  • Specify the user’s preferred time zone for all date-time values.
  • Use libraries like Moment.js or built-in functions in your programming language to convert between time zones dynamically.
  • Example:

{

  "start": {

    "dateTime": "2025-01-20T10:00:00",

    "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time"

  },

  "end": {

    "dateTime": "2025-01-20T11:00:00",

    "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time"

} }

Error Handling

Errors can occur during API interactions. Implement logic to handle common errors:

  • 1001 Data Read Error: The user's current selection is not supported (that is, it is something different than the supported coercion types).
  • 2000 Data Write Error: An unsupported data object is supplied.
  • 3000 Binding Creation Error: The user's selection for binding is not supported. (For example, the user is selecting an image or other non-supported object.)
  • 4000 Read Settings Error: A nonexistent setting name is supplied.
  • 5000 Settings Stale Error: The current Office application does not support the operation. For example, document.getSelectionAsync is called from Outlook.

Robust error handling ensures a seamless user experience and minimizes downtime.

5. Enhance Your Workflow with Knit

5.1 How Knit Supports Outlook Calendar API Integration

Knit helps connect your apps to the Outlook Calendar API by abstracting the complexities involved in doing so. Now you don’t need to write heavy code to manage calendars either due to its simple design. With Knit, developers can:

  • Automate recurring scheduling tasks.
  • Integrate seamlessly without worrying about authentication errors.
  • Access advanced features such as real-time updates and batch operations.

Knit enables teams to focus on higher-priority tasks rather than troubleshooting integrations by handling API tokens, permissions, and calls in the background.

5.2 Preparing for Integration With Knit

To get started with Knit, you’ll need:

  1. A Microsoft 365 account.
  2. API credentials were created in the Azure Portal.
  3. An active Knit account.

Setup Steps:

  • Log in to Knit’s dashboard and connect your Microsoft account.
  • Grant permissions for calendar access through a guided process.
  • Configure your desired API endpoints, such as event creation or reminders.

5.3 Mapping Objects and Fields to Knit’s Standard API

This section bridges the gap between Microsoft Graph and Knit, making the integration process simpler.

Mapping Outlook Calendar Objects and Fields to Knit’s Standard API
  • Unified Field Mapping: Ensures consistency across various calendar functionalities.
  • Automated Data Validation: Reduces errors when creating or updating events.
  • Customizable Templates: Simplifies workflows like event scheduling, recurring reminders, and attendee management.

5.4 Automating Event Management With Knit

Knit simplifies event management by:

  • Allowing you to schedule events with drag-and-drop ease.
  • Synchronizing updates across multiple calendars in real-time.
  • Setting automated notifications for events and reminders.

For example, you can create workflows where Knit automatically schedules follow-up meetings after client calls, saving hours of manual effort.

5.5 Testing and Validating Your Integration

Knit provides tools to test and validate your integration before it goes live. You can:

  • Simulate various scenarios, such as creating and updating events.
  • Use Knit’s logging features to detect and fix errors.
  • Test workflows to ensure all endpoints are functioning as expected.

6. Real-World Outlook Calendar API Integration Use Cases

6.1 Case Studies of Successful Integration

Case Study 1: Slack’s Calendar Integration Slack’s integration with the Outlook Calendar API transformed how teams manage their schedules within the platform. With this integration:

  • To cut down on switching between different applications, users were able to integrate their Outlook Calendar with Slack so meetings would automatically change their statuses. For instance: When a meeting is sent through Outlook, Slack automatically changes the status of that particular user to ‘In a Meeting’ when the time for the meeting arrives.
  • Links to the various Slack channels are created so that whenever a meeting is to take place in the future for that day, team members can easily receive notifications in real-time and not miss the meeting.
  • Users can access their calendars through Slack and without having to go to another application directly use slash commands such as /schedule-meeting to make bookings or do other relevant activities.

Impact: Due to Slack integration, users were able to streamline their day significantly through the reduction of app toggling, thus saving time and boosting team collaboration. A 25% rise in meeting attendance and a significant reduction in scheduling conflicts were both noted.

Case Study 2: HubSpot’s Event Scheduling: Everybody, especially the sales representatives and clients wanted a streamlined experience and that is exactly what their integration API did:

  • Sales representatives could directly schedule meetings with clients from within HubSpot. This integration checked calendar availability automatically, ensuring no overlap.
  • Event details, including Zoom or Microsoft Teams links, were added to calendar invites without manual intervention.
  • Clients received automated email reminders, increasing attendance rates.

Impact: HubSpot’s scheduling solution increased customer satisfaction and saved sales teams hours of manual scheduling each week. Reports show that clients were more likely to attend scheduled meetings, leading to a 15% boost in closed deals.

6.2 Lessons Learned

These case studies emphasize the importance of:

  • Ensuring robust testing before deployment to minimize errors.
  • Regularly monitoring API usage to optimize performance.
  • Building user-friendly workflows that simplify the end-user experience.

7. Best Practices for Outlook Calendar API Integration

7.1 Secure Your API Data

Data security is paramount when dealing with sensitive information like calendar events. Follow these practices:

  • Store API keys and tokens in environment variables to avoid exposing them in your code.
  • Regularly rotate tokens to prevent unauthorized access.
  • Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all accounts with API access.

Example: Use tools like HashiCorp Vault to securely store credentials.

7.2 Optimize API Usage

Optimize your integration to prevent performance bottlenecks:

  • Batch API Requests: Group multiple operations into a single request where possible.
  • Cache Responses: For frequently accessed data, implement caching to reduce API calls.
  • Respect Rate Limits: Monitor your API usage to ensure compliance with Microsoft’s limits.

7.3 Monitor and Log API Activity

Monitoring API interactions is essential for identifying and resolving issues promptly:

  • Enable logging for all API requests and responses.
  • Use tools like Azure Monitor or Datadog for real-time performance tracking.
  • Analyze logs periodically to identify trends or potential errors.

8. Overcome Challenges and Access Support

8.1 Common Challenges in API Integration

Integrating the Outlook Calendar API can present several hurdles, including:

  • Authentication Errors: Misconfigured OAuth settings can block access.
  • Permission Issues: Missing or insufficient permissions often cause API calls to fail.
  • Rate Limiting: Exceeding Microsoft’s API usage limits can throttle your requests.

8.2 Troubleshooting Tips

Here are actionable steps to resolve common issues:

  • Authentication Errors: Double-check your Azure app registration settings and ensure the redirect URI matches your application’s configuration.
  • Permission Issues: Use the Graph Explorer tool to verify and adjust the permissions granted to your app.
  • Rate Limiting: Implement retry logic with exponential backoff to handle throttled requests.

9. Stay Updated With Outlook Calendar API Changes

9.1 Upcoming Features To Watch

Microsoft continuously enhances its APIs to meet evolving user needs. Upcoming features include:

  • Improved Notification Options: Additional webhook triggers for better event alerts.
  • Expanded Recurrence Patterns: More flexibility in setting up recurring events.
  • Custom Time Zones: Enhanced support for global teams.

9.2 Keeping Your Integration Future-Proof

Stay ahead of changes by:

  • Regularly reviewing changelogs in the Graph API documentation.
  • Testing your application in a staging environment before rolling out updates to production.

10. Conclusion

Integrating the Outlook Calendar API transforms how your organization schedules and manages events, saving time and improving productivity. From handling complex authentication to optimizing API usage, this guide equips you with the knowledge to implement a robust integration.

Knit takes this one step further by simplifying the entire process. With Knit, you can automate event management, streamline workflows, and focus on what truly matters for your business.

Ready to transform your scheduling process? Book a demo with Knit today and see how easy it is to integrate the Outlook Calendar API without any friction.

Tutorials
-
Mar 28, 2025

Developer guide to get candidate data using Ashby API (Python Example)

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Ashby API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Ashby API to Get candidate data from Ashby API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Ashby API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get Candidate Data from Ashby API

Introduction

To retrieve candidate data using the Ashby API, you can utilize the candidate.info endpoint. This endpoint allows you to fetch detailed information about a candidate by their unique ID or an external mapping ID. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to use this API with Python code snippets.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Set Up Your Environment

Ensure you have Python installed along with the requests library. You can install the library using pip:

pip install requests

Step 2: Fetch Candidate Data

Use the following Python code to make a POST request to the candidate.info endpoint:

import requests
import json

# Define the API endpoint
url = 'https://api.ashbyhq.com/candidate.info'

# Set up the headers
headers = {
    'accept': 'application/json',
    'content-type': 'application/json'
}

# Define the request body with the candidate ID
data = {
    'id': 'f9e52a51-a075-4116-a7b8-484deba69004'  # Replace with the actual candidate ID
}

# Make the POST request
response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=json.dumps(data))

# Check if the request was successful
if response.status_code == 200:
    candidate_data = response.json()
    print('Candidate Data:', candidate_data)
else:
    print('Failed to retrieve candidate data:', response.status_code, response.text)

Step 3: Handle the Response

If the request is successful, the response will contain detailed information about the candidate, including their name, email addresses, phone numbers, social links, tags, and more. You can process this data as needed for your application.

Knit for Ashby API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Ashby API, Knit API offers a convenient Unified API solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can go live with multiple ATS integrations in one go. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Ashby API.

Tutorials
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Mar 28, 2025

Developer guide to list ALL candidates using Ashby API (Python Example)

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Ashby API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Ashby API to List all Candidates from Ashby API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Ashby API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

List All Candidates from Ashby API

The Ashby API provides a robust method to list all candidates within an organization using the candidate.list endpoint. This endpoint supports pagination and incremental synchronization, allowing efficient data retrieval. Below is a step-by-step guide to using this API with Python code snippets.

API Endpoint

Endpoint: https://api.ashbyhq.com/candidate.list
HTTP Method: POST

Request Body

The request body should be a JSON object. You can specify parameters such as limit, cursor, and syncToken to control pagination and synchronization.

{
  "limit": 25,
  "cursor": "your-cursor-value",
  "syncToken": "your-sync-token"
}

Python Code Snippet

Below is a Python code snippet demonstrating how to list all candidates using the Ashby API:

import requests

url = "https://api.ashbyhq.com/candidate.list"
headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
data = {
    "limit": 25
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)
if response.status_code == 200:
    result = response.json()
    print(result)
    while result.get("moreDataAvailable"):
        data["cursor"] = result.get("nextCursor")
        response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)
        result = response.json()
        print(result)
else:
    print("Error:", response.status_code, response.text)

Response

The response will include a list of candidates and pagination information. If moreDataAvailable is true, use nextCursor to fetch the next page.

{
  "success": true,
  "results": [
    // Array of candidate objects
  ],
  "moreDataAvailable": true,
  "nextCursor": "next-cursor-value",
  "syncToken": "new-sync-token-value"
}

If you are looking to learn how to get details on an individual candidate using Ashby API, read our developer guide here : Get candidate data using Ashby API (Python Example)

Knit for Ashby API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Ashby API, Knit API offers a convenient Unified API solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can integrate with multiple ATS systems in on go. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Ashby API.

Tutorials
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Mar 28, 2025

HRIS Integration: A Comprehensive Guide to Streamlining Employee Data

In a world where seamless employee onboarding, offboarding, and everything in between is essential, HRIS (Human Resources Information System) integration has become non-negotiable. Whether you need to automate hr workflows or enable customer-facing connections, robust HRIS integrations save time, reduce errors, and provide a better experience for everyone involved.

In this guide, we’ll show you what HRIS integration is, how it works, real-world use cases, the challenges you might face, and best practices to address them—all to help you master HRIS integration in your organization or product.

Knit helps you add 50+ HRIS integrations to your APP in one go with its Unified HRIS API

1. What Is HRIS Integration?

HRIS integration is the process of connecting an HR system (sometimes also called HCM or Human Capital Management) with other applications—such as payroll, ATS, or onboarding tools—through APIs or other connectivity methods. These connections can be:

  • Internal Integrations: Where your company’s HRIS synchronizes with other in-house applications (like payroll or finance).
  • Customer-Facing Integrations: Where your SaaS product connects to a client’s HRIS, enabling automated data exchange between your product and the customer’s workforce data.

For an in-depth discussion on broader integration strategies, check out our in-depth guide SaaS Integration: Everything You Need to Know (Strategies, Platforms, and Best Practices)

2. Why HRIS Integrations Matter

Below are just a few reasons companies invest heavily in HRIS integrations:

  1. Higher Employee Productivity
    Manual data entry is time-consuming and prone to errors. Integrations let employees focus on strategic tasks rather than repetitive data maintenance.
  2. Reduced Errors
    Copy-and-paste or double data entry inevitably leads to mistakes—incorrect salaries, wrong user permissions, and more. A robust integration automatically keeps everything in sync.
  3. Improved Customer & Employee Experience
    • Customer-Facing: If you offer a SaaS product, enabling seamless integration with popular HRIS solutions leads to happier customers who don’t have to do manual syncing.
    • Employee-Focused: Internally, your teams enjoy frictionless onboarding, payroll updates, and accurate profiles in every system.
  4. Greater Market Reach
    Integrations with major HRIS solutions (e.g., Workday, ADP, BambooHR, Ceridian Dayforce) expand your potential audience. Prospects prefer tools that “plug in” easily to their existing HRIS.
  5. Scalability & Automation
    With the right integration approach—especially if you adopt a unified API—building, scaling, and maintaining multiple HRIS connections becomes much easier and more cost-effective.

For a closer look at how integrations power efficiency, see our What is API Integration? (The Complete Guide)

3. Key Data Models in HRIS

Different HRIS tools vary in the data they store, but core objects usually include:

  • Employees / Employee Profiles: Basic info (name, email, start date, termination date).
  • Employment Type: Full-time, part-time, contract, gig, etc.
  • Compensation: Salary or hourly rate, pay frequency, bonuses, payroll details.
  • Leave Request & Balance: Tracks employees’ time off entitlements, status, usage.
  • Attendance: Clock-in/out times, shift hours, or remote log details.
  • Organizational Structure: Department, manager, direct reports, cost center.
  • Bank Details: Linked account(s) for salary, routing info, etc.

Understanding data models is essential for data normalization—ensuring your integration processes data consistently across multiple HRIS platforms.

4. HRIS Integration Best Practices

A. Prioritize the Right HRIS Integrations

If you’re building 1:1 connectors internally, each HRIS API can take weeks and ~$10k to implement. Start with the integrations your team or customers request most frequently.

B. Understand Each HRIS API

Key aspects include:

  • API Format: REST vs. SOAP
  • Authentication: OAuth, Basic Auth, API keys, etc.
  • Rate Limits & Pagination: To avoid request failures.

If you need more detail on payroll-related APIs, see our Guide to Payroll APIs

C. Stay on Top of API Versioning

HRIS vendors update their APIs frequently. Establish a process to track changes and switch to newer versions before older ones are deprecated.

D. Document & Test Thoroughly

Create a knowledge base for each HRIS integration—auth methods, endpoints, typical data flows, potential errors. Testing in a sandbox (if available) is crucial. Also consider Everything you need to know about auto-provisioning for advanced user onboarding/offboarding scenarios.

E. Use a Unified API Where Possible

A unified API (like Knit’s) can drastically reduce dev time. Instead of building one connector per HRIS, a single integration can unlock dozens of platforms.

5. Real-World Use Cases

A. HRIS + ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems)

When a candidate is hired in Greenhouse or Lever, relevant data (name, email, role) automatically syncs into the HRIS—no manual re-entry.

Related: ATS Integration Guide

B. HRIS + Payroll

Ensures compensation details, time off, and new hires flow seamlessly. Tools like Gusto, ADP, Paylocity rely on HRIS data to run correct payroll.

C. HRIS + Onboarding/Offboarding

Onboarding platforms (like Sapling) read data from the HRIS for user provisioning—email account setups, benefits enrollment, etc. Offboarding triggers automatically remove user access.

D. HRIS + LMS (Learning Management Systems)

LMS tools (e.g., TalentLMS) read the employee’s department or skill set from the HRIS, then push training completion data back for performance records.

E. HRIS + Workforce Management

Apps like QuickBooks Time or When I Work update shift data automatically. The HRIS sees hours worked, schedules, or attendance logs in near-real time.

6. Common Challenges

  1. Diversity of HRIS Providers
    Different endpoints, data schemas, authentication flows—each system you integrate with can feel like a new language.
  2. Lack of Public APIs / Poor Documentation
    Some vendors require partnerships or paid access to their APIs. Others have incomplete docs, forcing your devs to guess or dig deeper.
  3. Scaling 1:1 Integrations
    Building each integration in-house can be time-consuming and expensive. If you have to maintain dozens, a small dev team can quickly become overwhelmed.
  4. Data Standardization
    Inconsistent formats (e.g., date/time fields, naming conventions) require data mapping and validation to keep everything aligned.
  5. Ongoing Maintenance
    APIs evolve, rate limits change, new fields appear—ensuring continuous stability means constant vigilance.

7. Security Considerations

Since HR data is particularly sensitive, you must implement robust security measures to prevent unauthorized access.

  • Authentication & Authorization: OAuth, JWT, or API keys with strict scopes.
  • Encryption in Transit and at Rest: Use HTTPS (TLS/SSL) at minimum.
  • Rate Limiting & Throttling: Protect against DoS attacks and brute force attempts.
  • Regular Audits & Monitoring: Keep logs of every API call. Check them for anomalies.
  • Least Privilege: Only grant each integration the minimal data access required.

8. Step-by-Step Implementation

Here’s a simplified roadmap for HRIS integration:

  1. Define Requirements
    • Clarify which data fields matter (e.g., new hires only, or also org structure?).
    • Check if it’s internal or customer-facing.
  2. Choose the Right Integration Strategy
    • Native (one by one) vs. iPaaS vs. Unified API.
    • Factor in dev resources, timeline, future scale.
  3. Research API Specs & Security
    • Identify rate limits, HTTP methods, endpoints.
    • Determine authentication (OAuth vs. Basic).
  4. Implement Data Mapping
    • Align fields: first name, last name, email, manager, etc.
    • Test in a sandbox if available.
  5. Build & Test
    • Handle error codes (401, 404, 429) gracefully with retries or backoff.
    • Monitor logs for partial syncs or timeouts.
  6. Launch Gradually
    • Roll out to a small group before organization-wide.
    • Watch for real-world performance or data conflicts.
  7. Monitor & Maintain
    • API updates, version changes, new endpoints.
    • Stay engaged with vendor roadmaps for upcoming changes.

9. Guides to popular HRIS APIs

Each HRIS API in the market will have distinct documentation highlighting its endpoints, authentication methods, etc. To make HRIS API integration for developers simpler, we have created a repository of different HR application directories, detailing how to navigate integrations with them:

10. FAQ

Q1: How does HRIS integration differ from payroll integration?
They overlap significantly, but payroll integration focuses primarily on pay data, taxes, and deductions. HRIS integration is broader—covering employee lifecycle, organizational structure, and more. (For a deep dive, check out our Guide to Payroll API Integration.)

Q2: Which HRIS solutions should I integrate with first?
Start with the ones your customers or internal teams use most, such as Workday, BambooHR, ADP, or Gusto. Focus on high-demand solutions that yield immediate ROI.

Q3: How do I handle versioning changes from HRIS vendors?
Monitor their documentation or developer portals. If they drop support for old endpoints, ensure your code updates quickly to avoid broken integrations.

Q4: Are unified APIs secure?
Yes. Platforms like Knit follow industry best practices (SOC2, GDPR, ISO27001) and never store a copy of your data. Always confirm the provider’s security compliance.

Q5: Can I integrate if an HRIS doesn’t offer a public API?
Some vendors have paywalled or partner-only APIs. You’ll need to set up a formal agreement or explore alternative integration approaches (like SFTP file syncs or iPaaS with custom connectors).

11. Building Your First HRIS Integration with Knit: Step-by-Step Guide

Knit provides a unified HRIS API that streamlines the integration of HRIS solutions. Instead of connecting directly with multiple HRIS APIs, Knit allows you to connect with top providers like Workday, Successfactors, BambooHr, and many others through a single integration.

Learn more about the benefits of using a unified API.

Getting started with Knit is simple. In just 5 steps, you can embed multiple HRIS integrations into your APP.

Steps Overview:

  1. Create a Knit Account: Sign up for Knit to get started with their unified API. You will be taken through a getting started flow.
  2. Select Category: Select HRIS from the list of available option on the Knit dashboard
  3. Register Webhook: Since one of the use cases of HRIS integrations is to sync data at frequent intervals, Knit supports scheduled data syncs for this category. Knit operates on a push based sync model, i.e. it reads data from the source system and pushes it to you over a webhook, so you don’t have to maintain a polling infrastructure at your end. In this step, Knit expects you to tell us the webhook over which it needs to push the source data.
  4. Set up Knit UI to start integrating with APPs: In this step you get your API key and integrate with the HRIS APP of your choice from the frontend.
  5. Fetch data and make API calls: That’s it! It’s time to start syncing data and making API calls and take advantage of Knit unified APIs and its data models. 

For detailed integration steps with the unified HRIS APIt, visit: Getting started with Knit

12. TL;DR

HRIS integration automates employee data across diverse tools—ATS, payroll, onboarding, scheduling, and more. It cuts manual tasks, lowers errors, and boosts productivity and customer satisfaction.

  • Common Challenges: Inconsistent data models, rate limits, or security vulnerabilities.
  • Best Practices: Thorough documentation, robust authentication, data mapping, and adopting unified APIs for scale.
  • Results: A streamlined, error-free process for managing critical HR data in real time, transforming how your team (and customers) handle workforce information.
Tutorials
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Mar 28, 2025

Salesforce API Integration (In-Depth)

1. Introduction

Salesforce is ranked  #1 CRM Provider for the 11th Consecutive Year by International Data Corporation (IDC). Salesforce has become a vital tool for countless businesses, especially as it continues to lead in CRM. With the Salesforce Services Market Booming at 28% growth, 70% of enterprises still struggle with Salesforce API integration.

Understanding Salesforce API

Salesforce API integration involves connecting your business applications to Salesforce's APIs. This enables a smooth exchange of data and automated workflows. It helps you leverage the powerful functionality of all connected platforms.

Overview of Salesforce APIs
Salesforce offers several APIs for different integration needs:

  • REST API: Uses standard HTTP methods, making it ideal for web and mobile applications due to its simplicity. It supports JSON and XML formats.
  • SOAP API: This uses the SOAP protocol and is suitable for enterprise-level integrations that require formal contracts and structured data exchange.
  • Bulk API: Optimized for loading or deleting large data sets asynchronously, perfect for data migration and batch processing.
  • Streaming API: Streams data in real-time, sending notifications when changes occur in Salesforce. This is great for applications requiring instant updates.
  • Metadata API: Manages customizations and configurations within Salesforce, essential for deployment and continuous integration.

Knowing these APIs helps you choose the right tools for your integration goals.

Why does Salesforce API Integration benefit businesses?

Integrating Salesforce APIs is essential for modern businesses to stay agile and customer-focused. Here’s why it’s so important:

  • Real-Time Data Flow and Automation
    Salesforce API integration facilitates Salesforce CRM and other business applications, addressing issues of managing isolated data repositories. Data management, including data sharing, allocation, distribution, and automated data workflows, leads to better decision-making.
  • Streamlined Operations & Enhanced Collaboration

Salesforce API Integration ensures a seamless flow of data via Salesforce and other

business applications. This integration improves communication and collaboration by

ensuring all members have access to real-time data

  • 360-Degree View of Customers

Salesforce brings customer data from diverse sources into a centralized repository. Data such as sales interactions, support tickets, social media engagement, and marketing campaigns provide insights into customer's needs and behavior. With this understanding engagement strategies can bring a major impact.

Integrating Salesforce APIs isn’t just about making systems talk to each other—it’s about unlocking valuable insights, optimizing processes, and creating a responsive, customer-centered organization.

2. Setting Up Your Salesforce API Integration

Create Your Salesforce Developer Account

To start integrating with Salesforce APIs, you need to create a Salesforce Developer Account. Here you can create and test your custom application: 

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up

  • Create a New Account: Visit the Salesforce Developer Signup Page
  • Complete the Registration Form: Provide your first name, last name, email address, role, company, country, and unique username.
  • Activate Your Account: Look for an email from Salesforce, follow the link to verify your account, set a password, and select a security question.
  • Log In to Your Developer Org: Use your credentials to log in at Salesforce Login.

After logging in, you’ll have full access to your Salesforce Developer Organization, where you can begin building and testing your API integrations.

Manage Access and Authentication

Proper authentication is essential for secure API interactions.

Generating Salesforce API Tokens

Salesforce uses security tokens to enhance security:

  1. Reset Security Token:
    • Click on your avatar and select Settings.
    • Under My Personal Information, choose Reset My Security Token.
    • Click Reset Security Token.
  2. Retrieve the Token:
    • Salesforce sends the new security token to your registered email.
    • Keep this token confidential; it's required for API authentication.

Understanding Salesforce API Authentication

Salesforce supports OAuth 2.0 for authentication:

  • Authentication Endpoint: https://login.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/token
  • Required Parameters:some text
    • grant_type: Should be password.
    • client_id: Your Connected App's Consumer Key.
    • client_secret: Your Connected App's Consumer Secret.
    • username: Your Salesforce username.
    • password: Your Salesforce password is concatenated with your security token.

By authenticating, you receive an access token in the Authorization header of your API requests.

Resolving Common Authentication Issues

  • Invalid Credentials: Double-check your username, password, and security token.
  • Insufficient Permissions: Ensure your Connected App has the necessary OAuth scopes.
  • IP Restrictions: If accessing from an untrusted IP, adjust settings under Connected App > Manage > Policies.

3. Exploring Salesforce API Endpoints

Key Salesforce API Endpoints

Salesforce Lead API

Manage potential customers using the Lead object:

  • Create a Lead: POST /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/Lead/
  • Retrieve a Lead: GET /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/Lead/{LeadId}
  • Update a Lead: PATCH /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/Lead/{LeadId}
  • Delete a Lead: DELETE /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/Lead/{LeadId}

Salesforce User API

Handle user accounts and permissions:

  • Create a User: POST /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/User/
  • Retrieve a User: GET /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/User/{UserId}
  • Update a User: PATCH /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/User/{UserId}
  • Deactivate a User: Set the IsActive field to false.

Salesforce Open API

Salesforce provides an Open API specification for its REST API, enabling:

  • Standardized API Definitions: Simplify client library generation.
  • Improved Documentation: Facilitate better understanding of API endpoints.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Help teams work more efficiently with consistent API contracts.

Crafting Effective API Requests

Using HTTP Methods with Salesforce APIs

  • GET: Retrieve data or query records.
  • POST: Create new records.
  • PATCH: Update existing records.
  • DELETE: Remove records.

Ensure you use the correct method and endpoint for each operation to avoid errors.

Handling JSON Responses

Salesforce APIs typically return JSON responses:

  • Success Responses:

Contain fields like id, success, and errors.

Example:

{

  "id": "00Q1I000004W2XxUAK",

  "success": true,

  "errors": []

}

  • Error Responses:

Provides error codes and messages. Properly parsing these responses is crucial for handling the results of your API calls.

Example:
{

  "message": "Required fields are missing: [LastName]",

  "errorCode": "REQUIRED_FIELD_MISSING",

  "fields": ["LastName"]

}

4. Building Your Salesforce API Integration

Make Your First Salesforce API Call

Setup and Authentication Process

Here is an Authenticate using the OAuth 2.0 Username-Password flow. You can use the username-password flow to authorize a client via a connected app that already has the user’s credentials.

Steps for the username password flow:

  1. The connected app requests an access token by sending the user’s login credentials to the Salesforce API token endpoint.
  2. After verifying the request, Salesforce grants an access token to the connected app.
  3. The connected app can use the access token to access the protected data on the user’s behalf.

Understanding the parameter description, request, and response of access tokens in the salesforce API authentication flow is crucial.

Salesforce API Integration Example

Creating a new Account:

curl https://MyDomainName.my.salesforce.com/services/data/v62.0/sobjects/Account/ -H "Authorization: Bearer token" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "@newaccount.json"‍

Example of request body
{
  "Name" : "Express Logistics and Transport"
}

Example response body after successfully creating a new Account
{
  "id" : "001D000000IqhSLIAZ",
  "errors" : [ ],
  "success" : true
}

Advanced Integration Techniques

Utilizing Salesforce API User for Enhanced Control

Programmatically manage user accounts:

  • Automate User Provisioning: Create users when onboarding new employees.
  • Adjust Permissions: Update user roles and profiles based on their position.
  • Deactivate Users: Automatically deactivate accounts when someone leaves the company.

Automating Lead Management with Salesforce API Lead

Enhance sales processes:

  • Lead Assignment: Assign leads to sales reps based on territory or product interest.
  • Lead Qualification: Update lead statuses based on interactions or data changes.
  • Notification Systems: Trigger alerts when high-priority leads are created.

Leveraging Salesforce Open API for Flexibility

Use the Open API specification to:

  • Generate Client Libraries: Auto-create code for interacting with Salesforce APIs in various programming languages.
  • Standardize Integrations: Ensure consistent implementation across different applications.
  • Simplify Documentation: Provide clear API details for your development team.

5. Enhance Your Workflow with Knit

How Knit Supports Salesforce API Integration

Knit offers a unified API platform that simplifies integration with Salesforce and other services.

Features and Benefits

  • Single API Interface: Interact with multiple services using one consistent API.
  • Simplified Authentication: Knit handles OAuth flows and token management.
  • Data Normalization: Standardizes data formats across different platforms.

Integration Capabilities

  • Cross-Platform Connectivity: Connect Salesforce with other tools like HubSpot, Zendesk, or custom applications.
  • Workflow Automation: Streamline processes that involve multiple systems.
  • Scalability: Easily scale your integrations as your business grows.

Preparing for Integration with Knit

Requirements and Setup Steps

  1. Sign Up for Knit:
    1. Visit the Knit and create an account suitable for your needs.
  2. Obtain API Credentials:
    1. Access your Knit dashboard to retrieve your API key and secret.
  3. Complete the integration with Knit:
    1. Follow the guided getting started flow
  4. Obtain a Salesforce Sandbox
    1. Test your integration in the sandbox
  5. Move to production
    1. Go live with your customers. Authenticate the integration using Knit's in-build auth component

Configuring Accounts and Permissions

  • Ensure Proper Permissions:
    • Verify that the Salesforce user account has access to the required objects and fields.
    • Adjust field-level security if needed.
  • Set OAuth Scopes:
    • During configuration, select appropriate scopes to limit access appropriately.

Integrate Salesforce APIs with Knit

Authenticating with Knit and Salesforce APIs

Knit simplifies authentication by managing tokens and sessions internally. You only need to use your Knit API key for requests.

Automating Processes Using Knit

By leveraging Knit, you can:

  • Synchronize Data: Automatically sync contacts, leads, and other records between Salesforce and other systems.
  • Trigger Workflows: Initiate processes in response to events, like creating a support ticket when a high-priority lead is identified.
  • Normalize Data: Work with consistent data formats, reducing the need for custom parsing or transformation.

Best Practices:

  • Error Handling: Implement try-except blocks to manage exceptions.
  • Logging: Keep logs of API requests and responses for debugging.
  • Data Validation: Ensure data meets the required formats before sending.

Salesforce and Knit Object-Field Mapping

Understanding how fields map between Salesforce and Knit is crucial. Here's a table illustrating common mappings:

Mapping Salesforce API with Knit API

Using this mapping ensures that data is correctly transferred between systems.

Test and Validate Your Integration

  • Automate Tests: Implement automated testing for continuous integration.
  • Authentication Failures: Check API keys and permissions.
  • Data Mismatches: Verify field mappings and data formats.
  • API Limit Exceeded: Monitor API usage to stay within limits.

6. Real-World Salesforce API Integration Use Cases

World Economic Forum: Enhancing Global Collaboration

The World Economic Forum (WEF), renowned for its annual meeting in Davos, sought to enhance collaboration among its international teams and streamline its operations.

Challenge:

  • Siloed Data Systems: WEF's data was fragmented across multiple platforms, hindering efficient information access and sharing.
  • Inefficient Processes: The lack of integration resulted in duplicated efforts and delays in critical initiatives.

Solution:

WEF leveraged Salesforce APIs to create a unified platform:

  • Centralized Data Hub: Integrated diverse data sources into a single source of truth.
  • Customized Applications: Developed tailored solutions to meet specific needs, boosting functionality and user experience.

Results:

  • Improved Data Accessibility: Teams worldwide gained instant access to up-to-date information.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Streamlined communication and coordination led to more effective teamwork.
  • Accelerated Initiatives: Reduced project execution delays, enabling quicker responses to global challenges.

Uber Eats: Automating Merchant Onboarding

Uber Eats, a leading food delivery service, aimed to expand its network by efficiently onboarding new restaurant partners.

Challenge:

  • Manual Onboarding Processes: Onboarding new restaurants involved time-consuming manual tasks, prone to errors.
  • Delayed Go-Live Times: Lengthy setup processes hindered restaurants from starting to receive orders, impacting revenue growth.

Solution:

Uber Eats implemented Salesforce APIs to automate the onboarding workflow:

  • Seamless Data Flow: Connected Salesforce with internal systems to automate documentation, verification, and setup.
  • User-Friendly Interfaces: Created intuitive platforms for restaurant partners to easily submit required information.

Results:

  • 60% Reduction in Onboarding Time: Significantly faster processing enabled restaurants to go live sooner.
  • Increased Partner Satisfaction: Streamlined experience and improved relationships with restaurant partners.
  • Scalable Growth: Automation allowed Uber Eats to onboard more partners without proportionally increasing resources.

7. Best Practices for a Strong Salesforce API Integration

Secure Your Salesforce API Data

Data Protection Strategies

  • Encrypt Data in Transit: Use HTTPS for all API calls.
  • Secure Storage: Protect API keys and tokens using environment variables or secure vaults.
  • Access Controls: Limit permissions to only what is necessary for the integration.

Compliance Considerations

  • GDPR: Ensure compliance when handling data of EU citizens.
  • CCPA: Adhere to regulations for California residents' data.
  • HIPAA: If dealing with health information, follow HIPAA guidelines.

Optimize Salesforce API Usage

Efficient API Call Management

  • Use Bulk API for Large Data: Optimize performance when dealing with large datasets.
  • Implement Caching: Reduce unnecessary API calls for data that doesn't change frequently.
  • Monitor Usage Limits: Keep track of API limits to avoid service interruptions.

Performance Optimization Tips

  • Selective Data Retrieval: Only request necessary fields to reduce payload size.
  • Asynchronous Processing: Use asynchronous calls for operations that don't require immediate results.
  • Optimize Queries: Use efficient SOQL queries to improve response times.

Monitor and Log Salesforce API Activity

Setting Up Monitoring Tools

  • Salesforce Event Monitoring: Track API usage and performance.
  • Real-Time Monitoring: It helps you monitor and detect standard events in salesforce in near real-time.
  • Third-Party Tools: Use services like New Relic or Datadog for advanced monitoring.

Analyzing API Logs for Insights

  • Identify Patterns: Detect anomalies or unusual activity.
  • Optimize Performance: Use logs to find and fix bottlenecks.
  • Enhance Security: Monitor for unauthorized access attempts.

8. Overcome Challenges and Access Support

Identify Common Salesforce API Integration Issues

  • Authentication Errors
    • These errors often arise due to incorrect credentials, expired tokens, or misconfigured OAuth settings. 
    • Example: The "INVALID_SESSION_ID" error indicates that the session has expired or the access token is invalid, requiring re-authentication.
    • Resolution: Re-authenticate by obtaining a new access token and verify that your credentials are correct.
  • Authorization Errors 
    • These errors often arise when the user lacks the necessary permissions to perform specific access.
    • Example: The "INSUFFICIENT_ACCESS" error indicates that the user lacks permission to access certain resources.
    • Resolution: Check the user profile and permission sets.
  • Runtime Errors
    • These errors often arise when you do not provide correct resources, request invalid operations or exceeded API Limits.
    • Example: The "REQUEST_LIMIT_EXCEEDED" error indicates that you have exceeded the API Call limits.
    • Resolution: Reduce unnecessary calls by optimizing and monitoring usage.
  • Validation Errors
    • These errors often arise when your data doesn’t meet the salesforce’s data and parameter requirements.
    • Example:  "INVALID_FIELD_FOR_INSERT_UPDATE" error indicates that an invalid field is provided for insert or update operation.
    • Resolution: Ensure you have provided the required fields for the API call.

Effective Troubleshooting Tips

  • Check and Update Credentials
    • Ensure that your API keys, access tokens, and passwords are correct and not expired. If using OAuth 2.0, verify that your refresh token flow is correctly set up to handle token expiration seamlessly.
  • Verify User Permissions and Access Rights
    • Confirm that the integration user has the necessary permissions by reviewing their profile and assigning permission sets. Make sure they have access to required objects, and fields, and that "API Enabled" is checked in their profile settings.
  • Monitor and Manage API Usage
    • Use Salesforce's "API Usage Notifications" to set up alerts when approaching limits. Implement efficient coding practices like bulkification to reduce the number of API calls and stay within allocated limits.

When to Seek Professional Help

  • Persistent Integration Errors: Consult a Salesforce developer if persistent "MALFORMED_QUERY" errors persist despite troubleshooting.
  • Complex Multi-System Integrations: Hire an integration specialist for complex multi-system setups to ensure data consistency and reliability.
  • Security and Compliance Challenges: Engage a compliance expert when handling sensitive data under regulations like GDPR or HIPAA to meet legal requirements and protect customer information.

9. Stay Updated with Salesforce API Changes

Upcoming Salesforce API Features

Future Enhancements

How to Prepare for Updates

  • Salesforce Release Notes: Salesforce provides updates regarding enhancement, bug fixes and new features in release notes.
  • Participate in Beta Programs: Gain early access to new features.
  • Test in Sandbox Environments: Assess the impact of updates by testing in sandbox environment before deploying to production.

Keeping Your Integration Up-to-Date

Regular Maintenance Practices

  • Field Service Maintenance Plans: This helps you to define maintenance visits frequency and to generate work orders for future visits.
  • Schedule Reviews: Periodically evaluate your integration's performance and relevance.
  • Update Dependencies: Keep libraries and SDKs current.
  • Monitor Deprecations: Adapt your integration ahead of deprecated features being removed.

Leveraging Salesforce Resources

  • Trailhead Learning Modules: Enhance your skills with Salesforce's educational content.
  • Developer Forums: Engage with the community to share knowledge and solutions.
  • Official Documentation: Refer to Salesforce's API documentation for accurate information.

10. Conclusion

Integrate Salesforce APIs with Knit Today

Integrating Salesforce API into your app lets you provide real time data flow, automation, streamlines operations, enhances collaboration and thus improves decision making. Integrating Salesforce APIs can transform your business operations, and using Knit makes the process even smoother. With Knit’s unified API, you don’t have to worry about integrating with various API.

Ready to Start? Contact Us

The Knit Unified API simplifies the entire complex integration process. It manages all complex API operations, ensuring that your Salesforce API setup remains efficient. This allows developers to focus on core tasks while staying future-proof.  To integrate the Salesforce API with ease, you can Book a call with Knit for personalized guidance and make your integration future-ready today! To sign up for free, click here. To check the pricing, see our pricing page.

Unlock the full potential of your business applications by integrating Salesforce APIs with Knit today.

Reference 

  1. Rest API
  2. Oauth
  3. Create API
  4. Guide to Salesforce API
  5. Salesforce Marketing CRM.
  6. Salesforce Integration Understanding
  7. Understanding Salesforce
  8. What When of Salesforce API
  9. When to use Salesforce API
  10. What is Salesforce API
  11. Types of Integration Solution
  12. Authentication Provider
  13. Apex Dev Guide
  14. Rest API Java
  15. Customer Stories
  16. Uber Eats Customer Success
  17. World Economic Forum Customer Success
  18. Create a Record API
  19. Simple Salesforce
Tutorials
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Mar 27, 2025

NetSuite API Integration Guide (In-Depth)

Integrating systems isn’t just about connecting data—it’s about driving measurable efficiency.  Recognized as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, NetSuite enables companies to achieve over 45% faster go-lives, a 10% reduction in change orders during implementation, and a 45% cut in implementation costs, according to recent studies.  With NetSuite API integration, businesses can seamlessly link disparate tools in real-time, paving the way for smarter decisions and faster processes. Leveraging this integration creates a solid foundation for enhanced efficiency, informed decision-making, and measurable business growth.

1. Introduction

What is NetSuite API Integration?

NetSuite API integration links your ERP with other business systems. It uses APIs to exchange data automatically. You no longer rely on manual entry or spreadsheets. Data moves fast and stays current. When systems connect, your team makes decisions based on live data. Many companies join their sales, finance, and operations systems with NetSuite API integration.

NetSuite offers several API options. The REST API is useful for simple data operations. The SOAP API handles more complex tasks. SuiteScript lets you add custom code. Each option serves a specific purpose and improves operational efficiency.

Benefits of NetSuite API Integration

There are several benefits of Netsuite API integration:

  • Real-Time Data Sync: Data moves instantly between systems. Teams always work with current information. Real-time access improves decision-making.
  • Workflow Automation: Routine tasks, such as invoice creation and order tracking, run automatically. This reduces errors and speeds up operations.
  • Enhanced Reporting: Live data in your reports ensures that managers see the latest numbers. They can react quickly to market changes.
  • Scalability: The integration grows with your business. It adapts as your needs change. A well-built integration supports future upgrades and increasing data volumes.

These benefits allow your team to focus on growth. They save time and reduce errors. You gain accuracy in reporting and smoother business operations with NetSuite integration.

2. Setting Up Your NetSuite API Integration

Before you write code, you must prepare your environment. This section explains the prerequisites and steps to set up your NetSuite account for NetSuite API integration.

Prerequisites

Before diving into API integration, ensure you have the following in place:

  • NetSuite Account with API Access: You'll need a NetSuite account with the necessary permissions to use the API.
  • NetSuite Sandbox Account (Highly Recommended): A sandbox environment is a must for testing your integrations safely.  It's a replica of your production account where you can experiment without risking your live data.
  • Understanding of API Limits: NetSuite imposes limits on API usage (e.g., the number of requests you can make within a given time). This will prevent your integrations from being unexpectedly throttled.
  • SuiteCloud Developer Network (SDN) Access (Helpful):  While not strictly mandatory to use the API, joining the SDN can be beneficial. It provides access to additional resources, documentation, and community support that can be helpful during development.

These prerequisites prepare you for a smooth setup. They ensure that your system is ready for the changes that NetSuite API integration brings.

Setting Up and Securing a NetSuite Sandbox

A sandbox is a test environment that mirrors your production account. Use it to verify your integration steps safely.

  • Why Use a Sandbox? Testing in a sandbox protects your live data. You can experiment without risking production errors.
  • Create a Sandbox Account: Use NetSuite’s built-in options. Follow the official steps.
  • Manage Sandbox Data: Remove or mask sensitive data. This protects privacy and helps you comply with data security standards.
  • Secure Your Sandbox: Limit access to authorized users. Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
  • Note the API URLs: The sandbox uses different endpoints than production. Always use the correct URLs when testing.

These steps provide a reliable test space. You can verify your NetSuite API integration before moving to production.

Enabling API Access and Authentication

Once your account is set up, enable API access. Follow these detailed steps:

  • Set API Permissions: Configure your account for API access. Assign the correct roles and permissions. This is critical for secure integration.
  • Authentication Methods:
    Netsuite API integration supports multiple methods. 

Token-Based Authentication (TBA): A popular for many integrations, it uses tokens for authentication.

OAuth 2.0: More secure and adheres to modern standards

Basic Auth (SOAP): Uses a user name and password. Used for NetSuite SOAP API integrations.

  • Generate API Keys: Create and store your keys securely. Follow NetSuite’s guidelines.
  • Troubleshooting Authentication: If you face errors, recheck your permissions and keys. Use NetSuite logs and troubleshooting guides.

Each step in enabling API access strengthens your overall NetSuite integration. It ensures that your system remains secure as data flows between platforms.

3. Exploring NetSuite API Options

NetSuite offers three main API options. In this section, you will learn about each option to choose the one that best fits your needs. We provide clear comparisons and real examples to help you decide.

Choosing the Right API

Every API option has its strengths. Compare them using the table below:

REST API

Main Features: Simple; uses HTTP methods

Primary Use Cases: Real-time queries; light transactions

Data Format: JSON

SOAP API

Main Features: Manages complex transactions

Primary Use Cases:  Large data transfers; structured operations

Data Format: XML

SuiteScript

Main Features: Custom code on the server

Primary Use Cases: Tailored workflows; custom automation

Data Format: JavaScript

If you need quick queries and fast responses, choose the REST API. For large data transfers and detailed operations, the SOAP API works best. Use SuiteScript when you need to write custom scripts for unique processes.

NetSuite REST API Integration Overview

The REST API is part of NetSuite’s SuiteTalk service. It offers a clear way to work with your data.

  • HTTP Methods: Use GET to retrieve data, POST to add new data, PUT to update records, and DELETE to remove entries.
  • Endpoints: Endpoints are clear and easy to follow. They come with solid documentation.
  • Data Format: JSON is the standard format. It is simple and works well with most systems.

Example: Get a Record

GET /services/rest/record/v1/customrecord_api_rest/<id> 

Shortened Body Response
{
    "autoName": true,
    "balance": 0,
    "billPay": false,
    "bulkmerge": {
        "links": [
            {
                "rel": "self",
                "href": "http://demo123.suitetalk.api.netsuite.com/services/rest/record/v1/customer/107/bulkmerge"

            }
        ]
    },
}

Developers appreciate the simplicity of the REST API. This API speeds up your NetSuite Integration tasks.

NetSuite SOAP API Integration Overview

The SOAP API, or SuiteTalk SOAP, is designed for more complex tasks.

  • XML and WSDL: SOAP uses XML for data transfer. A WSDL file defines what services are available.
  • Error Handling: SOAP gives clear error messages when something goes wrong.
  • Use Cases: It works well with large data volumes and complex business transactions.
  • Example: Soap Request to Change Email
<changeEmail xmlns="urn:messages_2017_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com">
 <changeEmail>
   <ns6:currentPassword xmlns:ns6="urn:core_2017_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com">xxxxxxx</ns6:currentPassword>
   <ns7:newEmail xmlns:ns7="urn:core_2017_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com">newEmail@tester.com</ns7:newEmail>
   <ns8:newEmail2 xmlns:ns8="urn:core_2017_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com"> newEmail @tester.com</ns8:newEmail2>
   <ns9:justThisAccount xmlns:ns9="urn:core_2017_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com">true</ns9:justThisAccount>
 </changeEmail>
</changeEmail>

SOAP Response:
<changeEmailResponse xmlns="urn:messages_2017_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com">
   <sessionResponse>
   <platformCore:status isSuccess="true" xmlns:platformCore="urn:core_2017_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com"/>
   </sessionResponse>
 </changeEmailResponse> 

The SOAP API is a strong choice if your project needs detailed error messages and structured data. Check the official guide for more code examples and setup instructions.

NetSuite SuiteScript Integration Overview

SuiteScript lets you add custom code directly into your NetSuite account.

  • SuiteScript 2.0: This version uses modern syntax. It supports current coding standards.
  • Server-Side Scripting: Scripts run on the server. They help automate tasks and process data efficiently.
  • Key Modules:
    • N/record: Manages record creation and updates.
    • N/search: Retrieves and filters data.
    • N/task: Handles scheduled tasks and background jobs.
  • Example: Create an Alert Dialog
/**
* @NApiVersion 2.1
* @NScriptType ClientScript
*/
define(['N/ui/dialog'], (dialog) => {
    function pageInit() {
        let options = {
            title: 'I am an Alert',
            message: 'Click OK to continue.'
        };    
        function success(result) {
            console.log('Success with value ' + result);
        }
        function failure(reason) {
            console.log('Failure: ' + reason);
        }
        dialog.alert(options).then(success).catch(failure);
    }
    return {
        pageInit: pageInit
    };
});

SuiteScript works best for unique workflows. Developers can write custom scripts that fit specific business needs. It offers a flexible option for NetSuite integration.

4. Building Your NetSuite API Integration

Now that you understand the API options, you can build your NetSuite API integration. This section outlines a clear process from testing to deployment. Follow these steps carefully.

Making Your First API Call

Begin by making a simple test call. Use this checklist:

  1. Set Up Authentication: Confirm that your account has API access. Choose between TBA, OAuth 2.0, or Basic Auth.
  2. Select the Correct Endpoint: Use sandbox endpoints during tests. For the REST API, try a GET call to fetch a record. For the SOAP API, send a well-formed XML request. For SuiteScript, write a small script that reads a record.
  3. Send the Request: Use a tool like Postman or a cURL command. A successful call returns a JSON object (for REST).
  4. Handle the Response: Check the response code. A 200 code indicates success. If errors occur, review error messages and logs.
  5. Debug and Log: Write detailed error logs to capture issues. Use official troubleshooting guides to fix errors.

Test your API call in the sandbox thoroughly. Once you confirm that it works, prepare to move it to your production environment.

Common Use Cases for NetSuite API Integration

NetSuite API integration solves many business problems. Here are some real examples:

  • Automated Invoice Creation:
    Connect with your billing system. When a sale occurs, the external system sends data to NetSuite. An invoice is created automatically. This saves time and reduces errors.
  • Syncing Customer and Order Data:
    Link your CRM with NetSuite. Data on customers and orders are updated in real time. This minimizes duplicate entries and ensures consistency.
  • Generating Financial Reports:
    Use the API to extract data for third-party analytics tools. Process the data quickly to produce reports. Managers receive up-to-date financial insights.

Each use case has its challenges. The official documentation offers deeper insights into these workflows. These examples show how NetSuite integration can drive better data flow and business performance.

5. Real-World NetSuite API Integration Examples

Companies across various industries use NetSuite API integration to solve real challenges.

Business Growth Through NetSuite API Integration

Here are a few examples:

  • ASICS:
    ASICS uses API integration to sync its inventory data. Their system tracks stock levels in real-time. This information helps them adjust production and supply quickly. The integration also sends sales data to their analytics tools. The result is fewer stock-outs and smoother operations.
  • Charlotte Tilbury:
    The beauty brand connects its e-commerce platform with NetSuite. Order and customer data flow seamlessly between systems. This integration reduces manual entry and speeds up order fulfillment. The team also gains clear insights to improve marketing and sales.

40,000+ companies use NetSuite for their businesses. They lower the workload on their teams and reduce human errors. Successful integrations like these show how effective integration improves business processes.

6. Enhance Your Workflow with Knit

Manually integrating NetSuite often involves complex coding, increased risk, and delays. Knit offers a simpler solution with its Unified Accounting API that allows you to build once and scale to many accounting integrations in one go.

How Knit Simplifies NetSuite API Integration

Knit provides a Unified Accounting API which allows you to integrate with multiple Accounting tools in one go. You build an integration with Knit once, and Knit manages the underlying API complexities like

  • Data Normalization: Knit transforms Netsuite's data models into its universal data models so you don’t have to understand the complex APIs of NetSuite.
  • Authentication: Knit supports both API key based, and OAuth authentication mechanisms and users can simply authenticate on the Knit UI component.
  • Rate Limits: Knit manages to stay under the rate limits while syncing data, and in case of errors, retries the syncs with an exponential backoff strategy.
  • Pagination: Knit handles the pagination nuances of the NetSuite API and published data to you on your webhooks.

Knit’s guided setup follows NetSuite’s standards closely and supports both REST and SOAP API connections. The API directory provides a detailed overview of Netsuite's API endpoints for various categories.

7. Best Practices for NetSuite API Integration

Here are a few NetSuite integration best practices for a stable, long-term NetSuite API integration.

Optimizing API Performance

A fast integration improves user experience. Use these tips:

  • Manage API Rate Limits: Plan your API calls to avoid throttling. Space out requests to stay within limits.
  • Batch Processing and Pagination: For large data sets, process in small batches. Retrieve data in chunks to reduce the load on the system.
  • Test and Optimize Endpoints: Focus on the most-used endpoints. Run tests to spot slow points. Adjust your calls based on performance data.

Following these steps keeps your integration fast and reliable.

Ensuring Data Security and Compliance

Security is a must for any NetSuite API integration. Do these steps:

  • Secure API Credentials:
    Store keys in secure vaults. Never hard-code them in your scripts.
  • Use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):
    Limit who can see or change sensitive data. Grant access is based on roles only.
  • Protect Sensitive Data:
    Use encryption where needed. Audit your settings often to keep data safe.

These steps keep your data safe and help you meet compliance standards.

Monitoring and Logging API Activity

Continuous monitoring helps you catch issues early. Here’s how:

  • Enable Detailed Logging:
    Log every API call. Detailed logs help you troubleshoot problems.
  • Use Monitoring Tools:
    Consider third-party tools to track performance. They can alert you to any slowdowns or errors.
  • Review Logs Regularly:
    Schedule time to review logs. Document issues and fixes for future reference.

Regular monitoring creates a more reliable NetSuite integration.

8. Overcoming Challenges and Finding Support

No integration project is free from challenges. Below are some common issues and their troubleshooting steps.

Common Challenges

  • Authentication Errors:
    Incorrect keys or expired tokens often cause failures. Regularly update and check your credentials.
  • API Updates:
    NetSuite may update its API. New versions can break your integration. Stay informed by following release notes.
  • SOAP Request Failures:
    XML syntax errors or WSDL mismatches can stop your integration. Validate your XML before use.
  • General Errors:
    Network issues or data mismatches might occur. Keep detailed logs to help pinpoint problems.

Understanding these challenges lets you plan and avoid major setbacks.

Troubleshooting Steps

When issues occur, follow this checklist:

  • Review Your Credentials:
    Check your API keys and tokens. Ensure that they are up to date.
  • Examine the Logs:
    Use NetSuite and Knit logs to find error messages. Detailed logs guide your next steps.
  • Test Endpoints Individually:
    Run a test call for each endpoint. This isolates the problematic call.
  • Consult the Official Documentation:
    Read through the troubleshooting guides. They often provide fixes for common errors.
  • Use Debug Tools:
    Tools like Postman or IDE debugging features help diagnose issues.

Following this checklist typically resolves most problems quickly.

9. Keeping Your Integration Up-to-Date

A solid Netsuite Integration needs ongoing care. Maintenance ensures that your system stays reliable and efficient.

Staying Current with API Changes

  • Watch Release Notes:
    Keep an eye on NetSuite updates and announcements.
  • Monitor Versions:
    Check for API version changes and update your integration as needed.
  • Replace Old APIs:
    Switch to newer APIs quickly to maintain security and performance.

Maintaining and Scaling Your Integration

  • Regular Checks:
    Test your API connection periodically to catch issues early.
  • Plan for Growth:
    Use batch processing and pagination as your data increases.
  • Record Updates:
    Document any changes for easier troubleshooting later.

These steps keep your NetSuite integration robust and scalable over time.

10. Takeaways

Organizations that modernize their data workflows with NetSuite API integration see more than just reduced errors—they gain a competitive edge. By automating routine tasks and linking key systems, businesses can free up resources for growth. Solutions like Knit further cut complexity, ensuring that updates, security, and compliance are handled automatically. For companies serious about boosting efficiency and strategic agility, moving to an integrated NetSuite environment is a smart, forward-looking decision.

Book a demo with Knit today, and let a Knit expert assist in setting up a robust NetSuite API integration and address any questions.

References:

  1. Suitetalk REST Web Services
  2. NetSuite Account Creation
  3. SuiteCloud Platform Integration
  4. Netsuite application suite
  5. Oracle Netsuite
  6. Product Overview of Netsuite
  7. Why join SDN?
  8. Netsuite Access Overview
  9. NetSuite Creating a Record Instance
  10. SuiteScript API
  11. NetSuite ChangeEmail API
Tutorials
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Mar 27, 2025

The Ultimate Developer Guide to Calendar API Integration

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, organizations across all industries are leveraging Calendar APIs to streamline scheduling, automate workflows, and optimize resource management. While standalone calendar applications have always been essential, Calendar Integration significantly amplifies their value—making it possible to synchronize events, reminders, and tasks across multiple platforms seamlessly. Whether you’re a SaaS provider integrating a customer’s calendar or an enterprise automating internal processes, a robust API Calendar strategy can drastically enhance efficiency and user satisfaction.

Explore more Calendar API integrations

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll discuss the benefits of Calendar API integration, best practices for developers, real-world use cases, and tips for managing common challenges like time zone discrepancies and data normalization. By the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap on how to build and maintain effective Calendar APIs for your organization or product offering in 2025.

1. Why Calendar API Integration Matters

In 2025, calendars have evolved beyond simple day-planners to become strategic tools that connect individuals, teams, and entire organizations. The real power comes from Calendar Integration, or the ability to synchronize these planning tools with other critical systems—CRM software, HRIS platforms, applicant tracking systems (ATS), eSignature solutions, and more.

  • Efficiency Gains: Manual scheduling is prone to error and time-consuming. By automating these tasks through Calendar APIs, businesses can streamline processes and eliminate back-and-forth communication.
  • Customer Experience: Integrating with customers’ existing calendars enhances convenience, creating a frictionless user experience. In highly competitive markets, seamless scheduling can be a crucial differentiator.
  • Resource Management: For ERP systems managing logistics or field service appointments, real-time schedule visibility optimizes resource allocation, ensuring the right teams and equipment are always in the right place at the right time.
  • Scalability: As organizations grow, manual scheduling quickly becomes untenable. API Calendar solutions allow for easy scaling across multiple departments, regions, or even continents.

Essentially, Calendar API integration becomes indispensable for any software looking to reduce operational overhead, improve user satisfaction, and scale globally.

2. Top Benefits of Calendar APIs

Automated Scheduling

One of the most notable advantages of Calendar Integration is automated scheduling. Instead of manually entering data into multiple calendars, an API can do it for you. For instance, an event management platform integrating with Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook can immediately update participants’ schedules once an event is booked. This eliminates the need for separate email confirmations and reduces human error.

Enhanced Customer Experience

When a user can book or reschedule an appointment without back-and-forth emails, you’ve substantially upgraded their experience. For example, healthcare providers that leverage Calendar APIs can let patients pick available slots and sync these appointments directly to both the patient’s and the doctor’s calendars. Changes on either side trigger instant notifications, drastically simplifying patient-doctor communication.

Optimized Resource Management

By aligning calendars with HR systems, CRM tools, and project management platforms, businesses can ensure every resource—personnel, rooms, or equipment—is allocated efficiently. Calendar-based resource mapping can reduce double-bookings and idle times, increasing productivity while minimizing conflicts.

Real-time Notifications

Notifications are integral to preventing missed meetings and last-minute confusion. Whether you run a field service company, a professional consulting firm, or a sales organization, instant schedule updates via Calendar APIs keep everyone on the same page—literally.

Workflow Automation Across Platforms

API Calendar solutions enable triggers and actions across diverse systems. For instance, when a sales lead in your CRM hits “hot” status, the system can automatically schedule a follow-up call, add it to the rep’s calendar, and send a reminder 15 minutes before the meeting. Such automation fosters a frictionless user experience and supports consistent follow-ups.

<a name="calendar-api-data-models-explained"></a>

3. Calendar API Data Models Explained

To integrate calendar functionalities successfully, a solid grasp of the underlying data structures is crucial. While each calendar provider may have specific fields, the broad data model often consists of the following objects:

  1. Calendar Object
    • id: A unique identifier, such as calendar12345.
    • name: E.g., “Work Calendar,” “Personal Calendar.”
    • description: Optional text describing the calendar.
    • timeZone: Default time zone for events (e.g., “UTC,” “America/New_York”).
    • owner: Information about who owns or manages the calendar.
  2. Event Object
    • id: A unique identifier for the event.
    • title: A short description (e.g., “Team Standup”).
    • description: Detailed notes or instructions.
    • start and end: DateTime fields for event timing.
    • location: Physical or virtual meeting link.
    • attendees: A list of people (or groups) invited, each with an email and response status.
    • recurrence: Rules for repeating events, such as frequency or exceptions.
    • reminders: Notification triggers before an event begins.
    • status: (confirmed, tentative, canceled)
    • visibility: Defines who can see event details.
  3. Attendee Object
    • email: The attendee’s email address.
    • responseStatus: e.g., accepted, declined.
    • comment: Optional notes from the attendee.
  4. Reminder Object
    • method: email, popup, or SMS.
    • minutesBeforeStart: E.g., remind 10 minutes before the event.
  5. Recurrence Rule Object
    • frequency: daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
    • interval: e.g., every 2 days or every week.
    • daysOfWeek: For weekly events.
    • endDate: When the series ends.
    • exceptions: Specific dates skipped in the recurrence pattern.

Properly mapping these objects during Calendar Integration ensures consistent data handling across multiple systems. Handling each element correctly—particularly with recurring events—lays the foundation for a smooth user experience.

4. Best Practices for Calendar API Integration

1. Choose the Right Calendar API

  • Customer Demand: Are users frequently requesting Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Microsoft Outlook integration? Prioritize your efforts accordingly.
  • API Documentation & Support: Evaluate if the calendar provider offers robust docs, SDKs, or community support.
  • Business Potential: A highly demanded integration with thousands of potential users may take precedence over niche calendar integrations.

2. Leverage Webhooks for Real-Time Updates

  • Reduce Polling: Instead of constantly querying the API, webhooks send event data to your application as soon as changes happen.
  • Key Event Triggers: Keep track of crucial events like creation, deletion, or modifications.
  • Failover Mechanisms: Implement retry logic for webhook delivery if the receiving server is temporarily unreachable.

3. Handle Recurring Events and Exceptions Carefully

  • Implement Standard Recurrence Rules: Align with iCalendar or similar standards for cross-platform compatibility.
  • Account for Partial Cancellations: Users might cancel one instance in a recurring series without affecting the rest.
  • Test Thoroughly: Recurring events can get complex quickly—test edge cases like end-dates, changing frequency mid-series, etc.

4. Manage Rate Limits Gracefully

  • Caching: Store non-time-sensitive data (time zones, user profiles) to minimize API calls.
  • Exponential Backoff: When you hit rate limits, increase wait times between retries.
  • Prioritize Calls: Identify essential calls that need real-time data vs. those that can be deferred.

5. Log Data for Troubleshooting

  • Comprehensive Logging: Capture API endpoints, payloads, response codes, and error messages.
  • Error Tracking: Implement real-time alerts for major failures.
  • Secure Storage: Protect logs from unauthorized access or data breaches.

6. Undertake Data Normalization

  • Cross-Platform Consistency: Ensure you normalize date-time formats, time zones, and event statuses when multiple calendar providers are involved.
  • Schema Mapping: Map each field from the external calendar to your internal data model to avoid confusion.

5. Popular Calendar APIs

Below are several well-known Calendar APIs that dominate the market. Each has unique features, so choose based on your users’ needs:

  1. Google Calendar API
  2. Outlook Calendar (Microsoft Graph) API
  3. Apple Calendar API
  4. Cronofy API
  5. Calendly API
    • Documentation: Calendly API Docs
    • Advantages: Scheduling app specialty, widely adopted among sales and consultants.
  6. Timekit API
    • Documentation: Timekit Docs
    • Advantages: Flexible booking rules and advanced scheduling features.

6. Real-World Use Cases

Candidate Interview Scheduling for ATS

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Lever or Greenhouse can integrate with Google Calendar or Outlook to automate interview scheduling. Once a candidate is selected for an interview, the ATS checks availability for both the interviewer and candidate, auto-generates an event, and sends reminders. This reduces manual coordination, preventing double-bookings and ensuring a smooth interview process.

Learn more on How Interview Scheduling Companies Can Scale ATS Integrations Faster

Resource Allocation for ERP

ERPs like SAP or Oracle NetSuite handle complex scheduling needs for workforce or equipment management. By integrating with each user’s calendar, the ERP can dynamically allocate resources based on real-time availability and location, significantly reducing conflicts and idle times.

Client Meetings for CRM

Salesforce and HubSpot CRMs can automatically book demos and follow-up calls. Once a customer selects a time slot, the CRM updates the rep’s calendar, triggers reminders, and logs the meeting details—keeping the sales cycle organized and on track.

Employee Onboarding and Training for HRIS

Systems like Workday and BambooHR use Calendar APIs to automate onboarding schedules—adding orientation, training sessions, and check-ins to a new hire’s calendar. Managers can see progress in real-time, ensuring a structured, transparent onboarding experience.

Assessment Scheduling

Assessment tools like HackerRank or Codility integrate with Calendar APIs to plan coding tests. Once a test is scheduled, both candidates and recruiters receive real-time updates. After completion, debrief meetings are auto-booked based on availability.

Document Signing Deadlines for eSignature

DocuSign or Adobe Sign can create calendar reminders for upcoming document deadlines. If multiple signatures are required, it schedules follow-up reminders, ensuring legal or financial processes move along without hiccups.

Invoice Due Dates and Tax Filing for Accounting Systems

QuickBooks or Xero integrations place invoice due dates and tax deadlines directly onto the user’s calendar, complete with reminders. Users avoid late penalties and maintain financial compliance with minimal manual effort.

7. Common Calendar API Integration Challenges

While Calendar Integration can transform workflows, it’s not without its hurdles. Here are the most prevalent obstacles:

1. Time Zone Discrepancies and Recurring Events

  • Global Teams: Multinational organizations must dynamically adjust meeting times across time zones.
  • Recurring Event Modifications: A single instance of a recurring meeting might move or get canceled without affecting the entire series.
  • DateTime Inconsistencies: Some APIs treat all-day events differently, causing confusion across platforms.

2. Scaling Across Multiple Providers

  • Diverse Endpoints: Google, Microsoft, and Apple each have unique endpoints, data fields, and authentication protocols.
  • Ongoing Maintenance: Providers frequently update or deprecate endpoints, necessitating regular engineering work.

3. Permissions and Access Controls

  • Privacy Concerns: Misconfiguration can expose private events to unauthorized viewers.
  • Varying Permission Protocols: Each provider (Google, Outlook, Apple) handles read/write permissions differently, complicating integration code.

4. Data Sync Inconsistencies

  • Format Mismatches: Each calendar might store date/time data in a slightly different format.
  • Lost Fields: Failing to map custom fields or statuses can cause partial data loss.
  • All-day vs. Timed Events: Some calendars represent “all-day” as a 24-hour block, causing scheduling confusion.

5. Dealing with API Updates and Deprecations

  • Version Upgrades: Provider APIs change version protocols, sometimes forcing urgent updates to avoid outages.
  • Deprecated Endpoints: If a crucial endpoint is retired, your integration can break unless you adapt quickly.

8. Unified Calendar API vs. Direct Connector APIs

Businesses can integrate Calendar APIs either by building direct connectors for each calendar platform or opting for a Unified Calendar API provider that consolidates all integrations behind a single endpoint. Here’s how they compare:

Aspect Unified Calendar APIs Direct Connector APIs
Integration Setup Single integration for multiple calendars Separate connectors for each calendar
Maintenance Centralized updates and versioning Ongoing work for each provider’s changes
Data Normalization Automatic standardization across providers Custom normalization logic per API
Scalability Effortless: Add new providers via existing platform Difficult: Each new calendar = new connector
Authentication & Security Centralized handling of OAuth, encryption, etc. Multiple protocols to manage individually
Customization Limited advanced features for each calendar High control for unique or edge-case features
Time & Cost Faster initial deployment; lower TCO Higher development overhead; can add up quickly

When to Choose a Unified Calendar API

  • Rapid Multi-Calendar Integration: If you need Google, Outlook, and Apple Calendar simultaneously, a unified approach saves time.
  • Resource Constraints: Your engineering team can focus on core product features, leaving integration complexities to the platform.
  • Scalability: Ideal if you foresee adding more calendar providers as you grow.

When to Choose Direct Connectors

  • Niche Requirements: If you need very specialized or advanced features that a unified API doesn’t cover.
  • Single-Platform Focus: For example, a solution that only needs Google Calendar might find a direct connector sufficient.

Learn more about what should you look for in a Unified API Platform

9. TL;DR: Key Takeaways

  1. Calendar Integration is a competitive necessity in 2025, bridging siloed tools, improving user experiences, and automating workflows.
  2. Key Use Cases include ATS scheduling, ERP resource allocation, CRM follow-ups, HR onboarding, and eSignature reminders.
  3. Biggest Challenges revolve around time zone differences, data normalization, permission settings, and dealing with API updates.
  4. Best Practices: Implement webhooks, handle recurring events carefully, manage rate limits gracefully, and log data meticulously.
  5. Unified APIs vs. Direct Connectors: Unified solutions provide quick multi-calendar scalability, while direct connectors give deeper customization for single-use cases.

10. Conclusion and Next Steps

The calendar landscape is only getting more complex as businesses and end users embrace an ever-growing range of tools and platforms. Implementing an effective Calendar API strategy—whether through direct connectors or a unified platform—can yield substantial operational efficiencies, improved user satisfaction, and a significant competitive edge. From Calendar APIs that power real-time notifications to AI-driven features predicting best meeting times, the potential for innovation is limitless.

If you’re looking to add API Calendar capabilities to your product or optimize an existing integration, now is the time to take action. Start by assessing your users’ needs, identifying top calendar providers they rely on, and determining whether a unified or direct connector strategy makes the most sense. Incorporate the best practices highlighted in this guide—like leveraging webhooks, managing data normalization, and handling rate limits—and you’ll be well on your way to delivering a next-level calendar experience.

Ready to transform your Calendar Integration journey?
Book a Demo with Knit to See How AI-Driven Unified APIs Simplify Integrations

References and External Links

By following the strategies in this comprehensive guide, you’ll not only harness the power of Calendar APIs but also future-proof your software or enterprise operations for the decade ahead. Whether you’re automating interviews, scheduling field services, or synchronizing resources across continents, Calendar Integration is the key to eliminating complexity and turning time management into a strategic asset.

Tutorials
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Mar 27, 2025

Deep-Dive Developer Guide to Building a Sage Intacct API Integration

Introduction to Sage Intacct API

Sage Intacct API integration allows businesses to connect financial systems with other applications, enabling real-time data synchronization and reducing errors and missed opportunities. Manual data transfers and outdated processes can lead to errors and missed opportunities. This guide explains how Sage Intacct API integration removes those pain points. We cover the technical setup, common issues, and how using Knit can cut down development time while ensuring a secure connection between your systems and Sage Intacct.

Overview of Sage Intacct API Integration

Sage Intacct API integration integrates your financial and ERP systems with third-party applications. It connects your financial information and tools used for reporting, budgeting, and analytics.

  • What is Sage Intacct API integration?
    It allows two or more software systems to share data seamlessly. This connection reduces manual entries and synchronizes data across platforms.
  • The role of APIs in modern ERP and financial management:
    APIs facilitate real-time data exchange and perform repetitive tasks automatically. They are the foundation of contemporary software systems as they make sure each component is current.
  • Why seamless integration matters for your business:
    A reliable API integration cuts down on errors, saves time, and provides access to real-time insights that help in strategic planning.

Overview of Sage Intacct API Documentation

The Sage Intacct API documentation provides all the necessary information to integrate your systems with Sage Intacct’s financial services. It covers two main API protocols: REST and SOAP, each designed for different integration needs. REST is commonly used for web-based applications, offering a simple and flexible approach, while SOAP is preferred for more complex and secure transactions.

By following the guidelines, you can ensure a secure and efficient connection between your systems and Sage Intacct.

Key Features Included:

  • API Types: REST (simpler, web-based) and SOAP (robust, secure).
  • Endpoint Structure: Learn how to interact with functions like invoicing, reporting, and customer management.
  • API Usage Limits: Understand the traffic limits to avoid throttling.
  • Authentication: Detailed methods for secure API access.
  • Best Practices: Recommendations to optimize your integration.

Business and Technical Benefits of Sage Intacct API

Integrating Sage Intacct with your existing systems offers a host of advantages.

  • Real-time synchronization of financial data: Stay in sync with the newest financial records as they occur.
  • Automation of repetitive financial tasks: Avoid manual data entry and minimize the chances of errors.
  • Improved reporting, compliance, and analytics: Facilitate better decision-making by bringing together timely, accurate data.
  • Scalability and improved operational efficiency: Easily adjust to growing data loads without sacrificing performance.

Steps for Building a Sage Intacct API Integration

Before you start the integration process, you should properly set up your environment. Proper setup creates a solid foundation and prevents most pitfalls.

STEP 1: Setting up a Sage Intacct tenant and obtaining API endpoint

A clear understanding of Sage Intacct’s account types and ecosystem is vital.

  • Sage Intacct account types (Demo vs. Production):
    • Demo Account: Use this for testing and proof-of-concept projects. It mimics the production environment.
    • Production Account: This account handles live data and transactions.
  • Developer Registration:
    Before you can start using the API, you must register as a developer with Sage Intacct. To do this:
  1. Sign up on the Sage Intacct Developer portal.
  2. Request your Sender ID, User ID, and Company ID, which are required for authentication.
  • Understanding the Sage Intacct ecosystem and access tiers:
    Know the differences between various access tiers. Each tier has specific permissions and usage limits.
  • Reviewing Sage Intacct API usage limits and guidelines:
    Get familiar with the API limits to prevent throttling during heavy traffic. Always refer to the latest guidelines in the official documentation.

STEP 2: Establishing a Secure Development Environment

A secure environment protects your data and credentials.

  • Benefits of using a sandbox environment:
    Test your integration without affecting live data. A sandbox replicates your production environment safely.
  • Steps to create and configure a Sage Intacct sandbox:
    • Sign up for a demo account.
    • Follow the setup wizard to configure your sandbox.
    • Test all functions thoroughly before moving to production.
  • Best practices for data anonymization and security:
    • Use dummy data for testing.
    • Ensure API credentials are stored securely.
    • Limit access to the development environment.

STEP 3: Enabling API Access and Setting Up Authentication

Setting up authentication is crucial to secure the data flow.

  • Configuring API permissions and roles:
    Assign roles based on the principle of least privilege. Only allow necessary permissions to each user.
  • Overview of available authentication methods:
    • Web Services Authentication: Uses XML-based requests.
    • OAuth 2.0: Offers secure token-based authentication.
  • Generating and managing API credentials:
    Follow official documentation to create and store API keys or tokens securely.
  • Troubleshooting common authentication challenges:
    • Check API endpoint URLs.
    • Ensure your credentials are correct.
    • Monitor logs for errors and consult Sage Intacct support if needed.

STEP 4: Sage Intacct API Options: SOAP vs REST

An understanding of the different APIs and protocols is necessary to choose the best method for your integration needs.

API Architecture and Protocols

Sage Intacct offers a flexible API ecosystem to fit diverse business needs.

  • Overview of Sage Intacct’s API ecosystem:
    Sage Intacct provides multiple API protocols to interact with its services. You have choices depending on your technical preference.
  • REST vs. SOAP: Which fits your use case?
    • REST: Simpler, uses JSON, and is widely used for modern web applications.
    • SOAP: More robust, relies on XML, and can be better for strict enterprise requirements.
  • Understanding key endpoints and services:
    Look for endpoints that map to critical business functions such as invoicing, customer management, and reporting.

Sage Intacct REST API Overview

The Sage Intacct REST API offers a clean, modern approach to integrating with Sage Intacct.

  • Introduction to the RESTful API framework:
    REST APIs use standard HTTP methods. They are easy to implement and scale well.
  • Common REST endpoints and their functionalities:
    • GET: Retrieve data.
    • POST: Create new records.
    • PUT: Update existing records.
    • DELETE: Remove records.
  • Example of GET API:

Get a Bank Account

Curl request:

curl -i -X GET \ 'https://api.intacct.com/ia/api/v1/objects/cash-management/bank-acount {key}' \-H 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN_HERE>'

Here’s a detailed reference to all the Sage Intacct REST API Endpoints.

Sage Intacct SOAP API Overview

For environments that need robust enterprise-level integration, the Sage Intacct SOAP API is a strong option.

  • Introduction to the SOAP API environment:
    SOAP uses XML for its messages. It enforces strict rules on message structure.
  • Working with WSDL, XML requests, and responses:
    Developers use a WSDL file to understand available methods. Your XML requests must adhere to the schema defined.
  • Example:

Each operation is a simple HTTP request. For example, a GET request to retrieve account details:

Parameters for request body:

<read>
    <object>GLACCOUNT</object>
    <keys>1</keys>
    <fields>*</fields>
</read>

Data format for the response body:

  • xml (default)
  • json
  • Csv

Here’s a detailed reference to all the Sage Intacct SOAP API Endpoints.

Comparing SOAP versus REST for various scenarios:

  • SOAP: Better for complex transactions and when high security is required.
  • REST: Preferred for lighter, web-based interactions.

Additional Integration Options

Beyond the primary REST and SOAP APIs, Sage Intacct provides other modules to enhance integration.

  • Overview of other available modules and scripting capabilities:
    Use custom scripts to automate tasks not covered by standard endpoints.
  • Custom scripting and automation possibilities with Sage Intacct:
    Developers can extend functionalities using server-side scripts and connectors. Refer to the official scripting guides for more details.

STEP 5: Building Your Sage Intacct API Integration (With Examples)

Now that your environment is ready and you understand the API options, you can start building your integration.

Making Your First API Call

A basic API call is the foundation of your integration.

Step-by-step guide for a basic API call using REST and SOAP:

REST Example:

  1. Set up your environment.
  2. Authenticate using your API token.
  3. Send a GET request to a sample endpoint say list a customer.

Example:

Curl Request: 

curl -i -X GET \
https://api.intacct.com/ia/api/v1/objects/accounts-receivable/customer \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN_HERE>'
Response 200 (Success):
{
  "ia::result": [
    {
      "key": "68",
      "id": "CUST-100",
      "href": "/objects/accounts-receivable/customer/68"
    },
    {
      "key": "69",
      "id": "CUST-200",
      "href": "/objects/accounts-receivable/customer/69"
    },
    {
      "key": "73",
      "id": "CUST-300",
      "href": "/objects/accounts-receivable/customer/73"
    }
  ],
  "ia::meta": {
    "totalCount": 3,
    "start": 1,
    "pageSize": 100
  }
}
Response 400 (Failure):
{
  "ia::result": {
    "ia::error": {
      "code": "invalidRequest",
      "message": "A POST request requires a payload",
      "errorId": "REST-1028",
      "additionalInfo": {
        "messageId": "IA.REQUEST_REQUIRES_A_PAYLOAD",
        "placeholders": {
          "OPERATION": "POST"
        },
        "propertySet": {}
      },
      "supportId": "Kxi78%7EZuyXBDEGVHD2UmO1phYXDQAAAAo"
    }
  },
  "ia::meta": {
    "totalCount": 1,
    "totalSuccess": 0,
    "totalError": 1
  }
}

SOAP Example:

  1. Set up your WSDL-based client.
  2. Create an XML request as per the schema.
  3. Send the request and process the XML response:
Name Required Type Description
REPORTINGPERIOD Required Object Object to create

Example snippet of creating a reporting period:

<create>
    <REPORTINGPERIOD>
        <NAME>Month Ended January 2017</NAME>
        <HEADER1>Month Ended</HEADER1>
        <HEADER2>January 2017</HEADER2>
        <START_DATE>01/01/2017</START_DATE>
        <END_DATE>01/31/2017</END_DATE>
        <BUDGETING>true</BUDGETING>
        <STATUS>active</STATUS>
    </REPORTINGPERIOD>
</create>
  1. Setting up your development environment and authentication:
    Ensure that you follow best practices for API key storage. Use environment variables or secure vaults.
  2. Interpreting API responses and error handling:
    Check status codes and error messages. A 200 status code indicates success, while a 400 or 500 series indicates issues.

Postman Usage 

Using Postman for Testing and Debugging API Calls

Postman is a good tool for sending and confirming API requests before implementation to make the testing of your Sage Intacct API integration more efficient.

You can import the Sage Intacct Postman collection into your Postman tool, which has pre-configured endpoints for simple testing. You can use it to simply test your API calls, see results in real time, and debug any issues.

This helps in debugging by visualizing responses and simplifying the identification of errors.

Mapping Business Processes to API Workflows

Mapping your business processes to API workflows makes integration smoother.

  • Automating invoice generation and payment processing:
    Use API calls to trigger invoice creation and payment confirmation.
    • Define the data flow from order entry to invoice output.
    • Use error-handling routines to catch exceptions during processing.
  • Synchronizing customer and vendor data across platforms:
    Maintain a consistent view of your contacts by syncing updates in real time.
    • Map fields between your CRM and Sage Intacct.
    • Schedule regular sync jobs to update records.
  • Integrating financial reporting and analytics tools:
    Pull data into BI tools to generate live reports.
    • Use data batching and pagination to manage large volumes.
    • Implement caching strategies to reduce load on the API endpoints.

To test your Sage Intacct API integration, using Postman is recommended. You can import the Sage Intacct Postman collection and quickly make sample API requests to verify functionality. This allows for efficient testing before you begin full implementation.

Real-World Integration Scenarios and Case Studies

Understanding real-world applications helps in visualizing the benefits of a well-implemented integration.

Use Cases Across Industries

This section outlines examples from various sectors that have seen success with Sage Intacct integrations.

  • Examples of successful Sage Intacct integrations:
    • Skydance:
      Skydance integrated Sage Intacct to synchronize their financial and production data. This automation improved invoice processing and provided real-time visibility into project budgets.
    • XML International:
      XML International leveraged the API to streamline vendor management and reporting. Their integration automated data reconciliation processes, reducing manual intervention and cutting processing time significantly.
  • How various sectors benefit from integration:
    • Retail:
      Integrate point-of-sale systems to update inventory and sales records in real time.
    • Manufacturing:
      Connect production management with financial reporting to track costs and resource allocation efficiently.
    • Services:
      Sync project-based billing systems with financial records for improved cash flow management.

Industry

Industry Key Integration Benefit Example Use Case
Retail Real-time sales and inventory updates Synchronize point-of-sale data
Manufacturing Production cost tracking and resource planning Integrate ERP with production systems
Services Project-based billing and cash flow management Connect project management with finance

Sage Intacct Partnership Program

Joining a sage intacct partnership program can offer additional resources and support for your integration efforts.

Overview of the Partnership Program

The partnership program enhances your integration by offering technical and marketing support.

  • Key benefits and strategic features:
    • Access to exclusive technical resources.
    • Early access to new API features and updates.
    • Co-marketing opportunities that boost your market presence.
  • How the partnership enhances integration and drives business growth:
    • Streamlined support for resolving technical issues.
    • Training and certification programs for your team.
    • Joint ventures to expand your market reach.

Partnership Levels and Opportunities

Different partnership tiers cater to varied business needs.

  • Description of partnership tiers:
    • Authorized Partner: Basic support and access to essential resources.
    • Premium Partner: Enhanced support, training, and co-marketing initiatives.
  • Exclusive benefits for partners:
    • Priority technical support.
    • Dedicated account management.
    • Invitations to exclusive events and webinars.

Best Practices for Sage Intacct API Integration

Following best practices ensures that your integration runs smoothly over time.

Optimizing Performance and Scalability

Manage API calls effectively to handle growth.

  • Managing API rate limits and avoiding throttling:
    • Use batching and pagination to limit the number of requests.
    • Monitor usage and adjust call frequencies as needed.
  • Efficient data retrieval:
    • Apply caching strategies for frequently accessed data.
    • Use pagination to handle large data sets.
  • Tips for scaling your integration:
    • Regularly review API performance metrics.
    • Consider load-balancing solutions for high-traffic periods.

Securing Your API Environment

Security must remain a top priority.

  • Safeguarding API credentials and data:
    • Store credentials in secure vaults or environment variables.
    • Use encryption for data in transit and at rest.
  • Implementing role-based access control (RBAC) and encryption protocols:
    • Grant permissions based on user roles.
    • Regularly update and audit access controls.

Monitoring and Logging

Effective monitoring helps catch issues early.

  • Set up logging: Track API calls and responses to troubleshoot errors.
  • Use monitoring tools: Set alerts for unusual patterns and track API health via dashboards.
  • Regular health checks: Schedule periodic reviews and ensure timely updates and patches to maintain security.

Troubleshooting and Support

No integration is without its challenges. This section covers common problems and how to fix them.

Common Integration Challenges

Prepare for and resolve typical issues quickly.

  • Authentication and connectivity issues:
    • Verify credentials.
    • Check network settings and firewall rules.
  • Handling data discrepancies and synchronization errors:
    • Compare API logs with your internal records.
    • Implement validation checks during data transfer.
  • Common API errors and their causes:
    • 400-level errors often indicate bad requests.
    • 500-level errors suggest server issues that may require a retry or escalation.

Debugging and Resolution Techniques

Effective troubleshooting minimizes downtime.

  • Troubleshooting common API errors:
    • Use logging to identify where errors occur.
    • Cross-reference with official documentation for error codes.
  • Best practices for debugging and logging:
    • Implement detailed logging at every integration point.
    • Use tools that automatically flag and diagnose issues.
  • Handling Legacy or Undocumented API Functions
    • Legacy Functions: If using older functions, check for compatibility or consider upgrading to newer ones.
    • Undocumented Functions: If a function is missing from the documentation, check with Sage Intacct support or the community for assistance. Always be cautious when using undocumented features, as they might not be stable or officially supported.

Maintaining and Evolving Your Integration

Long-term management of your integration is key to ongoing success.

Keeping Up with API Updates

Stay informed about changes to avoid surprises.

  • Monitoring Sage Intacct API version changes and release notes:
    • Subscribe to the official developer portal.
    • Regularly review documentation for updates.
  • Best practices for migrating from legacy endpoints:
    • Test migration paths in your sandbox.
    • Update your integration gradually to avoid disruptions.

Long-Term Integration Management

Ensure your integration remains robust as your business grows.

  • Regular performance audits and security assessments:
    • Schedule routine audits of your integration environment.
    • Use third-party tools to check security compliance.
  • Strategies for scaling your integration:
    • Plan for increased data volume.
    • Consider a microservices architecture to isolate components.
    • Use cloud-based solutions for elasticity and cost efficiency.

How Knit Can Help with Sage Intacct API Integration

Knit offers a streamlined approach to integrating Sage Intacct. This section details how Knit simplifies the process.

Knit’s Role in Simplifying Integration

Knit reduces the heavy lifting in integration tasks by offering pre-built accounting connectors in its Unified Accounting API.

  • Overview of Knit’s features tailored for Sage Intacct:
    • Provides secure, pre-configured connectors.
    • Offers automated workflows that reduce manual coding.
    • Continuously updates to match the latest Sage Intacct API changes.
  • Pre-built connectors and automated workflows:
    • Instant integration with a few configuration steps.
    • Dashboard for real-time monitoring and troubleshooting.

Step-by-Step Integration Using Knit

This section provides a walk-through for integrating using Knit.

  • Sign up for free on Knit
  • Complete the getting started flow
  • Obtain your own Sage Intacct Sandbox or Request Knit for access to our sandbox
  • Build and test your integration
  • Go-live in production!

A sample table for mapping objects and fields can be included:

Source Field Target Field Data Transformation
customer_id client_reference Direct mapping
invoice_amount total_due Currency conversion applied
invoice_date transaction_date Date format adjustment

Advantages Over Manual Integration

Knit eliminates many of the hassles associated with manual integration.

  • Reduced development and maintenance time:
    • Avoid writing repetitive code.
    • Focus on business logic rather than API quirks.
  • Enhanced security and compliance through automation:
    • Rely on updated connectors that follow best security practices.
    • Regular audits and compliance checks are built into the platform.
  • Streamlined troubleshooting and performance optimization:
    • Use built-in tools to diagnose issues.
    • Leverage community support and expert guidance from Knit.

Takeaway

In this guide, we have walked you through the steps and best practices for integrating Sage Intacct via API. You have learned how to set up a secure environment, choose the right API option, map business processes, and overcome common challenges.

If you're ready to link Sage Intacct with your systems without the need for manual integration, it's time to discover how Knit can assist. Knit delivers customized, secure connectors and a simple interface that shortens development time and keeps maintenance low. Book a demo with Knit today to see firsthand how our solution addresses your integration challenges so you can focus on growing your business rather than worrying about technical roadblocks

Tutorials
-
Mar 27, 2025

Pandadoc API Integration Guide (In-Depth)

In today's business world, organizations are constantly looking for ways to optimize workflows, save time, and reduce errors. From document creation and approval to secure signing, status tracking, and payments—it can be a lengthy process. PandaDoc simplifies this by offering a 360-degree agreement management solution that eliminates delays in contract approvals through instant e-signatures and automated approval workflows. By leveraging the PandaDoc API, you can integrate PandaDoc’s powerful functionalities directly into your existing systems, enhancing efficiency and user experience.

If you directly want to jump to building a Pandadoc Integration, you can learn leverage the Pandadoc API directory we wrote.

Over 50,000 fast-growing companies worldwide—including Uber, Stripe, HP, and Bosch—rely on PandaDoc to streamline their document workflows. By integrating PandaDoc, these companies reduce document creation time by up to 80%, accelerate deal closures, and improve client satisfaction.

1. Overview of PandaDoc Services

PandaDoc provides a range of services designed to simplify how businesses handle their document workflows:

  • Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ): Streamline your sales process with efficient quoting tools.
  • Digital Workspaces (Rooms): Collaborate in real time with clients and team members.
  • Smart Content: Create documents that intelligently assemble themselves.
  • Tracking and Analytics: Monitor user activity and document performance for valuable insights.

By harnessing the PandaDoc API and related PandaDoc integrations, you can embed these services directly into your existing applications.

2. Key Features of the PandaDoc API

The PandaDoc API offers a rich set of features that empower developers to build robust document solutions:

  1. Dynamic Document Generation
    Create personalized documents on the fly using templates and dynamic data. For instance, generate customized proposals by merging client data with predefined templates.
  2. Embedded E-Signatures
    Enhance user engagement with legally binding e-signatures. Users can sign documents directly on your platform, streamlining the signing process.
  3. Template Management
    Access, create, and modify templates programmatically. Use 1,000+ existing templates or design new ones to align with your brand’s style.
  4. Workflow Automation
    Automate entire document workflows. Features like automated reminder emails, approval workflows, and CRM integrations run behind the scenes so you can focus on creating high-impact documents that boost closing rates.
  5. Real-Time Status Tracking
    Track when someone views, signs, or completes a document. This enables timely follow-ups and has led to a 36% increase in close rates and a 50% reduction in document creation time for many businesses.
  6. Recipient Management
    Add multiple recipients with different roles and permissions. Control who can view, edit, or sign documents, ensuring security and compliance.
  7. Custom Fields and Tokens
    Use tokens and custom fields to personalize documents with client-specific information such as names, addresses, or pricing details.

3. Benefits of Integrating the PandaDoc API

By integrating the PandaDoc API, businesses can transform their operations in tangible ways:

  • Accelerated Sales Cycles: Automate proposal generation and contract signing to close deals faster.
  • Enhanced Customer Experience: Offer a seamless signing experience directly within your application.
  • Operational Efficiency: Eliminate manual handling, reduce errors, and automate repetitive tasks such as data entry.
  • Cost Savings: Go paperless and lower administrative costs tied to traditional document processes.
  • Compliance and Security: PandaDoc is ESIGN, UETA, HIPAA compliant, and SOC 2 certified, offering secure e-signatures, SSO, and granular permission controls.
  • Scalable Solutions: Easily handle growing document volumes, regardless of company size.
  • Data-Driven Insights: Track document interaction to optimize sales strategies and follow-ups.

4. PandaDoc CRM Integrations

PandaDoc CRM Integrations are a game-changer for sales teams and customer relationship managers. With these integrations, you can:

  • Generate quotes, proposals, or contracts directly from your CRM records (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive).
  • Automatically populate documents with relevant customer data (reducing manual input and human errors).
  • Maintain a centralized record of all documents within your CRM, streamlining tracking and follow-ups.

By combining PandaDoc with your favorite CRM, you gain a unified view of each customer and deal, improving efficiency and boosting close rates. For more details, refer to the PandaDoc API Documentation or your CRM’s marketplace for specific integration steps.

5. Step-by-Step Integration Guide

Below is a detailed process for integrating PandaDoc into your application or workflows. These steps also mirror many standard processes in the PandaDoc API documentation.

Step 1: Obtain API Credentials

  • Sign Up: Create an account at PandaDoc.
  • Access API Settings: Go to Settings > Integrations > API & Keys.
  • Generate API Key: Click Create API Key, then copy the generated key.

Step 2: Install Necessary Dependencies

For Python environments:

nginx
pip install requests

Step 3: Set Up Authentication

Typically involves four sub-steps:

  1. Set up your application.
  2. Authorize a user.
  3. Create an access token.
  4. (Optional) Refresh access token for ongoing sessions.

For details, see the PandaDoc OAuth2 documentation.

Step 4: Create a Template in PandaDoc

Templates are the backbone of your document generation:

  • Create a Template: Go to Templates > New Template.
  • Design the Template: Add placeholders like {{FirstName}} or {{CompanyName}}.
  • Save & Note the UUID: You’ll need the template UUID for document creation.

Step 5: Map Data Fields

Map data fields in your application to tokens in your PandaDoc template.

Step 6: Generate a Document

Use the template and mapped data to create a new document. For full details, see PandaDoc’s “Create Document from Template” guide.

<details><summary>Example Code: Create a Document</summary>

import requests

API_URL = 'https://api.pandadoc.com/public/v1/documents'

data = {
    "name": "Proposal for {{CompanyName}}",
    "template_uuid": "template_uuid_here",
    "recipients": [
        {
            "email": "client@example.com",
            "first_name": "Alice",
            "last_name": "Smith",
            "role": "Signer"
        }
    ],
    "tokens": [
        {"name": "FirstName", "value": "Alice"},
        {"name": "CompanyName", "value": "Acme Corp"},
        {"name": "ProposalAmount", "value": "$10,000"}
    ]
}

headers = {
    "Authorization": "API-Key your_api_key_here",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.post(API_URL, headers=headers, json=data)
document = response.json()
print(document)

</details>

Step 7: Send the Document for Signature

Send the newly created document to your recipients:

<details><summary>Example Code: Send a Document</summary>

document_id = document['id']
send_url = f'https://api.pandadoc.com/public/v1/documents/{document_id}/send'

send_data = {
    "message": "Hello Alice, please review and sign the attached proposal.",
    "subject": "Proposal for Acme Corp"
}

send_response = requests.post(send_url, headers=headers, json=send_data)
print(send_response.status_code)  # Expect 202 if successful

</details>

Step 8: Track Document Status

Use the document ID to check if it has been viewed or signed:

status_url = f'https://api.pandadoc.com/public/v1/documents/{document_id}'
status_response = requests.get(status_url, headers=headers)
status_info = status_response.json()
print(f"Document Status: {status_info['status']}")

Step 9: Handle Webhooks (Optional)

Set up webhooks in Settings > Integrations > Webhooks to receive real-time updates on document events. For more info, see PandaDoc Webhooks Documentation.

Step 10: Test the Integration

Perform unit tests for individual functions and integration tests for the end-to-end workflow.

6. Key PandaDoc API Endpoints

Understanding core endpoints is vital for successful PandaDoc integrations. Below are some frequently used endpoints; you can view more in the PandaDoc API documentation.

  1. Create Document
    • Endpoint: POST /documents
    • Description: Creates a new document from a template or PDF.
  2. Get Document Details
    • Endpoint: GET /documents/{id}
    • Description: Retrieves details of a specific document.
  3. Send Document
    • Endpoint: POST /documents/{id}/send
    • Description: Sends the document to recipients for signing.
  4. List Documents
    • Endpoint: GET /documents
    • Description: Retrieves a list of documents with optional filters.

For the complete set of endpoints, refer to the official PandaDoc API reference.

7. Integrating PandaDoc With Knit

While integrating PandaDoc directly can be straightforward, managing multiple integrations can become complex. Knit, a unified API platform, simplifies this process by allowing developers to integrate PandaDoc and other services seamlessly through a single API.

Why Integrate With Knit?

  • Unified Data Model: Reduces the learning curve when connecting multiple services.
  • Simplified Authentication: Manage credentials centrally, improving security.
  • Reduced Development Time: Less code required to integrate services.
  • Scalable Integrations: Easily add or remove services as your needs grow.

Knit handles complexities in the background, allowing you to focus on value-adding features.

8. Real-Life Use Cases

Autodesk

  • Industry: Software
  • Outcome: Automated their sales process with faster proposal generation, freeing the team to focus on customer relationships and boosting productivity.

Ion Solar

  • Industry: Solar Energy
  • Outcome: Switched from DocuSign to PandaDoc, reducing proposal revision time by 20% and accelerating deal closures.

UptimeHealth

  • Industry: Health Technology
  • Outcome: Shortened their sales cycle by 1–2 weeks and improved close rates by 20% through automated document workflows.

9. Best Practices for a Successful Integration

  1. Security First: Use HTTPS, store API keys securely (e.g., environment variables), and implement best practices for data protection (see the PandaDoc Security Overview).
  2. Validate Data Inputs: Ensure correct data formats (emails, dates, currency fields) to avoid errors.
  3. Robust Error Handling: Catch exceptions gracefully and provide clear messages to users.
  4. Strategic Logging: Log API requests/responses for debugging but never log sensitive data.
  5. Monitor API Usage: Be mindful of rate limits and usage patterns.
  6. Stay Updated: Regularly review the PandaDoc API docs for changes.
  7. Thorough Testing: Use both sandbox environments and automated tests to ensure reliability.
  8. Optimize Performance: Batch API calls when possible and handle asynchronous operations carefully.

10. Troubleshooting Common Issues

  1. Authentication Errors (401 Unauthorized)
    • Verify your API key is correct and the Authorization header is properly set.
    • Reference: PandaDoc Authorization.
  2. Invalid Data Formats (400 Bad Request)
    • Check all required fields, and confirm data types are valid.
  3. Rate Limit Exceeded (429 Too Many Requests)
    • Implement retry logic with exponential backoff.
    • For official rate-limits info, visit: PandaDoc Rate Limits.
  4. Webhook Issues
    • Ensure your webhook endpoint is publicly accessible via HTTPS and your events are properly selected in PandaDoc.
    • Learn more: PandaDoc Webhooks.
  5. 404 Not Found
    • Double-check endpoint URLs and confirm you’re using the correct API version.

11. Future Trends in Document Automation

According to Grand View Research, the intelligent document processing market is expected to grow at a 30.1% CAGR from 2023 to 2030. Key trends to watch:

  • Advanced Automation: AI and ML continue to reshape how businesses handle documents, from contract reviews to invoice processing.
  • Enhanced Analytics: Predictive analytics provide deeper insights, enabling better personalization and strategic decision-making.
  • Cloud & Mobile Integration: Cloud-based and mobile-friendly solutions enable teams to access and edit documents anytime, anywhere.
  • Human-AI Collaboration: While AI automates many tasks, human oversight ensures accuracy in complex scenarios.

Staying ahead of these trends will keep your application competitive and future-proof.

12. Conclusion

Many companies seek advanced document automation and workflow solutions to reduce manual tasks and deliver greater value to end users. By integrating the PandaDoc API, you can revolutionize how your application handles proposals, contracts, and e-signatures—ultimately improving sales efficiency and client satisfaction.

For a more streamlined process, consider Knit—a unified API that simplifies integrating PandaDoc (along with other services), so your development team can focus on innovating rather than juggling multiple APIs.

Ready to get started with PandaDoc Integrations or PandaDoc CRM Integrations? Book a call with Knit for personalized guidance, and take the first step toward modernizing your document workflows.

13. FAQs: Common Questions and Answers

1. How do I start with the PandaDoc API?
Sign up for a PandaDoc account and obtain your API key from Settings > Integrations > API & Keys. See Getting Started for details.

2. Is there a sandbox environment for testing?
Yes. PandaDoc provides a sandbox environment with test API keys so you don’t affect live data. See Testing in Sandbox.

3. What are the API rate limits?
The default limit is 60 requests per minute. Refer to PandaDoc Rate Limits for details.

4. Does PandaDoc support webhooks?
Yes. You can configure real-time notifications for events like document views, completion, and more. Learn more at PandaDoc Webhooks.

5. Is there a cost for using the PandaDoc API?
API access is included in certain PandaDoc plans. Refer to PandaDoc API Pricing for plan details.

6. Can I customize templates via the API?
Absolutely. You can create, modify, and manage templates using various PandaDoc API endpoints.

7. How secure is the PandaDoc API?
PandaDoc employs HTTPS and API keys for secure communication. It also meets multiple security standards like SOC 2, ESIGN, UETA, and HIPAA compliance. Learn more at PandaDoc Security.

Reference

    IDP Grand View Research
    Market Research GVR
    Workflow Automation S/w
    PandaDoc
    CPQ S/w
    Use Cases
    Embedded Signing
    Document Tracking S/w
    PandaDoc Templates
    Smart Content
    Refresh Token
    Contract Mgmt
    AI Writing Tool
    AI in Marketing
    AI Proposal Template
    Smart content AI
    Top 5 PandaDoc Features
    Future Trends
    Trends
    Rate limits
    404
    Webhook Notifications
    Common Issues with upload and download

Tutorials
-
Mar 26, 2025

Workday API Integration Guide (In-Depth)

Workday unlocks a powerful HR ecosystem, but integrating Workday with your existing tools can be complex. endeavour. This guide empowers developers to navigate those challenges and unlock the full potential of Workday integrations.

Introduction to Workday API

Overview of Workday

Ever wondered why Gartner named Workday  Leader for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprise and why top companies use it. Workday is a cloud-based enterprise management platform designed to simplify workforce management. From HR to Payroll to finance and analytics processes, all in one integrated system. Workday Integration API streamlines data exchange, enabling seamless integration between Workday and external systems.

Importance of Integrating with Workday

  1. Streamlined Processes: Manual data entry is a persistent challenge, but it can be very well tackled by Workday. It automates workflows, minimizes errors, and reduces manual data entry.
  2. Real-Time Data Sync: Real-time synchronization of data via integration helps improve decision-making.
  3. Enhanced Analytics and Reporting: Deeper insights into business performance is the heart of growth for an organization, which Workday can easily help you with.
  4. Scalability and Flexibility: Workday can scale with your needs, which allows easy addition of new features as per our requirements.

Benefits of Workday API Integration

  • Streamlined Workflows: Automate data exchange, saving HR professionals valuable time and boosting efficiency.
  • Real-Time Business Insights: Gain access to a unified view of your data, enabling data-driven decisions for business leaders.
  • Scalability and Flexibility: Integrate new applications as your needs evolve, ensuring your systems grow with your organization.

While this guide equips developers with the skills to build robust Workday integrations through clear explanations and practical examples, the benefits extend beyond the development team. You can also expand your HRIS integrations with the Workday API integration and automate tedious tasks like data entry, freeing up valuable time to focus on other important work. Business leaders gain access to real-time insights across their entire organization, empowering them to make data-driven decisions that drive growth and profitability. This guide empowers developers to build integrations that streamline HR workflows, unlock real-time data for leaders, and ultimately unlock Workday's full potential for your organization.

Important Terminology of Workday API

Understanding key terms is essential for effective integration with Workday. Let’s look upon few of them, that will be frequently used ahead -

  • Workday Tenant: Imagine your Workday tenant as your company’s own secure vault within the workday system. It’s a self-contained environment, and it will contain all your company’s data and configuration. Companies typically have separate tenants for development, testing, and production.
  • Integration System User (ISU): An ISU is a dedicated user account within Workday specifically designed for integrations with third party systems. ISU’s eliminate the need to share individual user credentials for accessing and manipulating data. Setting up an ISU involves creating the user, assigning security roles, and generating API credentials. For security reasons, each ISU should be restricted to a single integration system.
  • OAuth 2.0: OAuth is a widely used authorization framework that allows applications to access resources on behalf of a user without requiring the user to share their credentials. Workday's REST API requires an OAuth 2.0 client setup for authentication. Once setup, the ISU uses the Workday OAuth 2.0 tokens to authenticate and authorize the integration.

Overview of Workday API Documentation

1. API Types: Workday offers REST and SOAP APIs, which serve different purposes. REST APIs are commonly used for web-based integrations, while SOAP APIs are often utilized for complex transactions.

2. Endpoint Structure: You must familiarize yourself with the Workday API structure as each endpoint corresponds to a specific function. A common workday API example would be retrieving employee data or updating payroll information. You can find a comprehensive listing of the Workday API endpoints and directory here.

3. API Documentation: Workday API documentation provides a comprehensive overview of both REST and SOAP APIs. 

  • Workday REST API: The REST API allows developers to interact with Workday's services using standard HTTP methods. It is well-documented and provides a straightforward way to integrate with Workday.
  • Workday REST API Documentation: Workday's REST API documentation provides detailed information on using the API, including endpoints, parameters, and response formats. It is a valuable resource for developers looking to integrate with Workday.
  • Workday SOAP API Documentation: Workday's SOAP API documentation provides information on how to use the SOAP API for more complex transactions. SOAP APIs are often used for integrations that require a higher level of security and reliability.
  • Workday SOAP API Example: An example of using Workday's SOAP API could be retrieving employee information from Workday's HR system to update a payroll system. This example demonstrates the use of SOAP APIs for complex transactions.

Authentication and Authorization in Workday

Handling authentication and authorization in Workday depends on what Workday API protocol you are choosing to use for building your integration. If you are using Workday SOAP API, you will need the ISU user name and password for authenticating your API requests. On the other hand, if you are building your integration with Workday REST APIs you will need to use Workday's OAuth 2.0 mechanism to authorize your requests. This guide will walk you through the exact steps needed to set up an ISU and OAuth in Workday in detail.

Steps for building a Workday API Integration

To ensure a secure and reliable connection with Workday's APIs, this section outlines the essential prerequisites. These steps will lay the groundwork for a successful integration, enabling seamless data exchange and unlocking the full potential of Workday within your existing technological infrastructure.

  1. Setup up a Workday Developer Account: If you are new to Workday, sign up for a Workday developer account. This grants access to documentation, sample code, and APIs
  2. Explore Workday's API Playground: Get familiar with Workday API endpoints and resources. Download the API docs – they'll be your roadmap.
  3. Setup a Workday Tenant: A workday tenant is basically an instance of the Workday software. It is your orgs private area within Workday. You will need Tenant Credentials (Tenant Name, Username, Password), and appropriate roles and permissions within Workday.
  4. Setup an Integration System User (ISU): Once the Workday tenant is set up, you will need to enable API access in it. This typically involves creating a dedicated Integration System User (ISU) in Workday, assigning it to a security group, and configuring the necessary domain security policies.
  5. Register API Client:  Register your API client within Workday to get a unique client ID and secret (like a secret handshake) for secure API calls.  Store these credentials safely!
  6. Setup up OAuth 2.0: Workday supports OAuth 2.0. After registering your API client in the Workday system to obtain a Client ID and Client Secret, just use these credentials to request OAuth 2.0 access tokens, which are required by the Integration System User (ISU) for authenticating API calls.
  7. Pick between REST and SOAP: Workday supports both REST and SOAP protocols. You must pick between the two based on your requirements of integration performance, complexity, security and flexibility.  While SOAP offers more security and is better suited for complex integrations, it can be slower in terms of data transfer speeds. On the other hand, REST is flexible and often recommended for lightweight integrations.
  8. Build your integration use case: Once you have decided which Workday API protocol suits you best, you need to write the actual code using the right APIs for your integration use case.
  9. Test your integration in a sandbox: After writing the integration code using Workday APIs, it is highly recommended to test the integration in a Workday sandbox. At times, it can be difficult to get access to a Workday sandbox, because Workday only provisions sandbox access to paid customers on certain plans. This is where working with Knit can help. Knit API provides Workday Sandbox access to its customers on the Scale and Enterprise plans for development and testing Workday integrations. Get in touch here.
  10. Deploy to production: Once tested on the Workday sandbox, your Workday API integration is all set to go live! Keep an eye on your integration – implement logging and monitoring for API calls. Review and update your integration settings as needed.

Now that you have a comprehensive overview of the steps required to build a Workday API Integration and an overview of the Workday API documentation, lets dive deep into each step so you can build your Workday integration confidently! 

STEP 1: Setting up a Workday tenant and obtaining Web Services Endpoint

The Web Services Endpoint for the Workday tenant serves as the gateway for integrating external systems with Workday's APIs, enabling data exchange and communication between platforms. To access your specific Workday web services endpoint, follow these steps:

  1. Locate Public Web Services:
    1. In Workday, search for "Public Web Services".
    2. Open the "Public Web Services Report".
  2. Access the Human Resources WSDL:
    1. Hover over the "Human Resources" section.
    2. Click the three dots (ellipses) to open the menu.
    3. Select "Web Services" and then click "View WSDL".
  3. Find the Endpoint Host:
    1. On the page that opens, scroll to the bottom.
    2. Locate the host URL, which will look something like https://wd5-services1.myworkday.com/ccx.
    3. Copy the URL before /service.
Finding your public web services endpoint url on Workday

STEP 2: Setting up an Integration System User (ISU) in Workday

Next, you need to establish an Integration System User (ISU) in Workday, dedicated to managing API requests. This ensures enhanced security and enables better tracking of integration actions. Follow the below steps to set up an ISU in Workday:

  • Log into Workday:
    • Access your Workday portal and log into your Workday tenant.
  • Create an Integration System User:
    • In the search field, type "Create Integration System User" and select the corresponding task.
  • Fill in User Details:
    • On the "Create Integration System User" page, go to the "Account Information" section.
    • Enter a username, and then enter and confirm the password.
    • Do not select the Require New Password at the Next Sign In check box
    • Type 0 (zero) for Session Timeout Minutes to prevent session expiration
    • Click "OK" to save.
    • Note: You'll want to add this user to the list of System Users to make sure the password doesn't expire.
Setting up an Integration System User (ISU) on Workday

  • Create a Security Group and Assign an Integration System User: Now, add this Integration System User to a Security Group to ensure controlled access to Workday APIs, enhancing security by restricting permissions to authorized entities only:
    • Create a Security Group: In the search field, type "Create Security Group" and select the task.
    • Click "OK"
Creating an Integration System Security Group on Workday
  • Configure the security group
    • On the "Create Security Group" page, select "Integration System Security Group" from the "Type of Tenanted Security Group" drop-down menu.
    • In the "Name" field, enter a name for the security group.
    • Click "OK".
  • Edit the security group
    • On the "Edit Integration System Security Group (Unconstrained)" page, enter the same name you used when creating the ISU in the "Name" field.
    • Click “OK”.
Edit Integration System Security Group on Workday
  • Configure Domain Security Policy Permissions: Now, we need to ensure that the Integration System User (ISU) has the necessary access rights to interact with specific domains and perform operations within Workday's ecosystem. Here are the steps to configure Domain Security Policy Permissions for the same:
    • Maintain Permissions for the Security Group:
      • In the search field, type "Maintain Permissions for Security Group" and select the corresponding task.
      • The "Maintain Permissions for Security Group" page will appear.
    • Configure the Permissions:
    • Select the necessary "Maintain” Operation.
    • Ensure the "Source Security Group" name matches your created security group.
    • Click “OK”
Configure Domain Security Policy Permission in Workday
  • Add Domain Security Policy Permissions
    • Add the required Domain Security Policy Permissions with the "GET" operation
Adding Domain Security Policy Permissions in Workday

Note: The permissions listed below are necessary for the full HRIS API. These permissions may vary depending on the specific implementation

Parent Domains for HRIS

  1. Job Requisition Data
  2. Person Data: Name
  3. Person Data: Personal Data
  4. Person Data: Home Contact Information
  5. Person Data: Work Contact Information
  6. Worker Data: Compensation
  7. Worker Data: Workers
  8. Worker Data: All Positions
  9. Worker Data: Current Staffing Information
  10. Worker Data: Public Worker Reports
  11. Worker Data: Employment Data
  12. Worker Data: Organization Information

Parent Domains for HRIS

  1. Candidate Data: Job Application
  2. Candidate Data: Personal Information
  3. Candidate Data: Other Information
  4. Pre-Hire Process Data: Name and Contact Information
  5. Job Requisition Data
  6. Person Data: Personal Data
  7. Person Data: Home Contact Information
  8. Person Data: Work Contact Information
  9. Manage: Location
  10. Worker Data: Public Worker Reports
  • Activate Security Policy Changes: Next, we will activate Security Policy Changes to ensure that any modifications made to security settings within the system take effect and are enforced.
    • In the search bar, type "Activate Pending Security Policy Changes"
    • Review the summary of the changes that need approval
    • Approve the pending security policy changes to activate them

Activate Security Policy Changes in Workday

 

STEP 3: Setting up OAuth 2.0 in Workday

Workday offers different authentication methods. Here, we will focus on OAuth 2.0, a secure way for applications to gain access through an ISU (Integrated System User).  An ISU acts like a dedicated user account for your integration, eliminating the need to share individual user credentials. Below steps highlight how to obtain OAuth 2.0 tokens in Workday:

  • Retrieve Endpoints
    • Access "View API Clients"
    • Use the Workday search bar to navigate to "View API clients"
    • At the top of the page, locate the base REST API endpoint
    • Extract Host and Tenant Names
    • The Workday REST API Endpoint format is: https://{host name}.workday.com/ccx/api/v1/{tenant name}.
    • Retrieve and securely store the hostname and tenant name for future use in connecting to the Workday integration
  • Obtain Workday REST Client ID: Now, we will need the Workday REST Client ID, which is necessary for authenticating and authorizing API requests, ensuring secure access to Workday's resources. Here are the steps to get your Workday REST Client ID
    • Access Workday Application: Log in to the Workday application
    • Register API Client: Navigate to the "Register API Client" section
Register API Client in Workday
    • Enter Client Details
      • In the "Client Name" field, input the desired name for the client
      • Choose "Authorization Code Grant" for the "Client Grant Type"
    • Set Access Token Type: Select "Bearer" as the access token type.
    • Select Scope Values: From the Workday REST API scopes, select the relevant functional areas
      • Benefits
      • Candidate Engagement
      • Core Compensation
      • Organizations and Roles
      • Performance Enablement
      • Pre-Hire Process
      • Recruiting
      • Staffing
      • Time Off and Leave
      • Time Tracking
      • Worker Profile and Skills
    • Generate Client ID and Client Secret: Click "OK" to generate the Client ID and Client Secret.
  • Obtain Workday REST Refresh Token: If you want your application to have continuous access to Workday data without needing to reauthenticate frequently, you should use the Workday REST Refresh token. Here are the steps you can follow to obtain your Workday REST Refresh token
    • Log in to Workday
    • Access API Client Information
      • In the search field, type "View API client" and select the corresponding task
      • Click on the "API Clients for Integrations" tab.
      • Select the relevant API client that you created
    • Manage Refresh Tokens
      • Choose "Manage Refresh Tokens for Integrations"
      • Enter the ISU account you generated in the "Workday Account" field
      • Click "OK" and return to the Workday home page
    • Generate New Refresh Token
      • Select the "Generate New Refresh Token" option on the "Delete or Regenerate Refresh Token" page
      • Set "Non-Expiring Refresh Token" to "Yes"
      • Click "OK
    • Copy Refresh Token
      • On the "Successfully Regenerated Refresh Token" page, copy the refresh token provided and store securely. These refresh tokens will be used to generate access tokens for authenticating your ISU when accessing Workday APIs.

STEP 4: SOAP vs. REST: Picking the Right Workday API for the Job

Now as you are ready to build your Workday integration, choosing between SOAP and REST for your Workday integration can feel incredibly challenging. Let us break it down to help you decide:

The Structured Side: SOAP

  1. Security First: SOAP's rigid rules guarantee iron-clad reliability and top-notch security. Perfect for handling sensitive stuff like payroll.
  2. Extensible Powerhouse: Need extra security layers? SOAP's got your back with WS-Security. 
  3. Precise Communication: WSDL acts like a detailed contract, ensuring your app and Workday are always on the same page.

Working with SOAP:

  1. Grab the WSDL: This file is your roadmap to Workday's SOAP services, telling you everything available. You can find the WSDL documentation on the Workday community site.
  2. Craft Your Requests: Tools like SOAP UI let you send requests with authentication and data, following the WSDL specs. 

The Flexible Friend: REST

  1. Simplicity is King: REST keeps things easy with standard HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) you already know and love.
  2. Stateless Speed: No need to sweat past requests – each one has everything the server needs. Plus, REST is generally faster due to its lightweight design.
  3. JSON Advantage: Responses are typically in JSON, a human-readable format that your application can easily understand.

Working with REST:

  1. Talk HTTP: Use familiar HTTP methods to interact with Workday's resources.
  2. Hit the Endpoints: Access Workday's REST endpoints directly using their URLs. You can find the REST API documentation for your specific Workday version on the Workday community site.  Tools like Postman are great for testing requests.

Pick what you need: 

  1. Performance Matters: SOAP's complex structure can lead to slower speeds. For web applications, REST's lightweight design is a clear winner.
  2. Use Cases in Mind: High-security transactions and complex operations like payroll are a perfect fit for SOAP. For web apps and simple data access, REST is the way to go.

Use Cases:

  • SOAP: Best for scenarios requiring high security, transactional reliability, and complex operations (e.g., financial transactions, payroll).
  • REST: Ideal for web and mobile applications, simpler integrations, and scenarios needing quick, lightweight data access.

When you need a feature-rich environment that empowers developers for complex tasks, SOAP is the ideal choice (and the one we opted for in this guide)

STEP 5: Building your Workday API integration (With Examples)

Now that you have picked between SOAP and REST, let's proceed to utilize Workday HCM APIs effectively. We'll walk through creating a new employee and fetching a list of all employees – essential building blocks for your integration. Remember, if you are using SOAP, you will authenticate your requests with an ISU user name and password, while if your are using REST, you will authenticate your requests with access tokens generated by using the OAuth refresh tokens we generated in the above steps.

In this guide, we will focus on using SOAP to construct our API requests.

First let's learn about constructing a SOAP Request Body

SOAP requests follow a specific format and use XML to structure the data. Here's an example of a SOAP request body to fetch employees using the Get Workers endpoint:

<soapenv:Envelope
xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:bsvc="urn:com.workday/bsvc">
    <soapenv:Header>
        <wsse:Security>
            <wsse:UsernameToken>
                <wsse:Username>{ISU USERNAME}</wsse:Username>
                <wsse:Password>{ISU PASSWORD}</wsse:Password>
            </wsse:UsernameToken>
        </wsse:Security>
    </soapenv:Header>
    <soapenv:Body>
        <bsvc:Get_Workers_Request xmlns:bsvc="urn:com.workday/bsvc" bsvc:version="v40.1">
        </bsvc:Get_Workers_Request>
    </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

SOAP requests use XML to structure data. They have a main envelope containing a header and a body. The header includes authentication details, while the body specifies the function being called (e.g., Get Workers) and any parameters it needs.

Now that you know how to construct a SOAP request, let's look at a couple of real life Workday integration use cases:

Use Case 1: Creating a New Employee: Hire Employee API (SOAP Example)

Let's add a new team member. For this we will use the Hire Employee API! It lets you send employee details like name, job title, and salary to Workday. Here's a breakdown:

  1. What it Does: Adds a new employee to your Workday system.
  2. What it Needs: Employee details like name, job information.‍
curl --location 'https://wd2-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/service/{TENANT}/Staffing/v42.0' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
--data-raw '<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:bsvc="urn:com.workday/bsvc" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <soapenv:Header>
        <wsse:Security>
            <wsse:UsernameToken>
                <wsse:Username>{ISU_USERNAME}</wsse:Username>
                <wsse:Password>{ISU_PASSWORD}</wsse:Password>
            </wsse:UsernameToken>
        </wsse:Security>
        <bsvc:Workday_Common_Header>
            <bsvc:Include_Reference_Descriptors_In_Response>true</bsvc:Include_Reference_Descriptors_In_Response>
        </bsvc:Workday_Common_Header>
    </soapenv:Header>
    <soapenv:Body>
        <bsvc:Hire_Employee_Request bsvc:version="v42.0">
            <bsvc:Business_Process_Parameters>
                <bsvc:Auto_Complete>true</bsvc:Auto_Complete>
                <bsvc:Run_Now>true</bsvc:Run_Now>
            </bsvc:Business_Process_Parameters>
            <bsvc:Hire_Employee_Data>
                <bsvc:Applicant_Data>
                    <bsvc:Personal_Data>
                        <bsvc:Name_Data>
                            <bsvc:Legal_Name_Data>
                                <bsvc:Name_Detail_Data>
                                    <bsvc:Country_Reference>
                                        <bsvc:ID bsvc:type="ISO_3166-1_Alpha-3_Code">USA</bsvc:ID>
                                    </bsvc:Country_Reference>
                                    <bsvc:First_Name>Employee</bsvc:First_Name>
                                    <bsvc:Last_Name>New</bsvc:Last_Name>
                                </bsvc:Name_Detail_Data>
                            </bsvc:Legal_Name_Data>
                        </bsvc:Name_Data>
                        <bsvc:Contact_Data>
                            <bsvc:Email_Address_Data bsvc:Delete="false" bsvc:Do_Not_Replace_All="true">
                                <bsvc:Email_Address>employee@work.com</bsvc:Email_Address>
                                <bsvc:Usage_Data bsvc:Public="true">
                                    <bsvc:Type_Data bsvc:Primary="true">
                                        <bsvc:Type_Reference>
                                            <bsvc:ID bsvc:type="Communication_Usage_Type_ID">WORK</bsvc:ID>
                                        </bsvc:Type_Reference>
                                    </bsvc:Type_Data>
                                </bsvc:Usage_Data>
                            </bsvc:Email_Address_Data>
                        </bsvc:Contact_Data>
                    </bsvc:Personal_Data>
                </bsvc:Applicant_Data>
                <bsvc:Position_Reference>
                    <bsvc:ID bsvc:type="Position_ID">P-SDE</bsvc:ID>
                </bsvc:Position_Reference>
                <bsvc:Hire_Date>2024-04-27Z</bsvc:Hire_Date>
            </bsvc:Hire_Employee_Data>
        </bsvc:Hire_Employee_Request>
    </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>'

 Elaboration:

  1. We use `curl` to send a POST request (because we're creating something new).
  2. The URL points to the specific Workday endpoint for hiring employees. We include our tenant name in the URL to point the API to our corresponding tenant.
  3. We include the ISU Username and Password in the <wsse:Security> header in the SOAP envelope to authenticate our API call
  4. The `Content-Type` header specifies we're sending xml data.
  5. The actual employee data goes in the request body, including details like first name, position, work email.

Response:

<bsvc:Hire_Employee_Event_Response
xmlns:bsvc="urn:com.workday/bsvc" bsvc:version="string">
<bsvc:Employee_Reference bsvc:Descriptor="string">
<bsvc:ID bsvc:type="ID">EMP123</bsvc:ID>
</bsvc:Employee_Reference>
</bsvc:Hire_Employee_Event_Response>

If everything goes well, you'll get a success message and the ID of the newly created employee!‍

Use Case 2: Fetching All Employees: Get Workers API (SOAP Example)

Now, if you want to grab a list of all your existing employees. The Get Workers API is your friend!

  1. What it Does: Retrieves a list of all employees in your Workday system.
  2. What it Needs: Your ISU username and password
  3. Where it's Used: The Workday Get Workers API is part of the Workday Developer API suite, which allows developers to interact with Workday's Human Capital Management (HCM) system programmatically. These APIs are commonly used for integrating Workday data and functionality into other applications and systems.

Below is workday API get workers example: ‍

curl --location 'https://wd2-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/service/{TENANT}/Human_Resources/v40.1' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
--data '<soapenv:Envelope
xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:bsvc="urn:com.workday/bsvc">
    <soapenv:Header>
        <wsse:Security>
            <wsse:UsernameToken>
                <wsse:Username>{ISU_USERNAME}</wsse:Username>
                <wsse:Password>{ISU_USERNAME}</wsse:Password>
            </wsse:UsernameToken>
        </wsse:Security>
    </soapenv:Header>
    <soapenv:Body>
        <bsvc:Get_Workers_Request xmlns:bsvc="urn:com.workday/bsvc" bsvc:version="v40.1">
            <bsvc:Response_Filter>
                <bsvc:Count>10</bsvc:Count>
                <bsvc:Page>1</bsvc:Page>
            </bsvc:Response_Filter>
            <bsvc:Response_Group>
                <bsvc:Include_Reference>true</bsvc:Include_Reference>
                <bsvc:Include_Personal_Information>true</bsvc:Include_Personal_Information>
            </bsvc:Response_Group>
        </bsvc:Get_Workers_Request>
    </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>'

This is a simple GET request to the Get Workers endpoint. 

Elaboration:

  1. The URL points to the specific Workday endpoint for retrieving employees.We include our tenant name in the URL to point the API to our corresponding tenant.
  2. We include the ISU Username and Password in the <wsse:Security> header in the SOAP envelope to authenticate our API call
  3. The `Content-Type` header specifies we're sending xml data.
  4. We include the Count and Page Number parameters in the request to paginate the results. This technique can be used to optimize the results so that we process a batch of data at once.

Response:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <wd:Get_Workers_Response xmlns:wd="urn:com.workday/bsvc" wd:version="v40.1">
            <wd:Response_Filter>
                <wd:Page>1</wd:Page>
                <wd:Count>1</wd:Count>
            </wd:Response_Filter>
            <wd:Response_Data>
                <wd:Worker>
                    <wd:Worker_Data>
                        <wd:Worker_ID>21001</wd:Worker_ID>
                        <wd:User_ID>lmcneil</wd:User_ID>
                        <wd:Personal_Data>
                            <wd:Name_Data>
                                <wd:Legal_Name_Data>
                                    <wd:Name_Detail_Data wd:Formatted_Name="Logan McNeil" wd:Reporting_Name="McNeil, Logan">
                                        <wd:Country_Reference>
                                            <wd:ID wd:type="WID">bc33aa3152ec42d4995f4791a106ed09</wd:ID>
                                            <wd:ID wd:type="ISO_3166-1_Alpha-2_Code">US</wd:ID>
                                            <wd:ID wd:type="ISO_3166-1_Alpha-3_Code">USA</wd:ID>
                                            <wd:ID wd:type="ISO_3166-1_Numeric-3_Code">840</wd:ID>
                                        </wd:Country_Reference>
                                        <wd:First_Name>Logan</wd:First_Name>
                                        <wd:Last_Name>McNeil</wd:Last_Name>
                                    </wd:Name_Detail_Data>
                                </wd:Legal_Name_Data>
                            </wd:Name_Data>
                            <wd:Contact_Data>
                                <wd:Address_Data wd:Effective_Date="2008-03-25" wd:Address_Format_Type="Basic" wd:Formatted_Address="42 Laurel Street&amp;#xa;San Francisco, CA 94118&amp;#xa;United States of America" wd:Defaulted_Business_Site_Address="0">
                                </wd:Address_Data>
                                <wd:Phone_Data wd:Area_Code="415" wd:Phone_Number_Without_Area_Code="441-7842" wd:E164_Formatted_Phone="+14154417842" wd:Workday_Traditional_Formatted_Phone="+1 (415) 441-7842" wd:National_Formatted_Phone="(415) 441-7842" wd:International_Formatted_Phone="+1 415-441-7842" wd:Tenant_Formatted_Phone="+1 (415) 441-7842">
                                </wd:Phone_Data>
                    </wd:Worker_Data>
                </wd:Worker>
            </wd:Response_Data>
        </wd:Get_Workers_Response>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

This JSON array gives you details of all your employees including details like the name, email, phone number and more.

Use a tool like Postman or curl to POST this XML to your Workday endpoint.

REST Example

If using REST, you’ll pass JSON payloads, include an OAuth 2.0 Bearer token, etc. The overall structure is simpler but the specifics vary.

STEP 6: Test your integration in a Workday Sandbox

To avoid risking any glitches in production, isn’t it amazing to first test our code on test data?  A sandbox is your safe zone to test your code before takeoff. As we already had a summarized view of the importance of using sandbox in our preliminary steps, let’s move to detailed steps to execute these steps.

  1. Request Your Sandbox:  Talk to your Workday admin and request a sandbox environment (specify the type you need). If you are a Knit customer on the Scale or Enterprise plan, you will be provided a Workday sandbox by Knit to build and test your integration.
  2. Prep Your Sandbox: Log in and configure your sandbox to mimic your production environment (company data, user roles).
  3. Create an ISU: In Security, create a special user (ISU) for your integration testing. Assign it the necessary permissions.
  4. Secure Your Calls: Register your application in the sandbox to get unique credentials (client ID & secret) for secure API calls.
  5. Test: Use tools like Postman to bombard your integration with test requests within the sandbox. Iron out any wrinkles before going live.
  6. Monitor & Debug: Keep an eye on your sandbox and use Workday logs to identify and fix any issues.

STEP 7: Move your integration to Workday production

That’s it! You are now ready to move your integration to production. Change the urls and ISU to the production values and you are good to go. Be sure to implement logging and monitoring mechanisms to make sure you can effectively catch and debug issues if the need arises. Tools like Knit provide integration observability dashboards which can be used to monitor live integrations.

A note on PECI (Payroll Effective Change Interface)

PECI (Payroll Effective Change Interface) lets you transmit employee data changes (like new hires, raises, or terminations) directly to your payroll provider, slashing manual work and errors. Below you will find a brief comparison of PECI and Web Services and also the steps required to setup PECI in Workday

Feature: PECI

  • Data Flow: Outbound
  • Use Cases: READ
  • Country Scope: Some limit
  • Setup: Usually Advanced

Feature: Web Services

  • Data Flow: Inbound and Outbound
  • Use Cases: CREATE, UPDATE, DELETE
  • Country Scope: Global
  • Setup: Usually Programmatic, Flexible

PECI set up steps :-

  1. Enable PECI:  Talk to your Workday admin and get PECI activated for your tenant. 
  2. Set Up Your Payroll Provider:  Configure your external payroll system within Workday, including details and data transfer protocols.
  3. Define Your Data:  Identify the specific data your payroll provider needs (think employee details, compensation, etc.).
  4. Create an ISU: Just like other integrations, create a special user (ISU) with permissions to access and move payroll data.
  5. Transform Your Data:  Set up Workday to transform your data into the format your payroll provider expects. Think of it as translating languages!
  6. Schedule Transfers: Automate the process! Set up a schedule to regularly send payroll changes to your provider (e.g., daily or after each payroll run).
  7. Test It Out:  Before going live, use the Workday sandbox to thoroughly test the PECI integration. Make sure all changes get sent correctly.
  8. Monitor & Maintain: Keep an eye on things! Regularly monitor the integration and use Workday's reports to track data transfers and fix any errors.

Things to keep in mind for Workday Integration security

  1. Craft Security Groups:  In Workday Security, create a security group specifically tailored for your integration.  Think of it as a club with specific access rules.
  2. Set Up Security Policies:  Define security policies to control how data can be accessed and modified.  Assign these policies to your security group for an extra layer of protection.
  3. Assign Permissions Wisely:  Adopt a least privilege policy. Add the necessary permissions to your security group.  Make sure your ISU has access to everything it needs, but nothing it doesn't.
  4. Activate & Audit:  Activate your newly defined security policies and regularly review their effectiveness.  Conduct security audits to ensure everything is running smoothly.
  5. Store Secrets Safely: Keep sensitive info like client secrets in environment variables, not in your code.
  6. Encryption is Key: Encrypting credentials for added protection is a must for integration.
  7. Rotate Regularly: Keep changing credentials periodically to reduce risk.

Troubleshooting common issues with Workday Integration

Getting stuck with errors can be frustrating and time-consuming. Although many times we face errors that someone else has already faced, and to avoid giving in hours to handle such errors, we have put some common errors below and solutions to how you can handle them.‍

  1. Authentication Woes:
    • Error Message:  "Invalid client ID or secret." 
    • Possible Solution:  Double-check your OAuth setup. Are your client ID, secret, and redirect URLs all correct?  Ensure your tokens aren't expired!
  2. Permission Denied:
    • Error Message:  "Access denied!" 
    • Possible Solution:  Verify your ISU has the right permissions. Check security group settings and policies. It might not have the key to the data vault!
  3. Data Mismatch Blues:
    • Error Message:  "Incorrect or missing data fields." 
    • Possible Solution:  Ensure your data mappings are on point and match Workday's data model. Validate your input data before making those API calls. Garbage in, garbage out!
  4. Rate Limiting Roadblock:
    • Error Message:  "Whoa there! Too many requests!" 
    • Possible Solution:  Implement throttling and retry logic in your integration. Respect Workday's API rate limits – don't be a data hog!

Pro Tips for Smooth Sailing

  1. Log It All: Use detailed logs for API calls and responses. Logs are like breadcrumbs – they help you find your way back when you get lost. 
  2. Sandbox First: Always test in Workday's sandbox environment. Catch issues early on before your code goes live and wreaks havoc on real data.
  3. Monitor Your Performance: Keep an eye on your integration's performance. Use monitoring tools to track API response times and error rates. Don't let errors become silent assassins!
  4. The Power of Community: Connect with the Workday developer community. Forums and user groups can be lifesavers – share your war stories and learn from others' battles.‍

How can Knit help you with Workday API Integration?

We know you're here to conquer Workday integrations, and at Knit (rated #1 for ease of use as of 2025!), we're here to help! Knit offers a unified API platform which lets you connect your application to multiple HRIS, CRM, Accounting, Payroll, ATS, ERP, and more tools in one go.‍

Advantages of Knit for Workday Integrations

  • Unified APIs: Interact with multiple HRIS systems (including Workday) via a single REST interface.
  • Developer-Friendly: Clear documentation, fewer complexities.
  • Scalability: Designed to handle high-volume data flows.
  • Support & Reliability: Helpful support team, robust error handling.

Getting Started with Knit

  1. Sign Up for a Knit account.
  2. Connect Workday: Provide your Workday tenant details.
  3. Leverage Unified API: Perform typical Workday operations without dealing directly with SOAP. 

REST Unified API Approach with Knit

  • Freed from SOAP complexities.
  • Straightforward JSON requests.
  • Centralized platform to manage data from multiple HRIS solutions.‍

Appendix

A. Key Terms

  • API:  Lets applications talk to Workday (RESTful or SOAP).
  • Authentication: Verifies you're who you say you are (login).
  • Authorization: Grants access to specific Workday data (permissions).
  • Client ID & Secret:  Uniquely identify your application (secure handshake).
  • Data Model:  Structure of Workday data (like fields in a form).
  • Endpoint:  Specific URL to access Workday functions (like a door to a room).
  • ISU:  Special user for integrations (low access, high security).
  • OAuth 2.0:  Secure way to get temporary access tokens (like a one-time pass).
  • REST API:  Flexible API using regular commands (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
  • Sandbox:  Test environment with dummy data (safe zone for experimentation).
  • SOAP API:  Structured API using XML (more complex, more secure).
  • Token:  Temporary permission to access Workday (like a short-term pass).
  • Workday Tenant:  Your company's secure space within Workday (separate for dev, test, production).‍

B. Sample Code

  • Adapted from Workday API documentation. Remember to replace placeholders like "your_workday_tenant", "isu_username", “isu_password” with your actual details. For comprehensive API reference and code samples, visit the Workday Developer Center

Tutorials
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Mar 23, 2025

Adobe Acrobat Sign API Integration (In-Depth)

Introduction to Acrobat Sign API

More than 50,000 enterprises, including Tesla, Microsoft, Hitachi, and HSBC, use Adobe Acrobat eSign. It helps speed up transactions by 30% and has saved $8.7 million in sustainability costs. Users and reviewers consistently rank it as a top choice for secure and reliable electronic signatures.

What Is Adobe Acrobat Sign?

Adobe Acrobat is a cloud-based solution that provides eSignature services. It helps you create,

track, and sign eSignatures. You can also accept digital payments and securely store

documents. 

Why Integrate Adobe Acrobat Sign via API?

Integrating Adobe Acrobat Sign via API allows developers to automate document-related tasks, reducing manual intervention. It enables seamless document workflows, comprehensive document management, real-time tracking, and advanced features like bulk document processing and webhook integrations. This setup streamlines tasks and boosts efficiency by organizing documents effectively and allowing for quick monitoring and automated updates. With the added benefit of Acrobat AI Assistant, you can efficiently analyze multiple documents, summarize information, and outline key points to take smarter actions.

Getting Started With Adobe Acrobat Sign API: Authentication and Setup

Setting Up Your Adobe Acrobat Sign Account

To get started with Adobe Acrobat Sign account:

  1. Create an Acrobat Sign Developer account: Go to the Adobe Acrobat Sign website and sign in with your business information.
  2. Set user roles and permissions: First, navigate to account settings. In the ‘Users’ section, you can add or manage users. You can assign them roles such as admin, user, and group admin on their access needs. Admin has full control over the account settings and integrations. Users can send documents for signatures. Group Admin can manage specific user groups within the account.
  3. Configuring Account Settings: In the account settings go to the Branding section. Set up default branding, email templates, and authentication settings. Under the Compliance section, review and customize e-signature workflows and data retention policies.

API Access and Authentication

To access the Adobe Acrobat Sign API, you need to generate API keys and tokens and create an OAuth 2.0 flow which enables secure communication with the Adobe Sign servers.

  1. Generating API keys and tokens
    1. Create a new project under My Projects. Select your project and navigate to APIs.
    2. Click on Add API and choose Adobe Acrobat Sign API.
    3. Under the Credentials tab, click Generate API Key (Client ID) and Generate Client Secret.
  2. Overview of OAuth 2.0 for Adobe Acrobat Sign
    1. To initiate the OAuth 2.0 authorization flow, use the Client ID, Client Secret, and Redirect URI (set in the project).
    2. Direct users to Adobe’s authorization URL
    3. After the user grants permissions, Adobe redirects to your Redirect URI with an authorization code.
    4. When you make a post request, you provide an access token in exchange for an authorization code.
    5. Retrieve the access token from the response to use it for subsequent API requests.
  3. API Rate Limits and Errors
    1. Rate Limits: API request limits vary by account level (per minute/hour). Adobe Acrobat limits transactions based on the service level of the sending party.
    2. Error 429 (Too Many Requests): This error occurs when a server detects that a client has sent too many requests in a given amount of time. 

Understanding Adobe Acrobat Sign API Endpoints

Key API Endpoints

Acrobat Sign REST APIs can integrate signing functionalities into your application. Here are the most commonly used API Endpoints:

Also see: Adobe Acrobat Sign API Directory

Agreements API

  1. Purpose: Manages document workflows including sending, tracking, and managing agreements.
  2. Common Use Cases: Sending documents for signatures, retrieving the status of agreements, and tracking completion.
  3. Example: For creating an agreement, send a POST request to the /agreements endpoint:

User API

  1. Purpose: Manages user accounts, roles, and permissions.
  2. Common Use Cases: Creating, retrieving, updating, or deleting user accounts.

Workflow API

  1. Purpose: Automates document processes and workflows.
  2. Common Use Cases: Creating and managing document workflows and automated processes.

API Request and Response Structure

Adobe Acrobat Sign API allows you to manage agreements, users, and workflows using common HTTP methods:

  1. GET: Retrieve data (e.g., agreements, users).
  2. POST: Send data to create new resources (e.g., send agreements).
  3. PUT: Update existing resources (e.g., modify user info).
  4. DELETE: Remove resources (e.g., delete workflows).

Example: Creating a User (POST Request)

To create a user using the Adobe Acrobat Sign API, provide the required parameters such as authorization and DetailedUserInfo. Structure your request in JSON format, specifying key-value pairs.

Sample JSON

{
  "email": "newuser@example.com",
  "firstName": "Augustus",
  "lastName": "Green",
  "company": "ExampleCorp"
}

Sample Python Code

import requests
# Replace with the correct URL for the Create User API
url = https://api.na1.adobesign.com/api/rest/v6/users
# API headers including your OAuth Bearer token
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",  # Replace with your valid access token
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
# User details (Modify these details as needed)
data = {
    "email": "newuser@example.com",  # The email of the user you want to create
    "firstName": "John",             # First name of the user
    "lastName": "Doe",               # Last name of the user
    "company": "ExampleCorp"         # The company the user belongs to (optional)
}
# Sending the POST request to create the user
response = requests.post(url, json=data, headers=headers)
# Output the response from the API (response will be in JSON format)
print(response.json())

Key Response Fields

Field Description
userStatus Status of the created user (e.g.. ACTIVE, INACTIVE).
userld Unique identifier for the user, generated after creation.

Basic API Integration Steps

Making Your First API Call

To authenticate your application, you'll need an OAuth 2.0 access token. Section 2.2: API Access and Authentication explains how to generate API keys and tokens. Once you have your access token, you’re ready to make your first API call.

Retrieving the status of an agreement using the GET method. This is a common use case for checking the progress of a document sent for signature.

Step-by-Step Process of a Basic API Call

  1. Sending an Agreement: The agreement’s API section explains the process of sending an agreement. 
  2. Retrieving Agreement Status: To retrieve the agreement status, make a GET request to the /agreements/{agreementId} endpoint.

Set the endpoint and send the GET request:

GET /api/rest/v6/agreements/3AAABLblqZNOTREALAGREEMENTID5_BjiH HTTP/1.1
Host: api.na1.echosign.com
Authorization: Bearer 3AAANOTREALTOKENMS-4ATH
‍

{

  "id": "<an-adobe-sign-generated-id>",
  "name": "MyTestAgreement",
  "participantSetsInfo": [{
    "memberInfos": [{
      "email": "signer@somecompany.com",
      "securityOption": {
        "authenticationMethod": "NONE"
      }
    }],
    "role": "SIGNER",
    "order": 1
  }],

  "senderEmail": "sender@somecompany.com",
  "createdDate": "2018-07-23T08:13:16Z",
  "signatureType": "ESIGN",
  "locale": "en_US",
  "status": "OUT_FOR_SIGNATURE",
  "documentVisibilityEnabled": false
}
  1. Managing Agreements: You can also manage existing agreements by using the PUT and DELETE methods.
    1. Update (PUT): Modify an existing agreement’s metadata or participants.
    2. Delete (DELETE): Cancel or remove an agreement.

Acrobat Sign API Data Model Overview

It is important to understand the data models of the API we are going to integrate. Data model are essential for understanding data structure useful in storing and retrieving data from database. It helps in data integrity and consistency.

Object Name Description Key Fields Fields Description
Agreement Represents a contract or document sent for signature. agreementid Unique identifier for the agreement.
Staus Represents the current status of the agreement Staus Current status of the agreement (e.g. signed, pending).
MegaSign Allows sending one document to multiple recipients. megaSignid Unique identifier for the MegaSign instance.
Group Represents a group of users. groupid Unique identifier for the group.
Widget Represents reusable, self-service documents for signature (like a temolatel.) widgetid Unique identifier for the widget.

Advanced API Integration Features

The Adobe Acrobat Sign API provides advanced integration tools for integrating e-signature workflows into applications. Many enterprises such as Salesforce, Workday, Apttus, Ariba and more already collaborate and use Advanced API Integration Features that Adobe offers. 

Acrobat Sign API Webhooks: Event-Driven Integrations 

Webhooks enable service-to-service communication using a push model. They provide a more modern API solution by allowing real-time updates on agreement statuses. Set up webhooks to notify you when someone signs or cancels an agreement.

Building Custom Workflows and Templates with Acrobat Sign API

The Custom Workflow Designer lets you create tailored workflow templates for agreements. It helps you define the composition and signing processes to match your business needs. Workflow templates guide senders through the agreement creation process with custom instructions and fields. This makes the sending process easier.

User and Group Management

The User API assigns roles and manages permissions directly. The API allows for managing users, creating groups, and setting role-based access. Business and enterprise-level accounts get access to the group feature. Go to Accounts> Group. Here you can create, delete, modify and change group-level settings.

Automating Processes With Workflows

It streamlines tasks such as contract approvals, cutting down manual effort. Adobe offers many features for automating processes. These include a built-in visual design tool for task automation, document routing, and creating reusable templates for teams.

Bulk Data Operations

Bulk data operations ensure consistency by applying uniform changes across all items. They also increase efficiency and reduce the number of API calls. For example, you can use the Mega Sign feature to send agreements to multiple people, while providing a personalized experience for each signer.

Object Name Description Key Fields
Bulk Send Send documents to multiple recipients at once. POST /agreements/bulk
Bulk Status Check Retrieve the status of multiple agreements. GET /agreements/bulk/status
Bulk Download Download multiple signed agreements or documents in bulk. POST /agreements/bulk/download
Bulk Cancel Cancel multiple agreements that are pendina or in progress. POST /agreements/bulk/cancel

Security and Compliance

They are integral to the Acrobat Sign API, ensuring digital signatures meet legal standards. The API supports features like audit trails, encryption, and compliance with regulations such as eIDAS and ESIGN.

Integration With Knit

Knits Unified eSignature APIs offer many benefits for Acrobat Sign integrations. The Adobe Acrobat Sign API allows Knit users to automate workflows like onboarding, eliminating manual signatures and tracking. You just need to worry about integrating with one API Knit, and it takes care of rest. It eliminates complex download-print-sign-scan-email cycles by integrating directly with your existing systems.

Prerequisites for Integration

To integrate Adobe Acrobat Sign with Knit, you need to have:

  1. Adobe Acrobat Sign Account: Required for accessing the Acrobat Sign API.
  2. Knit Account: Ensure it supports API integrations.
  3. API Keys/Authentication Tokens: Obtain these from Adobe Sign and Knit.
  4. Developer Access: Ensure you have the necessary permissions.

Steps To Integrate Adobe Acrobat Sign With Knit

  1. Authenticate with Knit API: Use OAuth to establish a secure connection with Knit. Example: POST /oauth/token to get an access token.
  2. Sending documents for signing: Use the Acrobat Sign API's POST /agreements endpoint to send documents to employees for signing. 
  3. Monitor Status: Retrieve the agreement status using the GET /agreements/{agreementId} endpoint.
  4. Example workflow: Knit provides a step-by-step guide for Sending Documents for Signature using Adobe Acrobat Sign.

Mapping Objects and Fields to Knit's Standard API

Acrobat Sign API Object Acrobat Sign Field Knit's Standard API Object Knit's Standard API Field Description
Agreement agreementid Document documentid Unique identifier for an agreement/document.
Agreement name Document title Title of the agreement/document.
Agreement status Document status Current status of the document.
User userld User userld Unique identifier for an user.
User email User email Email address of the user.
Document fileName Document fileName Name of the document file.

Testing and Validation

  1. Test: Send sample documents and check if they appear in Adobe Sign and Knit.
  2. Common Issues: Authentication errors, and incorrect API endpoint usage.
  3. Troubleshooting: Verify API keys, check response codes, and review integration logs.

Adobe API Integration Case Studies and Real-World Use Cases 

Salesforce is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Salesforce's integration with Adobe Acrobat Sign is a great example of successful contract management and e-signature solutions. 

Key benefits of the integration: 

Salesforce users can directly access Adobe Acrobat Sign's features from within their CRM platform. Businesses within Salesforce can streamline contract creation, negotiation, and execution. You can create documents using ‘Document Builder’, gather e-signatures and store them securely to close business in no time. Speed up sales cycles by 90% when you use Acrobat Sign to gather e-signatures and automate workflows right within Salesforce.

Best Practices for Adobe Acrobat Sign API Integration

Adobe Acrobat Sign API Security Best Practices

Integrating the Adobe Acrobat Sign API effectively and securely requires developers to follow key practices to ensure data protection and seamless operation. Below are the best practices for secure integration:

  1. Protecting sensitive data: Use end-to-end encryption to secure document transfers and API interactions. Encrypt data both during transit and when stored using TLS 1.2 or higher. Implement OAuth 2.0 for secure, token-based authentication, so user credentials stay protected. Set precise user permissions in the Adobe Acrobat Sign API to limit access to sensitive documents.
  2. Secure API practices: Keep your APIs safe by rotating tokens regularly and storing them in environment variables—never in the codebase. Use OAuth 2.0 to reduce risks of credential-based attacks. Apply for least privilege access, ensuring each token has only the permissions it needs, lowering the chance of misuse.
  3. Monitoring and logging API usage: Monitor and log all API activity to catch issues early. Log details like timestamps, endpoints, and response times for troubleshooting and performance checks. Adobe Acrobat Sign API's monitoring tools help track usage and spot potential security threats or misuse easily.

Handling Adobe Acrobat Sign API Rate Limits and Errors

Effective error handling significantly improves your API integration. Here’s an overview of issues, error codes, and solutions: 

Common Issues 

  1. Authentication Failures – OAuth token expiration or misconfiguration can cause 401 errors. Ensure tokens are valid and permissions are correctly set.
  2. Incorrect API Endpoints – Using outdated or incorrect endpoints often leads to 404 errors. Always verify endpoints in the Adobe Sign API documentation.

Standard Error Codes:

  1. 400 (Bad Request): Invalid request format or missing parameters.
  2. 401 (Unauthorized): Token expired or invalid. Check authentication settings.
  3. 403 (Forbidden): Insufficient permissions. Ensure the app has the right scopes.
  4. 500 (Internal Server Error): Server issues. Retry the request or contact support.
  5. 429 (Too many requests): Exceeding API call limits triggers this error. Implement retry logic after the cooldown period when the system exceeds the rate limit.

Solutions

  1. Authentication Errors: Revalidate OAuth tokens by refreshing them periodically. Ensure client credentials are correctly configured.
  2. Incorrect API Usage: Cross-check API requests with the latest Adobe Sign API documentation. Review logs for potential mistakes.
  3. Rate Limits: Reduce the number of API requests or implement backoff strategies when nearing the rate limit.

Future Trends in Adobe Acrobat Sign API

With the increased demand for digital signatures, Adobe Acrobat Sign API is evolving to provide the best user experience. Here’s a look at future trends and what developers can expect.

Current Released Features in Adobe Acrobat Sign API

In the August 13, 2024 production deployment, Adobe Acrobat improved functionality and enhanced the user experience.

Improved Functionality

The Manage page has new links to the Power Automate Template Gallery, with the "In Progress" filter linking to Notification templates and the "Completed" filter linking to Archival templates.

You can access links by clicking the ellipsis next to filter labels or in the list of actions for selected agreements.

User Experience Changes

Changes such as a new post-signing page for unregistered recipients, a Change to the Send Code announcement for Phone Authentication and many others have been deployed.

Keeping Up With API Changes and Updates

Stay updated on AdobeSign API by regularly checking its documentation and release notes. Join developer communities and subscribe to newsletters for important updates.

Takeaway

The Knit Unified API simplifies the complex integration process. It manages all complex API operations, ensuring that your Adobe Acrobat Sign API setup remains efficient. This allows developers to focus on core tasks while staying future-proof. 

By staying aware of these trends and leveraging tools like Knit, businesses can ensure long-term success with their Acrobat Sign API integration. To integrate the Acrobat Sign API with ease, you can Book a call with Knit for personalized guidance and make your integration future-ready today! To sign up for free, click here. To check the pricing, see our pricing page.

Adobe API FAQ: Common Questions and Answers

  1. Is the Adobe Sign API free?

Adobe Sign API offers free developer edition, with limited API usage. 

  1. Are Adobe APIs free?

Adobe APIs are not entirely free. While some APIs, like the PDF Embed API, offer free tiers or usage limits, others require paid subscriptions or usage-based fees.

  1. Is Adobe request sign free?

Yes, Adobe Acrobat offers a free option for requesting signatures.

You can send documents for e-signing and track their progress without paying a fee. However, there are limitations to the free version, such as the number of documents you can send for signatures each month.

Tutorials
-
Mar 21, 2025

How to get employee data from BambooHR API

If you are looking to connect with multiple apps, try Knit universal API to integrate with 20+ HRIS apps with a single API key. Sign up for free trial by clicking here. If you are looking to do connect with BambooHR API yourself, keep reading

BambooHR is a popular cloud-based human resource management software that helps businesses manage their HR operations, including employee data management, onboarding, performance tracking, and more. In addition to its user-friendly interface, BambooHR also provides an API that allows developers to programmatically access and update employee data.

Employee data is a critical component of HR operations, providing valuable insights into employee performance, engagement, and overall organizational health. 

With the increasing emphasis on data-driven decision making, businesses are looking for ways to harness the power of employee data to drive growth and productivity.

In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide to using the BambooHR API to retrieve and manage employee data in more than one way.

BambooHR API Rate Limit and Documentation Reference

When working with the BambooHR API, it's essential to understand the rate limits and have access to comprehensive documentation to ensure smooth integration and usage. While specific details on the API rate limit for BambooHR were not explicitly found, we encourage you to refer to the official documentation for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

BambooHR API Documentation

For detailed guidance and reference, you can access the BambooHR API documentation through the following URLs:

These resources provide extensive information on how to use the BambooHR API, including endpoints, request formats, and examples. Whether you are looking to integrate employee data, manage hours, or perform other HR-related tasks, the documentation will be invaluable.

For any specific queries or further assistance, it is always a good idea to reach out to BambooHR support or consult the community forums.

Overview of BambooHR API endpoints for employee data

BambooHR uses a RESTful API, which is a web-based architectural style and approach to communications that is often used in web services development. The BambooHR API provides various endpoints for employee data, including:

  • Employee information: this includes data such as the employee's name, email address, job title, department, and other personal information.
  • Job information: This includes data such as the employee's job title, job description, start date, and other job-related information.
  • Time off: This includes data such as the employee's vacation, sick days, and other time off.
  • Company directory: This includes data on all employees in the company, including their contact information and job titles.
  • Reports: This allows you to generate reports on employee data, such as a report on employee turnover or employee performance.

Authorization in BambooHR API

When working with the BambooHR API, understanding the authorization mechanism is crucial for ensuring secure and efficient access to the data and functionalities provided by the API. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of authorizing your application to interact with the BambooHR API.

Step-by-Step Guide to Authorization in BambooHR API
  1. API Key Generation:
    • The first step in the authorization process is generating an API key. This key acts as a unique identifier that allows your application to authenticate with the BambooHR API.
    • To generate an API key, log in to your BambooHR account and navigate to the API settings. Here, you can create a new API key specifically for your application.
  2. Include API Key in Requests:
    • Once you have your API key, you need to include it in the header of every API request you make. The API key should be included as a Basic Authentication header.
    • The format for the header is as follows:Authorization: Basic {base64encoded_api_key}
    • Note that the API key must be base64 encoded before being included in the header.
  3. Base64 Encoding:
    • To encode your API key in base64, you can use various online tools or programming libraries. For example, in Python, you can use the base64 library:
      import base64

      api_key = 'your_api_key_here'

      encoded_key = base64.b64encode(api_key.encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
                     
    • This encoded key is then used in the Authorization header of your API requests.
  4. Making Authorized Requests:
    • With your API key properly encoded and included in the header, you can now make authorized requests to the BambooHR API.
    • Here is an example of how to structure an authorized GET request using Python's requests library:
      import requests


               

url = 'https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/your_company_domain/v1/employees
'headers = {    
	'Authorization': f
    'Basic {encoded_key}',
    'Accept': 'application/json'
    }
    response = requests.get (
    url, 
    headers=headers
    )
    if response.status_code == 200:    
    print('Request was successful')    
    print(response.json())
    else: 
    print('Failed to retrieve data')    
    print(response.status_code
 )
  1. Handling Errors and Permissions:
    • Ensure that your API key has the necessary permissions to access the endpoints you are targeting. If you encounter authorization errors, double-check the permissions associated with your API key.
    • Common HTTP status codes to watch for include:
      • 401 Unauthorized: Indicates that the API key is missing or incorrect.
      • 403 Forbidden: Indicates that the API key does not have permission to access the requested resource.

By following these steps, you can securely authorize your application to interact with the BambooHR API, ensuring that your data transactions are both secure and efficient.

Setting Up BambooHR Account

To get started with using the BambooHR API, you'll first need to set up a BambooHR account and enable API access. Here's how:

Sign up for a BambooHR account

To sign up for a BambooHR account, go to the BambooHR website and click on the "Try It Free" button. 

Follow the step-by-step instructions to set up your account. You'll need to provide some basic information, such as your company name, email address, and password. You'll also need to select a pricing plan based on the number of employees in your organization and the features you need.

However, in this demo, we are “trying it for free” so we do not have to select the pricing plan. Once you have filled in the information click on “Get Free Trial”.

When you see this screen, click on “We’re Ready!” button.

From here, follow the subsequent instructions (provide a strong password, accept terms and conditions) to finish your sign up process using the email and password you supplied earlier.

When you see the following screen, click next.

Check all of these or at least what you need and click“Done” button.

If you have followed the necessary steps of signing up for your BambooHR account, you should land here:

How to create a BambooHR API key

Once you have a BambooHR account, you can create an API key to access the data associated with your BambooHR API. To create the API key, log in to your BambooHR account and navigate to the "API Keys" page in the "Account" section.

Click on the "Add a New Key" button.

You will need to provide a name for your API key, which will help you identify it later and click “Generate Key”.

A key will be displayed. You can copy it and save it somewhere safe. After successfully saving your key, click “Done”.

After successfully saving your API key, your API key would be listed under My API Keys:

In the next section, we will discuss multiple use cases for the the BambooHR API.

Get employee data using BambooHR API

BambooHR allows you to access and update employee data for individual employees as well as in bulk. 

Retrieve All Employees Information

Copy to clipboard
        
import requests
           	
subdomain = 'syncflowsolutions'
 
# Replace {subdomain} with your BambooHR credentials
url = f"https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{subdomain}/v1/employees/directory"
 
headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Basic ZTgyOGU3YzUyNGRlNmNkMmMxZTc0YWUxNDY1YmI0NDQ5NmY0YjVhNTpKRDg2UXA4ZS4qTHNKUXA="
}
 
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
 
if response.status_code == 200:
    employee_data = response.json()
    # Do something with the employee data
    print(employee_data)
else:
    print('Error retrieving employee data')
        
    

The code snippet above will retrieve records for all employees from the feature called directory.

Pitfall to avoid

One common pitfall to avoid here involves the use of the Company Directory feature. While this feature can be managed and disabled by individual companies in their account settings, it can lead to issues when calling the corresponding endpoint. This is because the feature may be disabled, or its behavior may vary across different companies.

Instead, the recommended approach is to use the "request a custom report" API to retrieve bulk employee data, which is a more reliable and consistent method.

Retrieve information for one employee

To retrieve information about a specific employee, you can make a GET request to this endpoint:

Copy to clipboard
        
https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{companyDomain}/v1/employees/
        
    

 where {id} is the ID of the employee you want to retrieve and {companyDomain} is the company subdomain.

This endpoint allows you to retrieve employee data by specifying a set of fields. It is ideal for retrieving basic employee information, including current values for fields that are part of a historical table such as job title or compensation information.

Extract data from BambooHR API using Python

Copy to clipboard
        
	
 import requests
# Set the API URL and headers
subdomain = 'syncflowsolutions'
# Replace {subdomain} with your BambooHR credentials
id = 0
url = f"https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{subdomain}/v1/employees/{id}/"
headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Basic ZTgyOGU3YzUyNGRlNmNkMmMxZTc0YWUxNDY1YmI0NDQ5NmY0YjVhNTpKRDg2UXA4ZS4qTHNKUXA="
}
# Specify the fields to retrieve and only retrieve current data
params = {
    "fields": "firstName,lastName",
    "onlyCurrent": "true"
}
# Send the GET request and print the response
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
if response.status_code == 200:
    employee_data = response.json()
    print(employee_data)
else:
    print("Error retrieving employee data")
        
    

This retrieves the data for the employee with ID 0. Make sure to replace {subdomain} with your actual BambooHR credentials.

How to create a new employee with BambooHR API

To create a new employee, you can make a POST request:

Copy to clipboard
        
https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{companyDomain}/v1/employees/
        
    

The endpoint allows for the addition of a new employee. It is mandatory to provide at least the first and last names of the new employee. Upon successful creation, the ID of the newly created employee can be found in the response's Location header.

Create a new employee with BambooHR API using Python

Copy to clipboard
        
import requests
subdomain = 'syncflowsolutions'        	
# Replace {subdomain} with your BambooHR credentials
url = f"https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{subdomain}/v1/employees/"
payload = {
    "firstName": "Tiberius",
    "lastName": "Mairura"
}
headers = {               	
    "content-type": "application/json",
    "authorization": "Basic ZTgyOGU3YzUyNGRlNmNkMmMxZTc0YWUxNDY1YmI0NDQ5NmY0YjVhNTpKRDg2UXA4ZS4qTHNKUXA="
}
try:
    response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()
    print(response.text)
except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as error:
    print(f"HTTP error occurred: {error}")
except Exception as error:
    print(f"An error occurred: {error}")
        
    

This creates a new employee with the specified data. Make sure to replace `{subdomain}` with your actual BambooHR credentials.

Update employee data from BambooHR API using Python

To update an existing employee's data, you can make a PUT request to the `/employees/{id}` endpoint with a JSON payload containing the updated employee data.

Here's an example using Python requests library:

Copy to clipboard
        
	 
import requests
id = 134
url = f"https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/syncflowsolutions/v1/employees/{id}/"
headers = {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Basic ZTgyOGU3YzUyNGRlNmNkMmMxZTc0YWUxNDY1YmI0NDQ5NmY0YjVhNTpKRDg2UXA4ZS4qTHNKUXA="
}
payload = {
    "firstName": "Tiberius .O",
    "lastName": "Mairura"
}
response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
if response.status_code == 200:
    print('Employee updated successfully!')
else:
    print(f"Error: {response.status_code} - {response.text}")
         
    

This updates the data for the employee with ID 134 with the specified data. Make sure to replace {subdomain} with your actual BambooHR credentials.

How to handle pagination

Pagination for BambooHR API is case-specific. 

  • BambooHR does not support pagination in the employee directory API, so when retrieving employee data, the BambooHR API will return all the results in one go. The default number of records per response is 50, but you can specify a different number of records using the limit query parameter.
  • However, for some other APIs in BambooHR, such as the time-off requests and time-off balances APIs, pagination is supported. To handle pagination, you can use the page and per_page query parameters. The page parameter specifies which page of results to return, and the per_page parameter specifies the number of results per page.

To navigate to the next page of results, you can use the next URL provided in the Link header of the response.

Get started with BambooHR API

In conclusion, the BambooHR API is a valuable tool for any organization looking to streamline their HR and employee data management processes. By leveraging the power of the API, organizations can improve their operations, reduce manual data entry, and gain deeper insights into their workforce.

If you need to quickly get access to BambooHR data, Knit unified API can make it easier for you. Knit is a unified API that connects 40+ HR and ATS APIs via a single, unified API. All you need to do is to integrate once with Knit, and all the authentication, authorization and integration maintenance will be done by Knit.

Talk to our sales team to learn more or get you free API key today

Tutorials
-
Feb 8, 2025

Dropbox Sign API Integration (In-Depth)

1. Introduction

Understanding Dropbox Sign API

Dropbox Sign (formerly HelloSign) is a cloud-based eSignature service known for its reliability and flexibility in document workflows. Many companies, including Samsung, Amenify, and Pima, rely on Dropbox Sign for managing and signing essential documents like sales contracts, MSAs, and change orders. With Dropbox Sign, documents are signed up to 80% faster, allowing companies to save their most valuable asset—time.

In customer reviews and rankings on G2, Dropbox Sign consistently ranks higher than comparable eSignature solutions. Its ease of use, workflow efficiency, performance, reliability, and enterprise scalability make it a standout competitor in the e-signature market.

Integrating the Dropbox Sign API into your platform enables you to embed secure, legally binding e-signature capabilities directly, supporting a seamless and efficient document-signing experience.

Why Should I Pick Dropbox Sign?

Dropbox Sign offers a smooth, secure way to manage documents from draft to signature. Integrating the Dropbox Sign API into your application can greatly improve efficiency and user satisfaction.

 Here are some benefits:

  • Effortless Collaboration: Start with a draft, request signatures, and share files directly from your Dropbox account. Updates save automatically in shared folders, allowing teams to stay in sync without extra software.
  • Simple Document Viewing and Signing: Dropbox lets you view and share video, audio, and text files on any device. For signatures, choose a document, select “Open with Dropbox Sign,” and send it for e-signature—all without leaving the platform.
  • Secure eSignature Process: Designed with a secure infrastructure, Dropbox Sign ensures your signed documents are safe, legally valid, and compliant.
  • Request eSignatures Anytime, Anywhere: Use Dropbox Sign to send contracts, agreements, and other documents for eSignature. You can sign files directly from your desktop or mobile device, simplifying document management.
  • Convenient and Cost-Effective: Keep everything in one place by storing, signing, and organizing documents within Dropbox. Turn frequently used forms into templates, saving time and effort.
  • Eco-Friendly: eSignatures reduce paper use and delivery-related emissions. This not only lowers costs but also supports your sustainability goals.

2. Setting Up for Success With Dropbox Sign API

2.1 Create Your Dropbox Developer Account

Before diving into the integration, you need to set up a Dropbox dev account to access the API resources.

Steps to Set Up a Developer Account

  1. Sign In or Create an Account: Go to Dropbox Sign Developers site and use your existing Dropbox credentials or create a new developer account.
  2. Access the App Console: Once logged in, go to the App Console.
  3. Create a New App:some text
    • Click on "Create app".
    • Select the appropriate Scoped Access level:
  • Standard Access: Provides basic access to files and folders.
  • Enterprise Access: Offers more advanced features and requires additional approval.
  • Choose the "Full Dropbox" or "App Folder" access type based on your requirements.
  • Name your app and click "Create app".

2.2 Managing Access and Authentication

Proper authentication is crucial for secure and authorized API interactions. You can authenticate with the Dropbox Sign API in two ways: using an API key or an access token issued through an OAuth flow.

Generating API Keys and Tokens

  • API Key (App Key): Found in your app's settings under the "Settings" tab. This key identifies your application.
  • App Secret: Also located in the app settings. Keep this confidential as it secures your app.
  • Access tokens: They help verify API requests. You can create either short-lived or long-lived tokens in the "Permissions" tab.

Understanding OAuth 2.0 for Dropbox Sign

OAuth 2.0 is a common standard for authorization. It allows users to grant access to their resources without sharing passwords.

  • Authorization Flow:some text
    1. Redirect users to the Dropbox authorization URL.
    2. Users log in and authorize your app.
    3. Receive an authorization code.
    4. Exchange the code for an access token.

Dropbox provides a detailed understanding of API key management, such as generating new API keys, deleting API keys, renaming API keys, choosing a Primary Key, Rotating API keys, and more.

Resolving “Unauthorized with Access Token" Issues

If you encounter an "Unauthorized with Access Token" error:

  • Verify the Access Token:some text
    • Ensure it's valid and has not expired.
    • Refresh the token if it's short-lived.
  • Check Scopes and Permissions:some text
    • Confirm your app has the necessary scopes enabled in the "Permissions" tab.
  • Properly Implement OAuth 2.0:some text
    • Follow the OAuth 2.0 flow accurately.
    • Reference the Dropbox API Documentation for guidance.

3. Exploring Dropbox Sign API Endpoints

You can integrate Dropbox Sign signing functionalities into your workflow. Therefore, understanding the available API endpoints is essential for effective integration.

3.1 Essential API Endpoints You Should Know

Key Endpoints for Sign Requests, Templates, and Users

Sign Request API

  1. Purpose: Signature Request endpoints are how the Dropbox Sign API facilitates signing. 
  2. Common Use Cases: Use these tools to send and manage new signature requests, interact with them, and track requests you've already sent.
  3. Example: For sending a signature request, send a POST request to the /v3/signature_request/send endpoint:

Security: api_key or oauth2 (request_signature, signature_request_access)

POST /v3/signature_request/send

Content-Type: application/json

Request Payload: 

{

  "title": "NDA with Acme Co.",

  "subject": "The NDA we talked about",

  "message": "Please sign this NDA and then we can discuss more. Let me know if you\nhave any questions.",

  "signers": [

    {

      "email_address": "jack@example.com",

      "name": "Jack",

      "order": 0

    },

    {

      "email_address": "jill@example.com",

      "name": "Jill",

      "order": 1

    }

  ],

  "cc_email_addresses": [

    "lawyer1@dropboxsign.com",

    "lawyer2@dropboxsign.com"

  ],

  "file_urls": [

    "https://www.dropbox.com/s/ad9qnhbrjjn64tu/mutual-NDA-example.pdf?dl=1"

  ],

  "metadata": {

    "custom_id": 1234,

    "custom_text": "NDA #9"

  },

  "signing_options": {

    "draw": true,

    "type": true,

    "upload": true,

    "phone": false,

    "default_type": "draw"

  },

  "field_options": {

    "date_format": "DD - MM - YYYY"

  },

  "test_mode": true

}

  1. Key Signature Endpoints: Dropbox provides 16 signature endpoints that cover Get Signature Request, List Signature Requests, Download Files, Send with Template, Bulk Send with Template, Create Embedded Signature Request, Embedded Bulk Send with Template and more.

Template API

  1. Purpose: Templates streamline repetitive document workflows by allowing users to set up pre-defined fields and signer roles for frequently used documents. This saves time and ensures consistency across signature requests.
  2. Common Use Cases: Ideal for contracts, agreements, and forms that need recurring signatures, templates allow businesses to effortlessly fill in signer details and manage access through the Dropbox Sign API.
  3. Key Template Endpoints: Dropbox provides 11 template endpoints that cover get, list, create, delete,  add user to template and more.

Team API

  1. Purpose: Team endpoints allow admins to efficiently manage team members and invitations, and track remaining signature requests within their quota.
  2. Common Use Cases: Admins can oversee team composition, track active invites, and monitor API usage, ensuring seamless team management and quota allocation.
  3. Key Team Endpoints: Dropbox provides 9 team endpoints that cover getting team info, listing team members, listing the team, creating the team, updating the team and more.

3.2 Craft API Requests and Understand Responses

Dropbox Sign API allows you to manage signatures, teams, accounts, reports, teams and more using common HTTP methods:

  • GET: Retrieve data from the server.
  • POST: Send data to the server to create a resource.
  • PUT: Update an existing resource.
  • DELETE: Remove a resource.

All requests and responses use JSON format. Ensure your application can parse JSON and handle data serialization/deserialization.

3.3 Understanding the API Data Model

Here's an overview of the main objects:

4. Basic API Integration Steps

Making Your First API Call

To start integrating with the Dropbox Sign API, you need to authenticate your application. This involves using an API key or obtaining an OAuth 2.0 access token, as explained in Section 2.2.

Sending a Signature Request

A common use case is sending a document for signature. The Dropbox Sign API provides an endpoint for this purpose.

  • Endpoint: /v3/signature_request/send
  • Method: POST
  • Authorization: Include your API key or OAuth 2.0 token in the request header.

Process Overview

  1. Prepare Your Request: Include essential details such as the title, subject, message, signers, and the files or file URLs of the documents to be signed.
  2. Send the Request: Make a POST request to the endpoint with your prepared data.
  3. Receive the Response: The API returns a response containing a unique signature_request_id and other relevant information about the request.

Managing Signature Requests

You can manage existing signature requests using various endpoints.

  • Retrieve a Signature Requestsome text
    • Endpoint: GET /v3/signature_request/{signature_request_id}
    • Method: GET
    • Description: Retrieves detailed information and the current status of a specific signature request.
  • Cancel a Signature Requestsome text
    • Endpoint: POST /v3/signature_request/cancel/{signature_request_id}
    • Method: POST
    • Description: Cancel an ongoing signature request that remains incomplete.

Advanced API Integration Features

Implementing Webhooks for Real-Time Notifications

With webhooks, your application instantly receives notifications about events like when someone views or signs a document.

  • Setup: Configure webhooks in your Dropbox Sign account settings or via the API.
  • Supported Events: You can subscribe to events like signature_request_sent, signature_request_viewed, signature_request_signed, and more.

Building Custom Workflows and Templates

Templates help streamline repetitive document workflows by predefining fields and signer roles.

  • Create a Templatesome text
    • Endpoint: POST /v3/template/create
    • Method: POST
    • Description: Upload a document and create a reusable template with predefined signer roles and fields.
  • Send a Signature Request with a Templatesome text
    • Endpoint: POST /v3/signature_request/send_with_template
    • Method: POST
    • Description: Send a signature request using an existing template to simplify the process.

Team Management

Administrators can manage team members and permissions via the API.

  • Retrieve Team Informationsome text
    • Endpoint: GET /v3/team
    • Method: GET
    • Description: Retrieves information about your team and its members.
  • Add a Team Membersome text
    • Endpoint: POST /v3/team/add_member
    • Method: POST
    • Description: Add a new member to your team using their email address.

Automating Processes With Bulk Operations

For tasks like sending documents to multiple recipients, you can use bulk send features.

  • Bulk Send with Templatesome text
    • Endpoint: POST /v3/signature_request/bulk_send_with_template
    • Method: POST
    • Description: Sends signature requests to multiple recipients using a template, automating repetitive tasks.

5. Boost Efficiency by Integrating with Knit

5.1 Understanding Knit’s Role in HR and Payroll

Knit provides a unified API that connects with various HR and payroll systems. By integrating Dropbox Sign with Knit, you can streamline document management and automate HR workflows.

Advantages of Integrating Dropbox Sign with Knit

  • Automated Document Management: Seamlessly send and receive HR documents without manual intervention.
  • Streamlined Onboarding: Reduce the effort required to onboard new employees by automating the distribution and collection of necessary documents.
  • Enhanced Compliance: Sign all necessary documents, store them securely, and keep them easily accessible.

5.2 Prepare for Integration

  • Knit Developer Account: Sign up on the Knit Developers Portal to obtain API access.
  • API Credentials: Get your client ID and secret from the Knit dashboard.
  • Permissions: Ensure your application has the necessary scopes and permissions.

5.3 Integrate Dropbox Sign With Knit

Authenticate with Knit API

  • Use OAuth 2.0: Authenticate your application to interact with Knit's API.
  • Token Exchange: After obtaining the authorization code, exchange it for an access token.

Example Integration: Creating a Report

Step 1: Request a Report from Dropbox Sign

  • Endpoint: ‘https://api.hellosign.com/v3/report/create’
  • Method: POST
  • Description: Generates a report for signature requests or templates within a specified date range.
  • Parameters:some text
    • start_date: The beginning date for the report data.
    • end_date: The ending date for the report data.
    • report_type:  The type(s) of the report you are requesting.

Step 2: Download the Report

  • Once the report is ready, download it using the provided URL in the response.

Step 3: Process the Report with Knit

  • Use Knit's API: Import the report data into Knit for further processing or analysis.
  • Ensure Data Alignment: Map the report fields to Knit's data structures accurately.

Mapping Objects and Fields to Knit's Standard API

5.4 Test and Validate Your Integration

  • Use Sandbox Environments: Test the integration in a controlled environment to avoid affecting real data.
  • Embedded Testing Tool: You can use this tool to quickly test any of Dropbox Sign's Embedded flows without having to write a single line of JavaScript.
  • Validate Data Integrity: Check that the data transferred between Dropbox Sign and Knit is accurate and complete.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

  • Authentication Errors: Ensure that your API keys and tokens are correct and have not expired.
  • Permission Denied: Verify that your application has the necessary permissions and scopes.
  • Data Mismatch: Check the data mappings between Dropbox Sign and Knit to ensure they align.

6. Real-World Use Cases

Case Studies of Successful Integrations

Flippa's Integration Success

Flippa, a marketplace for buying and selling online businesses, wanted to improve its sales agreement process.

Challenge

Manual handling of sales agreements led to delays and inefficiencies.

Solution

  • Integrated Dropbox Sign API to automate sending and signing agreements.
  • Streamlined the workflow by embedding signing into their platform.

Results

  • 80%+ increase in customer sales velocity.
  • Enhanced customer satisfaction due to quicker processing.
  • Improved compliance with secure and auditable signatures.

Greenhouse Enhances Onboarding

Greenhouse, a hiring software company, aimed to optimize its onboarding process.

Challenge

Sending HR documents manually was time-consuming and error-prone.

Solution

  • Leveraged Dropbox Sign API to automate document distribution.
  • Integrated with Knit to synchronize employee data seamlessly.

Results

  • 30% increase in onboarding efficiency.
  • Consistent documentation for all new employees.
  • Significant time savings for the HR team.

7. Best Practices for a Solid Integration

Integrating the Dropbox Sign API effectively and securely requires developers to follow key practices to ensure data protection and seamless operation.

Protect Sensitive Data

  • Secure Storage:some text
    • Encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit.
    • Use secure databases and follow best practices for data storage.
  • Access Control:some text
    • Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) to limit data access.

Adopt Secure API Practices

  • Use HTTPS:some text
    • Always communicate with APIs over secure HTTP (HTTPS).
  • Regularly Rotate API Keys:some text
    • Update your API keys periodically to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
  • Validate Input Data:some text
    • Sanitize and validate all input data to prevent injection attacks.

Monitor and Log API Usage

  • Implement Logging:some text
    • Record API requests and responses for auditing and debugging purposes.
  • Set Up Alerts:some text
    • Configure alerts for unusual activities or errors.
  • Analyze Usage Patterns:some text
    • Regularly review logs to identify inefficiencies or potential issues.

8. Overcome Challenges and Find Support

8.1 Spot Common Issues Quickly

Understanding Standard Error Codes

  • 400 Bad Request:some text
    • The request was invalid. Check the request syntax and data.
  • 401 Unauthorized:some text
    • Authentication failed. Verify your API keys and tokens.
  • 403 Forbidden:some text
    • You don't have permission to access the resource.
  • 404 Not Found:some text
    • The requested resource doesn't exist.
  • 429 Too Many Requests:some text
    • The rate limit was exceeded. Slow down your request rate.
  • 500 Internal Server Error:some text
    • An error occurred on the server. Retry later or contact support.

8.2 Resolve Problems Effectively

Troubleshooting API Errors

  • Check the Dropbox API Documentation:some text
    • Ensure you're using the correct endpoints and request formats.
  • Use Debugging Tools:some text
    • Tools like Postman can help test API calls independently.
  • Reach Out to Support:some text
    • Contact Dropbox Sign or Knit support for persistent problems.

9. Stay Ahead with Dropbox Sign API Updates

9.1 Anticipate Future Enhancements

Upcoming Features and Changes

  • New Endpoints:some text
    • Dropbox Sign regularly adds new functionalities. Stay informed about new endpoints that could benefit your application.
  • Deprecations:some text
    • Monitor announcements for any deprecated endpoints or features to update your application accordingly.

10. Conclusion

Integrating Dropbox Sign API into your app lets you provide smooth, secure e-signature capabilities, enhancing efficiency and user experience. Pair it with Knit's unified API to simplify HR and payroll tasks, like employee onboarding and document handling.

Take the Next Step

Setting up these integrations takes some planning: get familiar with the APIs, follow best practices, and handle setup carefully. Book a call today to learn more about how integrating Dropbox Sign with Knit's unified API can transform your operations.

11. FAQ

  1. How Do I Authenticate with the Dropbox Sign API?
    You can authenticate using an API key from the App Console or implement OAuth 2.0 for user-specific access. For detailed steps, refer to the authentication section in the guide.
  2. What Should I Do If I Receive an "Unauthorized with Access Token" Error?
    Verify that your access token is correct and not expired, check your app’s permissions, and ensure you’re following the OAuth 2.0 flow properly.
  3. Can I Integrate Dropbox Sign with Knit, and What Are the Benefits?
    Yes, integrating with Knit allows for automated document management and streamlined HR workflows, enhancing efficiency and compliance.
  4. Are There Rate Limits for the Dropbox Sign API?
    Yes, Dropbox Sign enforces rate limits. Monitor your API usage and implement strategies like exponential backoff to handle 429 errors effectively.

References:

  1. https://developers.hellosign.com/
  2. https://sign.dropbox.com/products/dropbox-sign-api/pricing
  3. https://faq.hellosign.com/hc/en-us/categories/200353247-HelloSign-API
  4. https://sign.dropbox.com/features/api
  5. https://sign.dropbox.com/developers
  6. https://developers.hellosign.com/docs/api-dashboard/overview/
  7. https://www.dropbox.com/business?_tk=paid_sem_goog_biz_b&_camp=21666327250&_kw=dropbox%20business|b&_ad=712059689992||c&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj4K5BhDYARIsAD1Ly2qrcz4i4Vg2q4LyYtK7KsJJsL4UCatjHT_GPOLGN411LoH1AHOn3skaAkWKEALw_wcB
  8. https://www.dropbox.com/sign
  9. https://developers.hellosign.com/additional-resources/embedded-testing-tool/
  10. https://lp.dropboxbusiness.com/rs/077-ZJT-858/images/Everything%20you%20need%20to%20know%20about%20the%20HelloSign%20API.pdf
  11. https://sign.dropbox.com/vs/docusign-switch
  12. https://developers.hellosign.com/api/reference/operation/templateList/
  13. https://sign.dropbox.com/customers/flippa#:~:text=Flippa%20chose%20to%20use%20the,to%20expedite%20the%20APA%20process.
  14. https://developers.hellosign.com/api/reference/operation/reportCreate/
  15. https://www.getknit.dev/blog/dropbox-sign-api-directory
  16. https://developers.dropbox.com/error-handling-guide
  17. https://developers.hellosign.com/changelog/
  18. https://sign.dropbox.com/customers/flippa

Tutorials
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Dec 8, 2024

Quickbooks Online API Integration Guide (In-Depth)

1. Introduction to QuickBooks Online

Force behind QuickBooks Online: Intuit

Forbes listed QuickBooks as one of the best accounting software tools in the world. Many

organizations and individual accounting professionals rely on QuickBooks for their accounting

tasks.

At the heart of QuickBooks is Intuit, a company that people recognize for its most popular

product.

What does QuickBooks Online do?

QuickBooks Online is a hero for small businesses. It is a cloud-based accounting software that

manages and keeps track of all your accounting needs, from expenses to income. It organizes

your financial information, provides insights into project profitability reports, and encourages you

to make informed decisions.

QuickBooks is significantly popular for its bookkeeping software but offers more than this. It

is a solution to many financial problems, making it prominent among businesses of all sizes.

QuickBooks Online users are present in diverse industries such as construction and real estate,

education, retail, non-profit, healthcare, hospitality, and many others. 

Professionals in the services industry widely use QuickBooks Online, and it is a popular option

for government contractors to meet the accounting and auditing requirements of DCAA.

Overview of QuickBooks Online API integration

Businesses often use multiple software or tools to fulfill their requirements. QuickBooks Online API integration benefits businesses as it allows proper management of finances and automates tasks such as payroll, invoice, expense tracking, and reporting. You can create custom workflows for your integration and synchronize data among all your platforms—which enhances overall efficiency.

Key features of QuickBooks Online

When it comes to accounting, keeping track of cash flow, debt, payroll, and expenses and

driving real-time insights are crucial for the smooth running of a business. Let’s look at some of

the key features that QuickBooks Online offers to fulfill these requirements  in detail:

  • Expense tracking

It is an unsung hero. QuickBooks expense tracking captures receipts on the go, which makes reporting and reimbursements easy! 

  • Invoice tracking

Companies emphasize tracking their invoices, as it is important for record-keeping, but it is more of a strategic tool for accurate accounting and is crucial for business success. QuickBooks Online can simplify the process of invoices as it creates, sends, and tracks invoices with ease.

  • Bank integration

It is not feasible to keep track of daily business transactions manually. QuickBooks integration with banks allows you to track and categorize transactions.

  • Payroll processing

This feature is developed to smartly manage employee compensation in a unified platform (payroll and accounting in one place), such that it has automated calculations for gross pay, tax deductions, and net pay.

  • Financial reporting

With accurate reporting, you can monitor performance, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, maintain investor relations, allocate resources, plan long-term, and make informed decisions based on insights. 

Unveiling the Benefits of Unified API Integration With QuickBooks Online API

Businesses all over the world use QuickBooks because it streamlines their accounting processes.

  • Data consistency

Direct integration with the QuickBooks Online API leads to various points of data interaction, which increases the chances of incorrect or uneven data flow. With a Unified API, there is a single source of truth and a single point of data interaction, ensuring consistency. 

  • Build once, scale perpetually

Direct integration with the QuickBooks Online API requires managing various aspects, but with a unified API like Knit, you gain immediate access and synchronization capability for new integrations without writing additional code.

  • Integrated workflows

Integrated workflows are important for maintaining harmony between multiple systems. It reduces human intervention and automates data transfer between systems, eliminating the need for manual data re-entry.

  • Security

Unified APIs like Knit abstract the complexities of data integration, providing a simplistic interface that shields users from the underlying data structure and minimizes potential security hazards.

2. QuickBooks Online API: Authorization and Authentication

Authentication and Authorization are important steps you must ensure before you start your integration. Authentication, in simple terms, is verifying the user's identity, and authorization is verifying if the user has access and permissions to what they are accessing.

QuickBooks Developer Account Creation

First, you need to sign up with Intuit to create a developer account. Once you sign in, you can access the developer portal and tools required to develop your app.

Authenticate Using OAuth 2.0

Authentication and Authorization using OAuth 2.0 is a standard industry protocol. OAuth 2.0 allows users to log into their QuickBooks account via the OAuth 2.0 flow.

  • Create your app on the developer portal

Once you log in to your Intuit developer account, create an app and select the QuickBooks Online Accounting scope. This app will provide the credentials you’ll need for authorization requests. 

  • How does OAuth 2.0 authorize your application

Once the user grants permission, Intuit sends the user back to the application with an authorization code. Check out the OAuth Playground to preview each step.

  • OpenID Connect (OIDC)

OpenID Connect is an identity layer that provides an extra layer of protection for your app, giving user information such as name and email address. It is an optional step, but we recommend it for extra security.

Set Up Authentication With Intuit Single Sign-On

Setting up authentication with Intuit single sign-on is an alternative way to handle the UI for authorization to simplify the user signing-in experience. You need to implement the following steps:

  • Set up OpenID Connect
  • Design your app’s sign-in experience
  • Add multiple company connections

3. Understanding QuickBooks Online API Data Model

It is important to understand the data models of the API we are going to integrate, as they are the backbone of accurate integration.

What Are Data Models, and Why Are They Important?

Data models are abstract representations of data structures. Data models show you the format for storing and retrieving data from the database. Understanding the structure of data before API integration is crucial for several reasons: 

  • Data integrity and consistency

The data model encapsulates business rules and logic, ensuring that data exchange follows these rules and logic.

  • Better API design

The API endpoint structure and parameter definitions (data types, optional or required) become clear with data models.

Key Components of QuickBooks Online API Data Model

Key components of a data model include entities, attributes, relationships, and constraints. QuickBooks has many entities; some of the most commonly used are:

  • Accounts

Businesses use accounts to track transactions of income and expenses. It also includes assets and liabilities. Accountants often call accounts "ledgers". 

Attributes: AcctNum, SubAccount, AccountType, and many more.

  • Bills

It is an Accounts Payable (AP) transaction that represents a request for payment from a third party for goods or services they render, receive, or both.

Attributes: VendorRef, TotalAmt, Balance, and more.

  • Customer

Customers are the consumers of services or products offered by businesses. QuickBooks includes parent and sub-customer entities for simple and detailed classification.

Attributes: DisplayName, GivenName, PrimaryEmailAddr, etc.

  • Payment

It records the payment for customers against single or multiple invoices and credit memos in QuickBooks. It can be a full update or a sparse update.

Attributes: TotalAmt, PaymentMethodRef, Unapplied Amt, and more.

  • Vendor

It is a seller from whom the company purchases any service or product. QuickBooks applies certain business rules to this entity.

Attributes: DisplayName, GivenName, PrimaryEmailAddr, etc.

  • Invoice

An invoice represents a sales form where customers pay for a product or service. QuickBooks applies specific business rules to this entity in QuickBooks.

Attributes: DocNumber, BillEmail, TrackingNum, etc.

  • ProfitAndLoss

The Profit and Loss Summary report from the QuickBooks Online Report Service provides information regarding profit and loss through the object named ProfitAndLoss.

Attributes: Customer, item, vendor, and more.

4. Integrating QuickBooks Online With Knit’s API: Introduction and Data  Mapping

There are various benefits of API integration with a Unified API. Let’s look into one such Unified

API that is ruling the market.

Introduction to Knit’s API

Knit covers all your integration needs in one API. It is rated number one for ease of integration. QuickBooks API integration with a Unified API bridges gaps between multiple platforms and enables synchronized data flow. Knit helps you build your QuickBooks integration 10X faster using the Unified Accounting API.

Map QuickBooks Objects and Fields to Knit’s API

To correctly implement the integration, you should have an understanding of QuickBooks Objects and their corresponding Knit Objects. Get an overview with the below examples:

Examples of Common Object Mappings

Common Object Mappings in Quickbooks API

5. Building Custom Workflows With the QuickBooks Online API

QuickBooks offers both pre-built and custom workflows that automate repetitive tasks related to accounting requirements.

QuickBooks Workflows: Pre-Built vs. Custom

Pre-Built vs Custom Workflows in Quickbooks API

Create Custom Workflows (Step-by-Step)

Pre-built workflows automate common business needs, while users design custom workflows to

fulfill conditions and logic specific to their business needs.

  • Create and update records: When a sales order is approved, we construct a workflow to create a customer invoice. To create a record for this, you need to set a trigger and apply a condition (criteria for the workflow to activate) as per the condition once it's triggered. You then perform a pre-defined action set in the workflow.
  •  Send reminders and push notifications with QuickBooks
    • You can create tasks with QuickBooks to alert users (Set Reminders for deadlines) and
    • use specific features to deliver real-time notifications with the help of Custom Workflows.

6. QuickBooks Online API Integration Case Studies

The QuickBooks Online API offers effective financial management and automation in several time-consuming, repetitive tasks, giving you more time to focus on what matters.

How Businesses Utilize the QuickBooks Online API

As companies grow, managing data becomes harder, leading to human errors and data inaccuracies. These inaccuracies can result in misleading insights that might cause problems for businesses. Companies use the QuickBooks API to solve these issues at their core. Integrating with a Unified API simplifies the process, as you only need to manage one API integration, saving you time.

Use the API To Streamline Invoicing and Payments

Managing invoices and payments is essential for smooth accounting in any business. Creating invoices quickly leads to faster payments from customers, and offering flexible payment options improves customer relations and cash flow, enhancing the overall financial health of the business.

Automate Data Flow Using QuickBooks Online API

QuickBooks Online API understands your business needs and ensures real-time data synchronization across all your systems. For example:   

  • Inventory management

Sync inventory levels between QuickBooks and warehouse management systems.   

  • Expense tracking

Automatically import expense data from corporate cards or receipt capture apps.

  • Financial reporting

Generate custom reports and visualizations based on QuickBooks data.

  • Payroll integration

Seamlessly integrate payroll data with QuickBooks for accurate calculations and tax filings.

7. Implementation Steps for QuickBooks Online API Integration

For the Implementation steps, we will implement the Accounting API use case.

Getting Started: QuickBooks Accounting API Integration (use case)

QuickBooks Online Accounting API offers various features such as create, send, read invoices in user’s QuickBooks online companies. 

  1. Design and analyze workflows

The first step is to outline integration goals, identify specific QuickBooks data, actions, endpoints and map workflows (visualize how data will flow between your application and QuickBooks).

  1. Data identificationsome text
    • Determine the required data: For creating an invoice, include Customer, Product, and Invoice.
    • Define data fields: For a Customer entity, you might need CustomerId, DisplayName, PrimaryEmail, and BillAddr.
    • Data mapping: Transform data between systems. For instance, a 'ProductCode' in your system might map to the 'Sku' field in QuickBooks.
  2. Construct your API requests

The core components of API requests include:

  • Endpoint: The specific URL path where the request is sent.
  • HTTP Method: The action to be performed (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
  • Headers: Metadata about the request, such as content type, authorization, and API version.
  • Request Body: Data sent to the server, typically in JSON or XML format.

Learn more about body parameters, rules or conditions, request and response body

for Customers and Invoices.

  1. Authorization and headers:some text
    • Obtain credentials: Acquire the necessary client ID, client secret, and access token.
    • Implement authentication: Use OAuth 2.0 for secure authorization.
    • Set request headers: Include authentication headers in your API requests.
  2. Send requests and handle responses:some text
    • Make API calls: Send constructed requests to the QuickBooks API endpoints.
    • Parse responses: Extract required data from API responses.
  3. CRUD for invoices and customers:some text
    • [POST] Invoices: Generate new invoices with relevant details.
    • [READ] Invoices: Retrieve existing invoice information.
    • [DELETE] Invoices: Remove unnecessary invoices.
    • Query Invoices: Retrieving with searching and filtering of multiple invoices.
    • Fully [UPDATE] Invoices: Modify invoice data as needed
    • Sparse [UPDATE] Invoices: Modify a subset of invoice data as needed.
    • Void Invoices: Cancels a previously created invoice. This action is typically taken when an invoice was created in error or needs to be corrected.
    • [POST] Customers: Add new customers to QuickBooks.
    • [READ] Customers: Access specific customer information.
    • Query Customers: Retrieving with searching and filtering of multiple customers.
    • Fully [UPDATE] Customers: Modify customer details.
    • Sparse [UPDATE] Customers: Modify a subset of customer details.
  4. Test your integration:

You can test your integration in different testing environments which QuickBooks support. 

8. QuickBooks Online API Webhooks: Event-Driven Integrations

Webhooks are a cost-efficient way to reduce constant API calls, as they provide real-time information (in the form of notifications) when your event occurs.

Understand How Webhooks Drive Event-Based Integrations

Webhooks can automatically notify you whenever data changes in your end-users QuickBooks

Online company files. Webhooks allow QuickBooks to proactively send notifications when the event occurs. 

Webhook Applications (Examples)

  • Invoice processing

Once an invoice is created, webhook sends a notification with details of the invoice, which in turn triggers the invoice processing workflow.

  • Payment reminders

Get payment reminders when invoice status becomes overdue.

9. Bulk Data Operations With the QuickBooks Online API

Benefits of Bulk Data Operations

Processing large datasets efficiently is crucial for many applications. QuickBooks API offers features to handle bulk operations, providing several advantages:

  • Improved performance

Reduces API call overhead by processing multiple records in a single request.

  • Enhanced efficiency

Streamlines data transfer and processing.

  • Cost savings

Optimizes API usage and potentially reduces costs.

Perform Bulk Data Operations 

With growing business, it’s essential to work with smart tools that save you time. Batch processing is one such tool that QuickBooks Online Advanced offers. 

  • Batch invoicing

You can generate multiple invoices from a single-entry input.

  • Batch expenses

You can create an expense once and duplicate it while changing some of the underlying details, like vendor or amount.

  • Batch checks

You can create templates for those you write often. It gives you more control over the company’s check writing.

  • Pagination of large datasets

When dealing with extensive data, pagination is essential. QuickBooks API provides mechanisms to retrieve data in manageable chunks. Use pagination to fetch data in pages, allowing you to process it incrementally without overwhelming your application.

Efficiently Managing Large Datasets

  • Data chunking

To optimize performance, divide large datasets into smaller, manageable chunks. Process these chunks sequentially, avoiding overwhelming the API or your application.

  • Optimizing API calls

You can minimize requests by planning to make API calls to fetch only necessary data and utilize filters to refine your data requests.

10. Handling QuickBooks Online API Rate Limits and Errors

Performance is key for any successful API integration. To control the load on the system and ensure great performance, rate limits are applied to APIs.

QuickBooks Online API Rate Limits Explained

QuickBooks applies rate limits to restrict the number of requests in a specified timeframe. If you exceed these limits, your application requests may be temporarily blocked due to throttling.

Best Practices for Error Handling and Retries

Effective error handling significantly improves your API integration. Here are some best practices:

  • Rate limits

QuickBooks Online API imposes rate limits, so you need to adjust your application's request frequency accordingly.

  • Handle error codes

Understand your error codes and look for them in QuickBooks-defined Error Codes.

  • Batch requests

To optimize API usage and reduce the number of API calls, group multiple requests into a single batch.

  • Asynchronous processing

Offload time-consuming tasks to background jobs or queues to avoid blocking the main application thread.

11. QuickBooks Online API Security Best Practices

Once you complete your QuickBooks API integration, you must actively secure the financial data and integration.

Secure Your Data (Mitigating Vulnerabilities)

To secure your data, make sure to use data encryption methods to encrypt data both at rest and in transit. Enhance security by adding proper input validation to prevent incorrect data from being entered into your database.

Manage Your Credentials (Cookies and Tokens)

Unauthorized access due to poorly managed credentials poses a threat to your application and integration. To ensure that your users are authorized, implement regular token rotation, avoid hard-coding credentials, and utilize multifactor authentication.

Perform Security Scans and Audits

Conduct vulnerability scans, simulate attacks with penetration testing, and perform regular security audits.

References for Verification

1. Security Requirements for QuickBooks API Integration

2. QuickBooks Online Accounting API 

3. Creating a Custom Workflow 

4. QuickBooks API Data Model

5. QuickBooks Account

6. Schema & Data formats for QuickBooks

7. Use Cases

8. All about Webhooks

9. Implement Intuit Single Sign-On

10. OAuth 2.0

11. QuickBooks Integration Basics

12. Basics of QuickBooks

13. Overview of QuickBooks API integration

14. QuickBooks API Data models

15. Batch Processing

16. Accounting Processes with QuickBooks

17. Benefits of QuickBooks

18. Features

19. Features of Quickbooks 

20. QuickBook Developer Doc

21. Quickbooks Payment 

22. More about features and benefits

Tutorials
-
Oct 29, 2024

ADP API Integration Guide (In-Depth)

Overview of ADP

Automatic Data Processing (ADP) is a cloud-based software that provides services that cover all needs in human resource information systems (HRIS). Whether your company needs to manage payroll, hire new employees, track employee performance, calculate taxes, manage benefit information such as health insurance and retirement plans, or attract your employees to complete training on time, it has everything covered. The ADP system remains updated with all the latest HR regulations, so outdated information is not an issue here.

Managing payroll and HR manually can lead to many issues, such as high probability of manual data entry errors, issues due to duplicate data entry, difficulty of keeping up with changing labor laws and regulations is time-consuming and difficult which may also lead to compliance issues. Handling consistent payroll accurately for the employees can be challenging at times.

ADP API integration not just tackles these issues, but makes the process efficient so you can work on tasks that are more important.

Importance of ADP Integration

  1. Improved Efficiency and Automation: Automating tasks such as onboarding, offboarding, and status changes eliminates manual data entry errors, saving HR teams significant time.
  2. Real Time Data Sync & Streamlined Processes : Connecting ADP with other applications can automate workflows like payroll and benefits administration, and data flows between ADP and other systems reduce inconsistency by providing access to accurate employee information.
  3. Ensure Compliance : ADP takes care of latest labor laws. By integrating with ADP, you can ensure that you are HR practices are complaint.
  4. Simplify Complex Processes : Some processes are tedious and challenging like consistent payroll management, ADP automates payroll calculations ensuring accuracy and timely payments for all employees.

Developer Primer

This guide gets you started with the entire process of ADP API integration covering prerequisites, authentication, use case for this guide, operations, testing, deployment and troubleshooting—all the essentials.

You will find more about ADP API, use cases, endpoints in ADP API Events and Endpoints.

There are various modules for which ADP provides APIs for integration, you can find your specific use case for integration in ADP API Documentation.

In case you are looking for a quick and easy way to build your ADP API integration along with multiple other HRIS an payroll systems in one go, checkout Knit. Knit provides a unified HRIS API covering the ADP API along with 40+ other HRIS & Payroll connectors.

Prerequisites & Initial Steps

Setting Up ADP Developer Account

  • As a developer, you will register for a developer account. Your employer will have to provide you access for that. 
  • You will get your self-service registration code from your HR department or payroll administrator. 
  • You can now enter your registration code ADP registration page. If you already have an account with ADP, you can directly log in with your user ID and password login page.

Prerequisites for Obtaining Credentials & Setting Up Authentication

It is important that we establish a secure connection before we start our ADP API integration process. It involves the following: 

  • Obtain Credentials: You will need credentials like client ID, client secret and CSR.
  • Authentication: Understanding authentication process for API Integration is essential.

Use of Sandbox & Postman

It’s important to test your integration before making it live. You can use sandbox and postman.

The safe environment of sandbox will allow you to refine your integration wherever changes are needed, with sample data and thus not affecting your real data without risking security. 

Important Terminology & Use Case for This Guide

ADP Workforce Now API

  • ADP Workforce Now is a cloud based Human Capital Management (HCM) platform that streamlines HR processes from comprehensive reporting and analytics to payroll, benefits administration, payroll and much more. It works on a monthly subscription model.
  • ADP Workforce Now subscribers benefit from streamlined data flow between payroll and other HR functions, reducing manual data entry errors. 
  • Another benefit of ADP Workforce Now, is it integrates with other HR business applications and has flexible service options.
  • Being in the market from past 70 years and serving more than 90,000 clients, ADP has its strong base when it comes to needs related to overall HR management.
  • For this guide, we will focus on API integration with ADP Workforce Now subscription.

All About ADP REST API

  • REST (Representational State Transfer) API is standardized software architecture style, which is used for communication between client and server. A few benefits of REST APIs are: some text
    • They are simple and standardized
    • They are scalable and stateless
    • The performance stays very high, and it supports caching.
  • ADP REST API uses event-based pattern for resource management. Retrieving resources (GET API), modifying resources (POST API) and staying informed by setting up alerts whenever there is a change in GET/POST requests.

API Integration Methods

There are three methods to integrate ADP Payroll Integration API: 

  1. Pre-built Data Connector: It is an available solution that can reduce development time, providing pre-configured settings and user-friendly interface ensuring faster setup.
  2. Customized Integration: If integration needs are very specific, requiring complete control over functionality and data, and have very specific security requirements, then customized integration is the best choice.
  3. Building own Integration for Workforce Now From Scratch: In this integration, you will directly integrate ADP Payroll API (likely the Payroll Data Input API v1) with your system. It requires higher development expertise.

ADP Integration Methods

Getting Started With ADP Payroll API

For this guide, we will work on building our own integration for ADP Workforce Now APIs for payroll. You will find several solutions under the Payroll Management section. ADP offers APIs for Earnings, Deductions, Tax Withholdings, and Payroll Results.

Getting Started With ADP HR API

We will also look into integration for ADP Workforce Now APIs for HR. APIs in HR are divided into various sections such as Workers, Workers Lifecycle, Data Integration Management, Workers Demographics, Compensation Management, Business Communication Management, and additional HR modules.

Obtain API Credentials & Set Up Authentication

Client Credentials

Follow the below steps to get client credentials:

  • ADP Marketplace Account: You will need to register for an ADP Marketplace account on registration page if you already don't have one.
  • Application Creation : Once registered, log in to your account and create a new application for your ADP API integration.some text
    • Define application name, description, target ADP Product (in our case Workforce Now), type of integration (ex: Data Integration).
  • Retrieve Credentials : In the application, find development API credentials.

All About CSR (Certificate Signing Request)

  • CSR is specifically required if you plan to use a client certificate for mutual TLS authentication with the ADP API server. In that case, you can generate it using OpenSSL Library. Specific commands to run on the command line, can be found OpenSSL Documentation.
  • The most common authentication method for Workforce Now API integrations involves OAuth 2.0. This will require a Client ID and Client Secret, which we can get by following this section.

OAuth 2.0 Authorization Flow & Access Tokens for Authorization.

  1. OAuth 2.0 Authorization Flow: Get Authorization Server URL from ADP Payroll Data Input API v1 documentation. Now your application will send a request with Client ID, Client Secret (Secure), and User Consent (if applicable). Upon user consent accepted (if asked), you will be redirected to a URL with an authorization code. 
  2. Access tokens for authorization : Now your application sends another request to Authorization Server URL with: Client ID, Client Secret (Secure), and Authorization Code (if applicable). The server responds an access token for authorized API access. 

Now this token can be used while accessing API of ADP Workforce Now resource server, by including token in authorization header.

Performing Basic Operations

Response & Request Exchange

  • API Endpoints: Specific endpoints for various operations (such as GET/POST) are provided in the ADP developer documentation for the Payroll Data Input API v1.
  • Request Response Exchange Format: The medium for communication between application and the ADP servers is JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). Request and Response data will be exchanged using JSON format.
  • You can check Sample Response JSON for [GET] /events/payroll/v1/pay-data-input.modify/meta Pay Data Input ADP Doc.
  • Note : You will need to enter the access token obtained from the OAuth 2.0 flow in the authorization header.

Setting Up Development Environment for Integration

  • Choose your development language: You can select any programming language and development environment as per your comfort (e.g., Python, Java, etc.).
  • Install libraries: Installation of necessary libraries or frameworks for making HTTP requests and handling JSON data is a must (e.g., requests library in Python).

Implementing ADP Payroll API Integration

Get API Credentials

You can get API Credentials that are Client ID and Client Secret by following this section. Once you have the API credentials, we can move on to the next step to understand the data structure, necessary for integration.

Data Mapping and Transformation for Integration Adaption

  • Review Data Structures: Review the data structures provided in the ADP API documentation and compare them to your own internal data structures.
  • Transformation Logic: If there are discrepancies, implement logic to transform your data to match the ADP API format before sending requests (e.g., converting dates or formatting names).
  • For Example : Pay Data Input - [Pay Data Input Modify] section
    [POST] /events/payroll/v2/worker-general-deduction-instruction.changesome text
    • Request JSON
      {

 "events": [

    {

      "data": {

        "eventContext": {

          "worker": {

            "associateOID": "{{employeeAOID}}"

          },

          "payrollInstruction": {

            "payrollGroupCode": {

              "codeValue": "{{payrollGroupCode}}",

              "shortName": "94N"

            },

            "payrollFileNumber": "{{payrollFileNumber}}",

            "payrollAgreementID": "{{payrollAgreementID}}",

            "itemID": "169749147863_1",

            "generalDeductionInstruction": {

              "deductionCode": {

                "codeValue": "M"

              }

            }

          }

        },

        "transform": {

          "effectiveDateTime": "2020-05-08",

          "payrollInstruction": {

            "generalDeductionInstruction": {

              "inactiveIndicator": true,

              "deductionRate": {

                "rateValue": "20"

              }

            }

          }

        }

      }

    }

  ]

}

Response JSON with status code 200
{

  "events": [

    {

      "data": {

        "eventContext": {

          "worker": {

            "associateOID": "G34YJ69EMRR7N4VJ"

          },

          "payrollInstruction": {

            "payrollGroupCode": {

              "codeValue": "94N",

              "shortName": "94N"

            },

            "payrollFileNumber": "4567",

            "payrollAgreementID": "CC1_169737547546",

            "itemID": "169749147863_1",

            "generalDeductionInstruction": {

              "deductionCode": {

                "codeValue": "M"

              }

            }

          }

        },

        "transform": {

          "effectiveDateTime": "2020-05-08",

          "payrollInstruction": {

            "generalDeductionInstruction": {

              "inactiveIndicator": true,

              "deductionRate": {

                "rateValue": "20"

              }

            }

          }

        }

      }

    }

  ]

}

Basic Read, Write API Calls 

  • API Endpoints: In this documentation you will find various payroll management APIs. You will also get data formats for the desired operations (e.g., reading employee information, updating pay elements).
  • Construct Requests: Construct HTTP requests using the provided endpoints and request formats (typically JSON). Include the access token in the authorization header.
  • Parse Responses: Parse the JSON response data from the ADP API and handle it according to your needs.
  • In summary of the endpoint documentation of API you want to integrate, you will find important details for writing APIs like method path, content type, token type, and required scope.
  • For example : some text
    • Worker Pay Distributions - [Change Pay Distribution] section has one POST & GET API. 
    • [GET] /events/payroll/v1/worker.pay-distribution.change/meta : some text
      • Optional parameters : ADP-Acting-SessionID , Sm_transactionid, SiteMinder transaction ID, $filter
    • [POST] /events/payroll/v1/worker.pay-distribution.change : some text
      • Optional parameters : ADP-Acting-SessionID, sm_transactionid

Implementing ADP HR API Integration

Follow Similar Steps to Payroll

  • The steps to get API Credentials : Client ID and Client Secret can be found in this section
  • After getting the API Credentials, you can check for the API you are looking for ADP API Explorer.
  • For this guide, we will go ahead with Workers APIs of HR section. The worker's management section, looks into how application can manage and access information about the workers in ADP Workforce Now application.
  • One section of Workers is ‘Workers Data Retrieval’ and you can use the Workers v2 API to generate a full list of workers in your organization. It contains three GET request for retrieval of either single or collection of workers.

Examples of Read, Write API Calls With Data Transformation for HR API

Below are a few endpoints and information related to them : 

  • [GET] /hr/v2/workers some text
    • Optional parameters : $skip, $top, ADP-Acting-SessionID, $filter, $select, $count, sm_transactionid.
  • [POST] /events/hr/v1/worker.photo.uploadsome text
    • Optional parameters : ADP-Acting-SessionID , sm_transactionid

Response :
{

  "events": [

    {

      "data": {

        "transform": {

          "worker": {

            "photo": {

              "nameCode": {

                "shortName": "photo",

                "longName": "photo"

              },

              "links": [

                {

                  "href": "/hr/v2/workers/G310YGK80NSS9D2N/worker-images/photo",

                  "mediaType": "image/jpg",

                  "method": "GET"

                }

              ]

            }

          },

          "effectiveDateTime": null

        }

      },

      "links": []

    }

  ]

}

Important Last Steps: Testing and Deployment

Testing API in Sandbox.

  • ADP Sandbox Environment: Testing API in sandbox before making it live is important for several reasons such as : some text
    • Performance Check & Safety :When you test your integration with fake data, you ensure your real data is safe, and you can also check the performance of your API. If you find that the integration is slow, you can optimize your integration before deployment.
  • Error detection: While testing in the sandbox you can easily catch bugs and other error early on, thus fixing them before deployment to the live environment.
  • Simulate Scenarios: Sandbox environment very well mimic the live environment, and thus it gives a clear picture of how your integration will behave in live environment.

Testing API in Postman

  • API Testing: It provides a user-friendly interface, where you can easily test your GET, POST, PUT API’s request and response exchanges. This helps you get more clear picture of what get missed in your request and response and thus can lead to quick fixes.
  • Automation: One widely used feature of Postman is automated test cases, reducing repeated actions of testing API behavior and thus reducing chances of human error.
  • Collaboration: Postman allows team members to access same API collections, allowing your team to test API’s ensuring everyone is on same page.

Deployment Initiation of API’s

  • Deployment Strategy: Your deployment strategy depends on your environment in which you have built the integration and other needs specific to your integration. 
  • Configuration Management: It is always a good practice to use configuration management tools, this ensures fewer chances of bugs in production (e.g., development, staging, production).
  • Security Measures: Security should not be compromised, ensure security by implementing necessary security measures during deployment, for example: restricting access to sensitive data and APIs.

Troubleshooting and Support

Common Errors and Their Resolutions

  • 401 Unauthorized: You are likely to receive this error due to issues with your access token. Check the following again:some text
    • Client ID and Client Secret: Chances can be that they got expired or are wrong, ensure they are correct and haven't expired.
    • OAuth 2.0 Flow: If you have more than one application in your marketplace, it is easy to get access token of wrong application, verify you’ve obtained valid access token.
    • Token Expiration: Access tokens are temporary and expires in minutes or hours (for security purposes). Refresh them before they expire.
    • 403 Forbidden: You will face this error when your application lacks the necessary permissions to access specific data or perform actions.
    • Review API Scopes: Incomplete permissions for your application are very common issues faced by developers.
  • 400 Bad Request: This indicates a problem with your request structure or data.some text
    • Data Validation: Most of the time you will receive specific error messages regarding the data format or missing required fields.
    • API Endpoints: Ensure you're using the correct API endpoint URL for the desired operation.
  • 4xx or 5xx Errors: These can indicate various issues on the ADP server side.some text
    • ADP Documentation: Refer to the ADP documentation for specific error code meanings and suggested resolutions.

Common Debugging Techniques

  • Logging: It is always a good idea to do logging, it captures request/response details to track integration flow.
  • Breakpoints: Sometimes errors can be logical, step through code to identify such errors.
  • Network Inspection: Verify requests and responses using network tools.
  • Postman: Isolating and testing APIs can be very useful in finding errors when you are working with a complex integration.
  • ADP Support: If any of above doesn’t work, you can seek help from ADP Developer support.

Ensure Integration Smoothness

Integration Smoothness depends upon how well you are aware of issues you are facing while integration, if the issues are standard you will mostly be able to find their resolution in this section.

If you face specific errors, you can reach out to ADP developer support for clarification on error messages encountered during testing or deployment.

Appendix

A. Key Terms

  • API: Lets applications talk to Workday (RESTful or SOAP).
  • Authentication: Verifies you're who you say you are (login).
  • Authorization: Grants access to specific Workday data (permissions).
  • Client ID & Secret: Uniquely identify your application (secure handshake).
  • Endpoint: Specific URL to access Workday functions (like a door to a room).
  • OAuth 2.0: Secure way to get temporary access tokens (like a one-time pass).
  • REST API: Flexible API using regular commands (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
  • Sandbox: Test environment with dummy data (safe zone for experimentation).
  • Token: Temporary permission to access Workday (like a short-term pass).
  • Workforce Now : HR Software suite that helps businesses with HR, time, benefits, payroll

B. References

  1. Login & Registration for ADP Account
  2. ADP Restful API
  3. ADP Workforce Now products
  4. Workforce Now ADP API Integration
  5. Payroll Data Input API
  6. Payroll Data Input API Guide for ADP Workforce Now
  7. Oauth documentation
  8. Access Tokens
  9. Pay Data Input
  10. Forbes ADP Workforce Review

Tutorials
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Oct 29, 2024

eSignature API Integration Guides & Resources

Introduction to eSignature API

From wet ink on the Declaration of Independence to secure digital clicks, signatures have ensured binding contracts for centuries. A study found that businesses can spend an average of 5 days collecting physical signatures for a single contract. This time-consuming process not only hinders business agility but also creates geographical limitations. In this internet-centric world, signatures have also gone digital. Electronic signatures (eSignatures) or digital signatures offer a compelling solution. The traditional paper-based signing process can be frustrating and time-consuming for customers. But with just a few clicks, contracts and proposals can be signed from anywhere in the world with the help of eSignatures. eSignature API is user-friendly as it allows customers to sign documents conveniently from any device. With the rise of remote work, businesses need an efficient and secure document signing process regardless of location, and that's where eSignature serves its purpose.

What is an eSignature API?

Why eSignatures Rule the Modern Business Deal?

An eSignature API is like a digital signing service. Your system/software interacts with the API as a client, sending a document and signing instructions (request) to the service (server). The service handles the signing process (with security) and returns the signed document to you (response). Just like any API, it's all about sending and receiving data. eSignature benefits businesses in several ways:

  • Electronic security protects your documents, reducing the risk of data loss.
  • You get instant signatures, increasing speed.
  • Save money by eliminating physical printing and delivery.
  • With eSignatures, businesses and organizations efficiently manage to complete their signing process of legal documents and agreements, regardless of location or device.

Core Functionality of eSignature APIs

An eSignature API offers various functions that simplify the electronic signature process. Some of the key functionalities are:

  • Upload and Manage Documents: The API allows you to upload documents to the eSignature platform for signing, sending, and tracking. You can also manage document versions and access signed documents after completion.
  • Define Signing Fields: To make it simpler and user-friendly, you can use the API to specify where signers need to provide their signatures, initials, or other data on the document, ensuring all the necessary information is captured electronically.
  • Track Signature Status: eSignature API also provides real-time status updates on the signing process. You can see who has signed, who is pending, and any outstanding actions.
  • Download Signed Documents: The API also allows you to download the final signed document with an audit trail for record-keeping purposes.

Types of eSignature API

There are two types of eSignature APIs: 

  • REST APIs: Representational State Transfer standardized software architecture style, which is used for communication between client and server via a web-based approach. The eSignature service leverages HTTP requests and responses for the signing process. They are widely used because they are scalable, stateless, and offer high performance.
  • SOAP APIs (Simple Object Access Protocol): SOAP APIs offer a more structured communication approach. They use XML messaging and are specifically preferred for complex tasks that require detailed information.

Although SOAP APIs were commonly used in the past and are still employed to maintain legacy systems, most API providers now extensively use REST APIs for their modern applications.

Benefits of Integrating Knit’s Unified eSignature API

Knits Unified eSignature APIs offer many benefits for eSignature integrations. 

  1. Single API, Endless Possibilities: If your company or clients use multiple API providers for eSignature, integrating with each can be complex. A Unified API simplifies this by handling all these needs through a single integration.   
  2. Effortless Scalability: As your business grows, so will your eSignature needs. Knit’s infrastructure manages increased signing volume without extra integrations. This lets you focus on growth, confident that Knit will meet your eSignature demands.
  3. Customer Satisfaction: Knit eliminates complex download-print-sign-scan-email cycles by integrating directly with your customer's existing systems, such as their online portal or mobile app. This integration allows customers to access and sign documents electronically within a familiar environment with just a few clicks. By removing manual steps, Knit creates a seamless signing experience, significantly enhancing customer satisfaction.
  4. Expanded Customer Base: Businesses often look for eSignature solutions that integrate seamlessly with various document management and workflow tools. Knit’s unified API supports a broad range of integrations, making it highly attractive to organizations seeking comprehensive eSignature capabilities. This extensive compatibility increases your total addressable market (TAM) and attracts a broader range of potential customers.

Key Features To Look For in an eSignature API

When choosing an eSignature API for your SaaS, consider these key features for a smooth and secure integration experience.

  • Comprehensive Signing Workflow: In today's tech-savvy world, finding all your API integration needs in one place is not too much to ask for. Looking for an API that manages the entire signing process, which includes uploading documents, defining signing fields, sending requests with personalized messages, specifying signing orders, and tracking completion status. 
  • Multiple Signature Options & Bulk Send Functionality: Ensure your API supports various signature methods (e.g., typed, drawn, mobile app integration) to meet security and legal requirements. Additionally, provides a bulk send feature to streamline sending signature requests to multiple recipients, enhancing efficiency for handling numerous documents.
  • Authentication Tools: Strong user authentication is crucial as it ensures fraud prevention and compliance with regulations and builds trust. Therefore, consider features like email verification, access codes, SMS authentication, or Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA).
  • Branding Customization: The ability to customize the signing experience by tailoring your brand needs, such as logo and colors, can enhance brand recognition.
  • Detailed Audit Trails: A robust audit trail is essential for record-keeping and compliance purposes. The API should capture a detailed history of the signing process, including timestamps, signer information, and any changes made to the document.

Know About eSign API Data Models

Effective data management within your eSignature SaaS application hinges on well-defined data models. These models act as blueprints, accurately organizing and structuring the information crucial for eSignature functionality. These models typically include:

Signers/Recipient: The person who will sign the contract.

Documents: This is the contract itself.

Signing Fields: These are the locations on the document where signatures, initials, or other data need to be captured.

Envelopes: They function as self-contained packages. They actively bundle all the documents requiring signatures, recipient details, completion status, and a unique identifier for easy tracking.

Top eSign API Providers

There are various eSignature API providers in the market today. You must choose which caters best to your needs, workflows, budget, and security considerations. This comparison provides features and API pricing for leading digital signature platforms, thus helping you choose the best eSignature API that fits your needs.

DocuSign

Strengths - Robust API, secure, compliant, workflow automation

Weaknesses - Complex setup, higher pricing

Ideal For - Enterprise, high-volume signing, complex workflows

DocuSign API Documentation Link: https://developers.docusign.com/

Adobe Sign

Strengths - User-friendly, branding, Adobe integration

Weaknesses - Limited features, potentially high pricing

Ideal For - User-friendly signing, Adobe ecosystem

Acrobat Sign API Documentation: https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/apis/sign-api/

HelloSign (Dropbox Sign)

Strengths - Simple API, Dropbox integration, budget-friendly

Weaknesses - Limited features, basic workflows

Ideal For - Existing Dropbox users, budget-conscious businesses

Dropbox Sign API Documentation: https://developers.hellosign.com/

PandaDoc

Strengths - Interactive proposals, sales-oriented

Weaknesses - eSignature focus might be secondary, potentially higher pricing

Ideal For - Proposal creation, sales workflows

PandaDoc API Documentation: https://developers.pandadoc.com/reference/about

SignNow

Strengths - Mobile-friendly, ease of use, competitive pricing

Weaknesses - Security concerns for some industries, limited automation

Ideal For - Easy mobile signing, cost-effective

SignNow API Documentation: https://www.signnow.com/developers

Building Your First E-Signature Integration with Knit

Knit provides a unified eSign API that streamlines the integration of eSignature solutions. Instead of connecting directly with multiple eSignature APIs, Knit allows you to connect with top providers like DocuSign and Adobe Acrobat Sign through a single integration. Choose Your eSignature Provider and API after evaluating which eSignature provider best meets your needs, such as DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign, you can proceed with integration. Knit simplifies this process by supporting various providers, allowing you to connect with your chosen eSignature service through one API. By using Knit, integrating with popular eSignature providers becomes straightforward, making it a practical choice for your eSignature integration needs. Knit offers a unified API that simplifies integrating eSignature solutions. Instead of working directly with multiple eSignature APIs, you can use Knit to connect with top providers like DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, and many others through a single integration. Learn more about the benefits of using a unified API. Steps Overview:

  1. Create a Knit Account: Sign up for Knit to get started with their unified API.
  2. Choose Your eSignature Provider: Select a provider (e.g., DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign). Knit handles the integration with these providers.
  3. Obtain API Credentials: Get the necessary credentials from your chosen provider (e.g., DocuSign integration key and JWT secret).
  4. Build Your Workflow in Knit:
    • Define the document and signer details.
    • Use Knit’s HTTP Request nodes to send signature requests and handle responses.
    • Optionally, track the signing status and download the signed document.

For detailed integration steps with specific eSignature providers via Knit, visit:

You can learn about the body parameters, such as signers, documentName, content Type, senderEmailId, redirectURL, and other request body parameters, and responses for various eSignature actions on Knit. Here are a few eSignature reference documents to review.

Each of these links provides detailed information on the body parameters and responses. You can also test the request and response bodies in different programming languages, such as Node.js, Ruby, Python, Swift, Java, C++, C#, Go, and PHP. Knit simplifies the eSignature integration process, letting you focus on your core application development.

Knit’s E-Signature API vs. Direct Connector APIs: A Comparison

Benefits of building ESign Integrations with Knit Unified ESignature API

Best Practices for Implementing eSignature APIs

Optimizing e-signature Integrations for Performance and Scalability

Below are a few points on how you can optimize your integration for better performance and increase scalability.

  • Batch Processing: Instead of sending individual requests, consider batch processing to send multiple signature requests simultaneously.
  • Asynchronous Workflows: Waiting for the eSignature response can slow things down. By using asynchronous workflows, your app can keep working on other tasks while it waits for the eSignature response to come back. 
  • Monitoring and Alerting:  Without knowing what's wrong, API maintenance is challenging, and it's much harder to debug when we do not know where to start. Therefore, setting up monitoring tools to track response times and error rates is advisable.

Security Considerations: Authentication methods, Data encryption & compliance standards

  • Authentication Methods: Well-built authentication methods are necessary to prevent unauthorized access and thus avoid fraudulent activities. Implementing techniques like two-factor authentication or Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA) ensures the verification of signer identities.
  • Data Encryption:  Ensure the eSignature API utilizes robust encryption protocols (e.g., AES-256) to protect sensitive document data both in transit and at rest.
  • Compliance Standards: Choose an eSignature provider that adheres to relevant eSignature regulations like eIDAS (Europe) and ESIGN (US) to ensure the legal validity of electronically signed documents.  
  • Access Controls: Implement granular access controls within your application to restrict who can send signature requests, view documents, or manage the signing process.

eSignature API Use Cases (With Real-World Examples)

eSignature API Integration for Loan Applications

With the increasing demand for entrepreneurship, housing, and college applications, there has also been a rise in loan applications. The end-to-end loan application process involves hefty paperwork. To streamline this process, many financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo have started using eSignature APIs for signing, creating an easy and secure loan application experience. Loan applicants now sign documents from their devices, anywhere.

eSignature API Integration for Onboarding

Today, organizations of all sizes, from small to large, use Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) to manage their human resources. The onboarding process requires signing an offer letter and several agreements. Due to fast-paced and advanced technology, companies are no longer spending their resources on manual work for tasks that can be automated. Many HRIS are integrating eSignature APIs into their systems. Companies like Salesforce use the DocuSign API Provider for eSignature, benefiting extensively from this integration. New hires electronically sign their offer letters and agreements, which are required during onboarding. This approach minimizes the risk of misplacing physical documents and accelerates the process.

eSignature API Integration for Real Estate

This industry involves several documents, including Offer to Purchase Agreements, Sales Contracts, Disclosure Documents, Mortgage Documents, Deeds, and Closing Statements. Storing and retrieving all these documents is a significant concern due to the constant threat of theft, loss, or damage. The authenticity of these documents can also be questioned due to increasing fraud in the industry. With eSignature API integration, many of these issues are resolved, as documents can be signed digitally, eliminating the stress of physically storing and retrieving them. Mortgage lenders like Quicken Loans leverage eSignatures to revolutionize real estate transactions. Both homebuyers and sellers can sign all documents electronically, eliminating the need for physical documents and signatures.

Real-life examples

IBM Uses eSignature for Emptoris Contract Management

IBM serves as a prime example of how eSignatures can supercharge contract management. Their Emptoris Contract Management system utilizes eSignatures for contract execution. When a contract is electronically signed, it is securely attached to a PDF document and includes a public key for verification alongside a private key held by the signer. This method ensures the legally binding nature of contracts while significantly reducing the reliance on paper-based processes. Additionally, it empowers IBM to efficiently track contract approvals, leading to a smoother and more efficient overall process.

eSignature API Integration for ADP

Payroll and HR Service Provider ADP is a cloud-based software that provides services that cover all needs in human resource information systems (HRIS). The all-in-one native eSignature for ADP Workforce Now is used by ADP to manage its eSignature-related requirements such as HR documents, benefits enrollment, onboarding, and offboarding paperwork.

eSignature API Integration for eBay

eBay sellers can now skip the printing and scanning! eSignatures allow them to electronically send and have buyers sign essential documents related to their sales, like invoices or return agreements. This streamlines the process for both sellers and buyers.

Challenges & Troubleshooting Techniques

Integrating APIs in your system can be tricky but understanding common authentication errors and request/response issues can help ensure a smooth connection.

Authentication Errors 

Some most common errors are: 

  • Incorrect API credentials: Double-check your API credentials for typos or errors.
  • Expired tokens: Ensure your tokens are valid and refreshed before expiration.
  • Permission issues: Verify that your API user has the necessary permissions to perform the requested actions.

API Request & Response Errors

Higher chances that your errors fall in this category. These can be caused by invalid data formats, missing required fields, or unsupported functionalities in your request. Some most common errors are: 

  • Signature Invalid: Recalculate the signature using your API key and request data. Ensure you're using the correct signing algorithm.
  • Delivery Failure: Verify email addresses and sender permissions.
  • Unable to receive a verification code: Review the recipient's phone number and ensure they have signal/can receive SMS/calls. 

Find other error codes of DocuSign

Effective Debugging Techniques

Ensuring a smooth integration requires thorough debugging. Here are two key strategies to pinpoint and resolve integration challenges:

  • Logging: Implement detailed logging throughout your integration workflow. It helps capture errors encountered during API requests and responses and, thus, helps identify the root cause. 

Learn more about efficient logging practices here.

  • Testing: Unit testing can be a game changer, especially for a complex integration, as it helps to identify the root cause faster.

Future of eSignature APIs

Emerging Trends and Technologies in eSignatures:

As eSignature technology continues to evolve, several trends are shaping the future of eSignature API integration, including:

  • Biometric Authentication: To make the process more secure, multi-factor authentication (Fingerprint scanning, facial recognition) is required in many companies, while implementing eSignature adds an extra security layer.
  • Blockchain Integration: Blockchain technology can improve the security and efficiency of the signing process. It can maintain permanent and auditable records of the process, thus enhancing transparency and avoiding compliance, proving how blockchain eSignature can serve us better.
  • Mobile Signing: Users prefer the ease of signing documents through their mobile devices, and as a result, many mobiles come with built-in or downloadable eSignature software.
  • Global Expansion: As eSignature regulations become more standardized globally, eSignature APIs will facilitate seamless document signing across borders.

eSignature Integration with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

AI-powered eSignatures offer numerous benefits, including:

  • Signature Verification: By analyzing handwritten signatures against electronic references, it detects forgeries and enhances verification.
  • Authentication: AI also helps in the identity validation of signatories using facial recognition technology.
  • Intelligent Document Review:  While humans can make mistakes or overlook details during proofreading, ML algorithms can thoroughly analyze documents, identify missing information, and highlight potential issues. This ensures accuracy and completeness before documents are sent for signing.

Appendix

  • Glossary of Terms
    • Digital Signature (eSignature): An electronic equivalent of a handwritten signature that verifies the signer's identity.
    • SOAP API (Simple Object Access Protocol): A type of API that uses XML messaging for communication. SOAP APIs are more complex than REST APIs but can be helpful for tasks that require detailed information.
    • Envelope: A digital package that contains all the documents and information needed for a signing ceremony.
    • Signer: The person who needs to sign the document.
    • Signing Order: The order in which signers need to sign the document.
    • Signing Field: A designated place on the document where a signer needs to provide their signature, initials, or other data.
    • Audit Trail: A record of all the actions taken during the signing process, including timestamps, signer information, and any changes made to the document.
Tutorials
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Oct 28, 2024

eCommerce API Integration Guides & Resources

eCommerce applications have seen a boom in the last few years. These applications have drastically transformed the way consumers shop, businesses sell and the entire shopping experience. However, these platforms no longer operate in isolation; they now interact extensively with systems like payment gateways, shipping and logistics, inventory management, loyalty programs, and more. This evolution has led to the rise of eCommerce API integrations, which enable seamless data exchange between applications, creating an interconnected and efficient ecosystem.

Read more: 14 Best SaaS Integration Platforms - 2024

API integrations empower businesses to unlock the full potential of their eCommerce platforms, ensuring smooth functionality for their specific products and operations. Through API integration, companies can link internal systems or connect with their customers' eCommerce platforms to access vital data and enhance operational efficiency. Here’s how:

Internal eCommerce API integration: Businesses integrating CRM with eCommerce API to consolidate customer data management

Businesses can integrate their eCommerce API with their CRM to consolidate customer data, including purchase history, preferences, and buying behavior. This unified system of record allows sales teams to tailor their pitches based on customer insights, improving conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

External eCommerce API integration: Shipping and logistics management providers can integrate can with eCommerce applications of their end customers

Shipping providers can integrate their systems with customers’ eCommerce platforms to access real-time order information. This automation ensures shipping providers are instantly notified when an order is placed, streamlining the process and enhancing transparency. Real-time updates via bi directional sync also ensure that customers have accurate information about shipping statuses, fostering trust and satisfaction.

eCommerce API integration is transforming business operations by enabling seamless management of eCommerce processes. This guide covers the essentials to help you successfully implement, scale, and optimize API integration. We'll explore data models, integration benefits, common challenges, best practices, and security considerations.

Benefits of eCommerce API Integration

Let’s start with some of the top benefits that businesses can leverage with eCommerce API integration.

Faster eCommerce lifecycle

API integrations significantly speed up the eCommerce lifecycle by automating and streamlining various processes. From browsing products to order fulfillment and customer service, different systems such as inventory management, shipping, and payment gateways work together seamlessly.

By eliminating manual data entry, businesses can enable processes to run concurrently, rather than sequentially. For example, while one system processes payment, another can update the inventory and trigger an automated shipping notification. This simultaneous processing reduces the time it takes to complete each stage of the customer journey, resulting in faster delivery and a smoother experience for customers.

Quality assurance and better customer experience

eCommerce API integration ensures that critical data, such as product availability, pricing, and shipping details, is constantly updated in real time across all systems. This creates a single source of truth, ensuring customers always see accurate information while browsing.

For example, imagine a customer placing an order for a product listed as in-stock, only to later find out it’s unavailable due to slow data synchronization. With real-time API integration, such discrepancies are avoided, and the customer experience is more seamless and trustworthy. Accurate, up-to-date information also helps businesses reduce cart abandonment and improve conversion rates. Internally, employees benefit from having full visibility into the customer lifecycle, empowering them to provide better support and service.

Understand customer behavior

API integrations allow businesses to capture and analyze customer data across multiple touchpoints, providing a 360-degree view of customer behavior, preferences, and trends. This wealth of data helps businesses make data-driven decisions to refine their marketing strategies, product offerings, and customer engagement.

For example, an eCommerce API integration with an analytics platform can track user behavior on the website—what products they view, how often they make purchases, and their interaction with marketing campaigns. This data can then be leveraged to offer personalized product recommendations, targeted promotions, or loyalty programs tailored to each customer, driving engagement and increasing sales.

Clear financial visibility

Integrating eCommerce APIs with accounting and payment systems provides businesses with a holistic view of their financial health. Businesses can track payment statuses, monitor pending invoices, and get real-time revenue projections, all of which are crucial for managing cash flow and financial planning.

For instance, connecting an eCommerce platform to an accounting system enables automatic reconciliation of transactions. Payment delays, refunds, and other financial activities are reflected in real time, providing clear insight into the business's cash flow and helping finance teams make informed decisions.

Workflow automation and automated triggers

One of the most powerful benefits of eCommerce API integration is the ability to automate workflows and trigger actions based on specific events. This reduces manual intervention and allows businesses to scale their operations efficiently.

For example, when inventory levels drop below a predefined threshold, the eCommerce system can automatically trigger a restocking request to suppliers, ensuring that products are replenished in time to meet customer demand. Similarly, when an order is placed, API integration with a shipping provider can automatically generate a shipping label and notify the logistics team, accelerating the fulfillment process.

In essence, eCommerce API integration minimizes the chances of human error, reduces repetitive tasks, and frees up employees to focus on higher-value activities. Additionally, automated workflows ensure that the business can respond to dynamic changes—such as spikes in demand—without sacrificing operational efficiency.

eCommerce API Data Models Explained

With an understanding of the benefits, let’s move onto decoding the eCommerce API data model. These data models are foundational to understanding and running eCommerce API integrations successfully.

Products

The product-related data is at the core of eCommerce operations. These fields ensure that every product listed on the platform is identifiable, categorized, and priced properly.

Product ID

A unique identifier assigned to each product, ensuring it can be distinctly recognized across different systems.

Product Name

The official name of the product, displayed on the platform for customer reference.

Product Description

A detailed overview of the product, which may include features, specifications, usage instructions, and key dates (such as expiration or warranty).

Product Price

Both the base price and any discounted prices, allowing flexibility in pricing and promotions.

Category

Defines the broader category the product falls under, such as electronics, clothing, or household items, aiding in organization and search functionality.

Stock

Represents real-time inventory status, indicating whether the product is in stock, low in stock, or out of stock, along with available quantities.

Attributes

Specific details about the product, such as color, size, material, etc., which can vary per product and be filtered by customers.

Currency

The currency in which the product's price is listed, critical for international eCommerce to ensure accurate pricing across regions., e.g. INR, USD, EUR, etc. 

Orders

This data model captures everything related to customer purchases and the processing of orders. It tracks the lifecycle of an order, from the time it's placed until it's delivered or canceled.

Order ID

A unique number or identifier that distinguishes each order, essential for tracking, customer service, and records.

Customer ID

A unique identifier for the customer, linking their purchase history and allowing personalized services.

Order Date

The date and time when the order was placed, used for tracking shipment timelines and delivery estimates.

Status

Reflects the current stage of the order in the processing chain, from initial placement to completion (shipped, delivered, etc.).

Address

Includes both shipping and billing addresses, which can be different depending on the customer’s preference or payment method.

Payment Method

The customer’s choice of payment, such as credit card, UPI, or Cash on Delivery, which affects the backend processing and settlement.

Amount/ Currency

The total amount due for the order, including item costs, taxes, and shipping fees, as well as the currency the transaction will be completed in.

Tracking Number

Provides customers with real-time updates on their order's delivery status by linking to shipping services.

Customers

Captures all vital data and interactions related to customers who use the eCommerce platform and its integrated services. This data helps in improving personalization, customer support, and tracking the overall user experience.

Customer ID

A unique identifier (alphanumeric or numeric) assigned to each customer. It is essential for maintaining records such as purchase history, customer preferences, and profile information.

Customer Name 

The name provided by the customer, typically used for communication and personalization purposes across emails, notifications, and marketing campaigns.

Customer Email

The email address of the customer, which is primarily used for transaction-related communication (order confirmations, invoices) and for marketing or promotional purposes (newsletters, product offers).

Address

This includes both the shipping and billing addresses provided by the customer, facilitating accurate and timely delivery of orders. The billing address is used for invoicing purposes.

Phone Number

The customer’s contact number, which can be used to provide updates on order status, confirm delivery details, or for customer service inquiries.

Previous Orders

A comprehensive list of orders placed by the customer, along with their current status (e.g., delivered, canceled, pending). This information aids in analyzing customer behavior and purchase trends. 

Account Status

The current status of the customer's account, which could be active, inactive, or on hold. This is particularly important in managing customer membership tiers or subscription services, if applicable.

Loyalty Points

The number of loyalty points accrued by the customer through previous purchases, including information on their validity, eligibility for redemption, and point expiration (if the platform supports loyalty programs).

Payment

Details related to all payments made through the eCommerce platform, ensuring transparency and accurate tracking of transactions.

Payment ID

A unique identifier assigned to each payment made on the platform. This is crucial for resolving payment-related issues and generating financial reports.

Order ID

The unique identifier associated with the order for which the payment was made. It connects the payment to its respective order and helps in tracking the order's status.

Amount

The total amount paid by the customer for the order, including taxes, shipping fees, and discounts. This may also include the currency in which the payment was processed.

Payment Method

The method chosen by the customer for payment, such as credit card, net banking, UPI, or cash on delivery. 

Payment Status

Indicates whether the payment was successfully completed, is pending, on hold, or declined. This is important for managing order fulfillment and refund processes.

Transaction date

The date and time when the payment transaction was completed, allowing for precise financial tracking and auditing.

Inventory

Provides detailed information about the stock levels and availability of products listed on the platform, ensuring effective inventory control and replenishment.

Product ID

A unique identifier assigned to each product, enabling accurate tracking of product details, stock levels, and associated logistics.

Warehouse ID

Identifies the specific warehouse or fulfillment center where the product is stored, facilitating efficient order processing and stock management.

Stock Status

The current status of the product's stock, such as whether it is in stock, running low, or out of stock. This helps the platform notify customers and manage product availability.

Stock Quantity

The exact number of units available for a particular product, assisting in order fulfillment and inventory forecasting.

Reorder Level

The exact number of units available for a particular product, assisting in order fulfillment and inventory forecasting.

Shipping

Encompasses all information related to the shipping and delivery of orders, helping in the smooth execution of logistics.

Shipping ID

A unique identifier for each shipment, used to track the package's journey from the warehouse to the customer.

Order ID

A unique identifier for each shipment, used to track the package's journey from the warehouse to the customer.

Carrier

The logistics provider or shipping company responsible for delivering the order, such as FedEx, Delhivery, or a local courier.

Tracking Number

 A tracking number or reference code that allows the customer to monitor the shipment’s status in real time, ensuring transparency and predictability in the delivery process.

Shipping Status

The current status of the shipment, such as whether it is in transit, delivered, delayed, or undelivered. This is crucial for customer communication and satisfaction.

Shipping Address

The destination address to which the order is being delivered, as provided by the customer.

Estimated Delivery

The expected date or time range when the order is anticipated to arrive at its destination, helping manage customer expectations.

Popular eCommerce APIs

Shopify

Benefits: User friendly, allows complete customization

API documentation: https://shopify.dev/docs/api

Stripe

Benefits: Robust features like subscriptions, can handle complex transactions

API documentation: https://docs.stripe.com/api

BigCommerce

Benefits: Provides UTF–8 character encoding

API documentation: https://developer.bigcommerce.com/docs/api

Magento

Benefits: Backed by Adobe; built for scale

API documentation: https://developer.adobe.com/commerce/webapi/rest/

WooCommerce

Benefits: Open source; designed for Wordpress

API documentation: https://woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-rest-api/

Etsy

Benefits: JSON format response actions

API documentation: https://developers.etsy.com/

Amazon

Benefits: Powerful authentication mechanisms; high data security

API documentation: https://developer-docs.amazon.com/sp-api

eCommerce API Integration Best Practices for Developers

Here’s a list of best practices that developers can adopt to accelerate their eCommerce API integration process. 

Understand the eCommerce API documentation and leverage sandbox testing

The first step in successful eCommerce API integration is thoroughly understanding the API documentation. API documentation serves as the blueprint, detailing processes, endpoints, rate limits, error handling, and more. Developers should not rush this step—taking a deep dive into the documentation will help avoid common pitfalls during integration.

Additionally, many API providers offer sandbox environments, which allow developers to test their integration in simulated real-world conditions. Testing in sandbox environments helps identify potential issues early on and ensures the API behaves as expected across different scenarios. By using sandbox testing, developers can fine-tune their integrations, ensuring reliability and applicability at scale.

Ensure data validation and normalization

Data flowing between eCommerce applications must be validated and normalized for consistency. eCommerce platforms often use different formats, data types, so mismatched data can easily result in corruption or loss during transmission. By normalizing the data and validating it at every step, developers can avoid these issues and ensure smooth operation. This practice is essential for preventing errors that may arise from incompatible formatting or unvalidated inputs.

Monitor versioning and deprecations

eCommerce API versions change as providers update their platforms. Newer versions may introduce features or improvements, but they can also render older integrations incompatible. Developers need to stay vigilant in monitoring updates and ensuring their code remains backward compatible. Support for multiple API versions is often necessary to maintain functionality across different systems. Equally important is keeping track of API deprecations. Deprecated endpoints should be phased out in favor of updated ones to avoid service disruptions and technical debt.

Adopt a webhook based architecture

Webhooks provide a more efficient alternative to traditional polling mechanisms for synchronizing data. Polling involves repeatedly making API calls, which can strain both the client and server resources, especially if no new data has been generated. In contrast, webhooks allow the API to notify the system in real-time whenever a significant event occurs (e.g., an order is placed, a payment is confirmed, or inventory levels change).

By adopting a webhook-based architecture, developers can minimize the number of unnecessary API calls, reducing the load on the system and staying within rate limits. This approach ensures that important updates are reflected immediately, providing a faster, more responsive user experience and reducing the overhead associated with constant polling.

Document integration process and practices

Documenting each and every step that goes into building and maintaining the eCommerce API integration is integral. A well-documented integration not only helps new developers get up to speed but also ensures that teams can quickly troubleshoot issues without needing to sift through large codebases.

Detailed documentation should cover the integration setup, including endpoint configurations, authentication methods, data flow, error-handling processes, and common troubleshooting tips. Additionally, it should outline best practices for maintaining the integration and updating it when new API versions are released. Documentation serves as a roadmap for developers and non-technical teams alike, empowering customer support teams to handle common errors and inquiries without involving the development team.

Ensure high level of security and authentication

eCommerce transactions often involve sensitive customer data, including personal information, payment details, and order histories. Ensuring the security of these transactions is non-negotiable. Developers must implement strong authentication and authorization protocols to ensure that only trusted users can access the API.

Equally important is encryption—both in transit and at rest—to protect data from unauthorized access during transmission and while stored in databases. Developers should also focus on secure coding practices, such as validating inputs, sanitizing outputs, and consistently logging activity to detect suspicious behavior. Security should be integrated into every stage of the API lifecycle, from development through to deployment and monitoring.

Read more: API Monitoring and Logging

Perform load testing and track latency

Scalability and reliability are crucial factors in eCommerce API integrations, especially for platforms dealing with heavy traffic or high transaction volumes. Developers need to perform rigorous load testing to simulate scenarios where the API may be handling an excessive number of requests, large amounts of data, or extended periods of high user activity. This ensures that the system remains responsive and performs well under heavy load.

In addition to load testing, monitoring API latency is essential to ensure that response times remain within acceptable limits. Slow API responses can lead to poor user experiences and degraded performance for the entire eCommerce system. Developers should set up alerts for when latency exceeds predefined thresholds, allowing them to address bottlenecks proactively.

Respect pagination and rate limits

Managing large datasets and adhering to rate limits is another key aspect of efficient eCommerce API integration. Developers must respect these limits by optimizing their API call patterns and implementing rate-limiting strategies to avoid overloading the server. 

Pagination helps manage the retrieval of large datasets by breaking them down into smaller, manageable chunks. For instance, rather than retrieving thousands of orders in a single request, developers can use pagination to retrieve a subset of records at a time, improving both performance and reliability. Similarly, if the rate limit is exceeded, developers should implement a retry mechanism that waits before making another request, ensuring that no data is lost or duplicated during the process. Exponential backoff, where each retry attempt waits progressively longer, is a common technique that helps developers prevent repeated failures while ensuring system stability.

Read more: API Pagination 101: Best Practices for Efficient Data Retrieval

eCommerce API Use Cases: Real-World Examples

Below is a set of real world examples illustrating how different businesses can benefit from building and maintaining eCommerce API integrations. 

Payment gateways

When payment gateways integrate with eCommerce APIs, they gain immediate access to all relevant end-customer data, enabling swift and secure payment processing. This seamless connection allows for an enhanced customer experience, as payments are processed without manual intervention. In addition, payment providers can update their users in near real-time once a transaction is completed, facilitating faster order processing and minimizing delays. For example, an eCommerce platform can instantly notify a user that their payment has been successfully processed, while also triggering the order fulfillment process.

CRM and marketing automation

CRM systems and marketing automation platforms rely on eCommerce APIs to access real-time customer data such as purchase history, preferences, and behavior patterns. By integrating with these APIs, CRM systems can enrich customer profiles, enabling businesses to create highly personalized marketing campaigns. For instance, a CRM can automatically generate tailored email campaigns based on a customer's recent purchases, without requiring manual input from the marketing team. This integration fosters a more targeted, data-driven approach to customer engagement and boosts the effectiveness of sales pitches and promotions.

Shipping and logistics

Shipping and logistics providers benefit significantly from eCommerce API integration. By accessing key order information like product dimensions, weight, and delivery location, these providers can calculate accurate shipping costs and offer users real-time shipping options. Moreover, a bi-directional API sync allows logistics providers to automatically feed tracking details back into the customer’s system, eliminating the need for manual data exchanges. This ensures that both the business and the customer are continuously updated on shipment status, leading to a more transparent and efficient delivery process.

Inventory management systems

Integrating eCommerce APIs with inventory management systems automates key processes such as restocking. For example, when a product reaches a minimum threshold or reorder level, an automated API call or webhook can trigger a restocking order, ensuring that the inventory remains up-to-date. With real-time data synchronization, businesses can reflect the updated stock levels on their eCommerce platforms without any manual intervention, reducing the risk of overselling and ensuring accurate stock availability.

Loyalty programs

Loyalty and rewards program providers can leverage eCommerce API integrations to monitor customer transactions in real time, automatically applying rewards and points as soon as a purchase is made. This integration not only enhances the customer experience by providing instant gratification but also allows businesses to customize loyalty programs based on individual customer behavior. By using eCommerce data, providers can refine their rewards structures, offering more personalized incentives that encourage customer retention and engagement.

Customer success

Customer success platforms can use eCommerce APIs to pull comprehensive customer data, including order history, payment details, and shipping information, to support faster and more efficient issue resolution. In cases where customers face common challenges, such as delayed shipments or payment discrepancies, these platforms can automate the resolution process, significantly reducing customer wait times and improving overall satisfaction. This level of integration ensures that customer support teams have access to the information they need to resolve issues without requiring additional input from the customer, making for a seamless support experience.

Common eCommerce API Integration Challenges

While we have discussed the benefits, use cases and even the data models, it is important to acknowledge the common challenges that developers often face in the eCommerce API integration lifecycle.  

Inconsistent API documentation

One of the most prevalent challenges developers encounter is the inconsistency and inaccessibility of API documentation. In some cases, documentation is either incomplete or unavailable publicly, requiring developers to sign restrictive contracts or pay hefty fees just to access basic information. Even when documentation is accessible, it may not always be up to date with the latest API versions or may be poorly structured, making it difficult for developers to navigate. This forces developers to rely on guesswork during the integration process, increasing the likelihood of errors and bugs that can disrupt functionality later on.

Data format mismatch

Another significant hurdle is the mismatch in data formats and nomenclature across different eCommerce platforms. For example, what one platform refers to as a "product ID" might be labeled as "prodID" or "prod_ID" on another. This inconsistency in field naming conventions and data structures makes it difficult to map data correctly between systems. Consequently, developers are often required to invest time in normalizing and transforming data before it can be effectively transmitted. When integrating with multiple platforms, this issue becomes even more pronounced, leading to potential data loss or corrupted data exchanges.

Inconsistent backward compatibility

eCommerce APIs are constantly evolving, with new versions and updates released regularly to improve performance, security, or features. However, these changes can introduce compatibility issues if they are not promptly reflected in existing integrations. Developers must continuously monitor for API version updates and incorporate necessary changes into their integration pathways to avoid performance disruptions. Failing to do so can result in outdated integrations that no longer function properly, jeopardizing the overall user experience.

Performance issues and latency

As eCommerce platforms experience periods of high traffic, especially during peak seasons, the volume of data being transmitted through integrations can significantly increase. This can lead to performance issues such as slow data syncing, higher latency, and degraded quality of service. In extreme cases, latency issues may result in incomplete data transfers or the triggering of API rate limits, further complicating the integration process. For developers, ensuring consistent, high-quality performance under these conditions is a constant struggle, particularly when handling large-scale or high-frequency transactions.

Scalability challenges

Developing and maintaining eCommerce API integrations in-house presents significant scalability challenges. On average, building a single integration can take four weeks and cost approximately $10,000, making it a resource-intensive process. When developers need to integrate with multiple eCommerce platforms, these costs and timelines multiply, drawing focus away from the core product roadmap. Additionally, as businesses grow, scaling these integrations to support new features or increasing transaction volumes often requires additional resources, further straining development teams.

Vendor dependencies and support

Finally, eCommerce API integration often involves significant reliance on third-party vendors for support, especially when encountering uncommon errors or issues. However, timely vendor support is not always guaranteed, and managing communications with multiple vendors for different APIs can become an operational headache. This vendor dependency adds another layer of complexity to the integration process, as developers must wait for external assistance to resolve critical issues, delaying project timelines and potentially disrupting business operations.

Building Your First eCommerce Integration with Knit: Step-by-Step Guide

Knit provides a unified eCommerce API that streamlines the integration of eCommerce solutions. Instead of connecting directly with multiple eCommerce APIs, Knit allows you to connect with top providers like  Magneto, Shopify, BigCommerce, eBay, Amazon API, WooCommerce and many others through a single integration.

Learn more about the benefits of using a unified API.

Getting started with Knit is simple. In just 5 steps, you can embed multiple eCommerce integrations into your App.

Steps Overview:

  1. Create a Knit Account: Sign up for Knit to get started with their unified API. You will be taken through a getting started flow.
  2. Select Category: Select eCommerce from the list of available option on the Knit dashboard
  3. Register Webhook: Since one of the use cases of eCommerce integrations is to sync data at frequent intervals, Knit supports scheduled data syncs for this category. Knit operates on a push based sync model, i.e. it reads data from the source system and pushes it to you over a webhook, so you don’t have to maintain a polling infrastructure at your end. In this step, Knit expects you to tell us the webhook over which it needs to push the source data.
  4. Set up Knit UI to start integrating with APPs: In this step you get your API key and integrate with the eCommerce APP of your choice from the frontend.
  5. Fetch data and make API calls: That’s it! It’s time to start syncing data and making API calls and take advantage of Knit unified APIs and its data models. 

For detailed integration steps with the unified eCommerce API, visit:

Knit's eCommerce API vs. Direct Connector APIs: A Comparison

eCommerce API Integration with Knit

Read more: Unified API: ROI Calculator

Security Considerations for eCommerce API Integrations

eCommerce platforms and their ecosystem partners manage vast amounts of sensitive customer and financial data, making them prime targets for cyberattacks. Ensuring the security of API integrations is not only essential for protecting customer information but also for safeguarding a business’s reputation and financial standing. Any security breaches or unauthorized access can result in severe legal, financial, and reputational damage. Below are the top security challenges in eCommerce API integrations, along with best practices for mitigating risks.

Authorization and authentication

Improper or weak authentication and authorization mechanisms can expose customer data and sensitive business information to malicious actors. This is especially dangerous in eCommerce, where even a small security lapse can result in massive financial losses and damaged customer trust.

Implement robust authentication protocols such as OAuth 2.0, API Keys, Bearer Tokens, and JSON Web Tokens (JWT) to secure API access. Ensure that authorization is role-based, granting permissions according to user roles and responsibilities. This minimizes the risk of unauthorized access by limiting what actions different users can perform. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) can also be employed to add an extra layer of security, particularly for users accessing sensitive data or performing critical operations.

Read more: 5 Best API Authentication Methods to Dramatically Increase the Security of Your APIs

Data transmission and storage

Data, whether in transit or at rest, is particularly vulnerable to interception and unauthorized access. Leaked customer information, such as payment details or personal data, can lead to identity theft, fraud, or loss of customer trust.

Use HTTPS with Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt data during transmission, ensuring it remains confidential between the sender and the recipient. For data at rest, encryption should also be applied to protect sensitive information stored in databases or servers. Additionally, when outsourcing integrations to third-party vendors, it's crucial to verify that sensitive data isn’t unnecessarily stored by these providers. Businesses should ensure that vendors comply with industry security standards like SOC2, GDPR, and ISO27001.

Input validation

One of the common attack vectors in eCommerce API integrations is injection attacks, where malicious code is inserted into the API through unvalidated input. These attacks can lead to data breaches, corruption of business operations, and disruption of eCommerce activities.

Enforce strict input validation protocols to cleanse incoming data, removing any potentially harmful scripts or queries. Use parameterized queries for database interactions to avoid SQL injection risks. By validating and sanitizing all inputs, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of malicious data entering their system and causing havoc.

Vendor security checks

Integrating third-party services and APIs can introduce additional risks. Vulnerabilities in third-party applications or poor security practices by vendors can compromise the entire eCommerce system. If a third-party application is exploited, attackers may gain access to the main eCommerce platform or its data.

Conduct regular security assessments of third-party vendors to ensure they maintain adequate security standards. Developers should stay updated on any known vulnerabilities in third-party integrations and patch them immediately. Performing vulnerability scans and penetration testing on integrated services will also help in identifying potential weaknesses that could be exploited by attackers.

Abusive usage and DoS attacks

eCommerce APIs are often targets for abuse, particularly through Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks where attackers flood the API with excessive requests, overloading the system and causing service outages. Such disruptions can lead to significant revenue loss, especially during peak shopping seasons.

Implement rate limiting and throttling strategies to manage the number of API requests per user within a defined timeframe. Rate limiting caps the number of requests a user can make, while throttling slows down excessive requests without blocking them outright. Together, these strategies ensure that APIs remain responsive while minimizing the impact of abusive usage and DDoS attacks. Additionally, businesses can set up automated monitoring to detect unusual traffic patterns and mitigate attacks in real-time.

Read more: 10 Best Practices for API Rate Limiting and Throttling

TL:DR

As eCommerce continues to grow as a crucial sales channel, the need for seamless eCommerce API integration with other ecosystem applications is becoming increasingly vital for businesses. These integrations enable different applications to communicate, streamlining workflows, accelerating the entire eCommerce lifecycle, and ultimately enhancing customer experiences by personalizing journeys based on rich, real-time insights.

However, for developers, building these integrations can be a complex and challenging endeavor, especially given the growing number of eCommerce applications. Issues like scalability, inconsistent API documentation, and slow turnaround times often hinder the integration process.

Despite these obstacles, businesses across the eCommerce landscape—from payment gateways to logistics providers, and inventory management systems—have discovered innovative ways to leverage eCommerce API integrations to drive efficiency and unlock business value. By tapping into near real-time data, these organizations optimize operations and improve profitability.

To address the challenges of developing and maintaining integrations in-house, many companies are turning to unified API solutions, like Knit. These solutions simplify the integration process by offering:

  • A single connector for seamless integration with multiple eCommerce platforms
  • Accelerated scalability for managing numerous integrations
  • Rapid data normalization and transformation through a unified data model
  • Comprehensive monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting support for all API calls and requests
  • Enhanced security with double encryption and zero data retention on Knit’s servers
  • Guaranteed scalability for data synchronization, regardless of data load, thanks to a webhook-based architecture
  • The flexibility to build on customer data fields beyond standardized models
  • The ability to start, stop, or pause data sync based on business needs

By leveraging solutions like Knit, businesses can not only streamline their API integration processes but also ensure they remain agile, secure, and ready to scale as the eCommerce ecosystem continues to evolve. Connect with Knit’s experts to understand the diverse use cases and accelerate your eCommerce API integration journey today. 

Tutorials
-
Sep 13, 2024

Get employee details from Personio API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Personio API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Personio API to Get employee details from Peronio API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Personio API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get Employee Details from Personio API

Overview

To retrieve employee details such as first name, last name, and date of joining from the Personio API, you can utilize the listEmployees endpoint. Below is a step-by-step guide with Python code snippets to achieve this.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set Up Your Environment

Ensure you have the necessary libraries installed:

pip install requests

2. Define API Credentials

Set your API credentials for authentication:

api_url = "https://api.personio.de/v1/company/employees"
headers = {
    "X-Personio-Partner-ID": "your_partner_id",
    "X-Personio-App-ID": "your_app_id",
    "accept": "application/json"
}

3. Make the API Request

Send a GET request to the listEmployees endpoint to fetch the required details:

import requests

params = {
    "attributes[]": ["first_name", "last_name", "hire_date"]
}

response = requests.get(api_url, headers=headers, params=params)

if response.status_code == 200:
    employees = response.json().get("data", [])
    for employee in employees:
        first_name = employee["attributes"].get("first_name")
        last_name = employee["attributes"].get("last_name")
        hire_date = employee["attributes"].get("hire_date")
        print(f"First Name: {first_name}, Last Name: {last_name}, Date of Joining: {hire_date}")
else:
    print(f"Failed to retrieve data: {response.status_code}")

4. Handle the Response

Process the response to extract and display the employee details:

if response.status_code == 200:
    employees = response.json().get("data", [])
    for employee in employees:
        first_name = employee["attributes"].get("first_name")
        last_name = employee["attributes"].get("last_name")
        hire_date = employee["attributes"].get("hire_date")
        print(f"First Name: {first_name}, Last Name: {last_name}, Date of Joining: {hire_date}")
else:
    print(f"Failed to retrieve data: {response.status_code}")

Knit for Personio API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Personio API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Personio API.

Tutorials
-
Sep 9, 2024

Get job applications from Sage Recruitment API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Sage Recruitment API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Sage Recruitment API to Get job applications from Sage Recruitment API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Sage Recruitment API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get job applications from Sage Recruitment API

Overview

To retrieve job applications from the Sage Recruitment API, you can utilize the listApplicants and applicantDetails endpoints. This guide provides a step-by-step approach to fetch the first name, last name, and email of each candidate who has applied to a specific job.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. List Applicants for a Specific Job

First, use the listApplicants endpoint to get a list of applicants for a specific job position.

import requests

# Define the endpoint and parameters
position_id = 123  # Replace with your specific job position ID
url = f"https://subdomain.sage.hr/api/recruitment/positions/{position_id}/applicants"
headers = {
    "X-Auth-Token": "your_auth_token"  # Replace with your actual auth token
}

# Make the GET request
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
applicants = response.json().get('data', [])

# Extract applicant IDs
applicant_ids = [applicant['id'] for applicant in applicants]

2. Get Details for Each Applicant

Next, use the applicantDetails endpoint to fetch detailed information for each applicant.

applicant_details = []

for applicant_id in applicant_ids:
    url = f"https://subdomain.sage.hr/api/recruitment/applicants/{applicant_id}"
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    data = response.json().get('data', {})
    applicant_details.append({
        "first_name": data.get("first_name"),
        "last_name": data.get("last_name"),
        "email": data.get("email")
    })

# Print the applicant details
for detail in applicant_details:
    print(detail)

3. Example Output

The output will be a list of dictionaries containing the first name, last name, and email of each applicant.

[
    {"first_name": "Jon", "last_name": "Vondrak", "email": "jon.vondrak@example.com"},
    {"first_name": "Samantha", "last_name": "Cross", "email": "sam.cross@example.com"}
]

Knit for Sage Recruitment API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Sage Recruitment API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Sage Recruitment API.

Tutorials
-
Sep 9, 2024

Get all open jobs from Workable API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the workable API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the workable API to Get all open jobs from Workable API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the workable API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get all open jobs from Workable API

Overview

The Workable API allows you to retrieve a collection of open jobs from your account. This can be achieved using the GET method on the /spi/v3/jobs endpoint. The required scope for this operation is r_jobs, and it is accessible with all token types.

API Endpoint

https://{subdomain}.workable.com/spi/v3/jobs

Authorization

Header: Bearer {Access Token}

Query Parameters

  • state (string): Returns jobs with the current state. Possible values are draft, published, archived, and closed.
  • limit (int32): Specifies the number of jobs to try and retrieve per page (optional).
  • since_id (string): Returns results with an ID greater than or equal to the specified ID (optional).
  • max_id (string): Returns results with an ID less than or equal to the specified ID (optional).
  • created_after (date-time): Returns results created after the specified timestamp (optional).
  • updated_after (date-time): Returns results updated after the specified timestamp (optional).
  • include_fields (string): Includes additional fields in each job (description, full_description, requirements, and benefits).

Example Request

import requests

subdomain = 'your_subdomain'
access_token = 'your_access_token'
url = f'https://{subdomain}.workable.com/spi/v3/jobs'
headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}'
}
params = {
    'state': 'published'
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
print(response.json())

Example Response

{
  "jobs": [
    {
      "id": "61884e2",
      "title": "Sales Intern",
      "full_title": "Sales Intern - US/3/SI",
      "shortcode": "GROOV003",
      "code": "US/3/SI",
      "state": "published",
      "department": "Sales",
      "department_hierarchy": [
        {
          "id": 792289334,
          "name": "Sales"
        }
      ],
      "url": "https://groove-tech.workable.com/jobs/102268944",
      "application_url": "https://groove-tech.workable.com/jobs/102268944/candidates/new",
      "shortlink": "https://groove-tech.workable.com/j/GROOV003",
      "location": {
        "location_str": "Portland, Oregon, United States",
        "country": "United States",
        "country_code": "US",
        "region": "Oregon",
        "region_code": "OR",
        "city": "Portland",
        "zip_code": "97201",
        "telecommuting": false
      },
      "salary": {
        "salary_from": 10000,
        "salary_to": 20000,
        "salary_currency": "eur"
      },
      "created_at": "2015-07-01T00:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "paging": {
    "next": "https://www.workable.com/spi/v3/accounts/groove-tech/jobs?limit=3&since_id=2700d6df"
  }
}

Knit for Workable API Integration

For quick and seamless access to workable API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your workable API.

Tutorials
-
Sep 9, 2024

Get employee details from BreatheHR API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the BreatheHR API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the BreatheHR API to Get employee details from BreatheHR API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the BreatheHR API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get Employee Details from BreatheHR API

Overview

The BreatheHR API allows you to retrieve detailed information about employees. This section will guide you through the process of obtaining the first name, last name, and date of joining for all employees using the BreatheHR API.

API Endpoints

  • Get All Employees: GET /v1/employees
  • Get Employee by ID: GET /v1/employees/{id}

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Fetch All Employees

First, you need to fetch the list of all employees using the GET /v1/employees endpoint.

import requests

url = "https://api.breathehr.com/v1/employees"
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
params = {
    "page": 1,
    "per_page": 100
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
employees = response.json()

2. Extract Required Details

Next, extract the first name, last name, and date of joining from the response.

employee_details = []
for employee in employees:
    details = {
        "first_name": employee.get("first_name"),
        "last_name": employee.get("last_name"),
        "join_date": employee.get("join_date")
    }
    employee_details.append(details)

print(employee_details)

3. Handle Pagination (if necessary)

If there are more employees than can be returned in a single response, handle pagination by iterating through the pages.

employee_details = []
page = 1
while True:
    params["page"] = page
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
    employees = response.json()
    if not employees:
        break
    for employee in employees:
        details = {
            "first_name": employee.get("first_name"),
            "last_name": employee.get("last_name"),
            "join_date": employee.get("join_date")
        }
        employee_details.append(details)
    page += 1

print(employee_details)

Knit for BreatheHR API Integration

For quick and seamless access to BreatheHR API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your BreatheHR API.

Tutorials
-
Sep 9, 2024

Get all open jobs from Greenhouse API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Greenhouse API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Greenhouse API to Get all open jobs from Greenhouse API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Greenhouse API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get all open jobs from Greenhouse API

Overview

To retrieve all open jobs from the Greenhouse API, you need to utilize two endpoints: one to list all jobs and another to get the openings for each job. Below is a step-by-step guide with Python code snippets to achieve this.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. List All Jobs

First, use the GET /v1/jobs endpoint to list all jobs in the organization.

import requests
import base64

# Replace with your Greenhouse API key
api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
auth = base64.b64encode(f'{api_key}:'.encode()).decode()

url = 'https://harvest.greenhouse.io/v1/jobs'
headers = {
'Authorization': f'Basic {auth}'
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
jobs = response.json()

2. Filter Open Jobs

Filter the jobs to include only those with the status 'open'.

open_jobs = [job for job in jobs if job['status'] == 'open']

3. Get Openings for Each Job

For each open job, use the GET /v1/jobs/{job_id}/openings endpoint to retrieve the openings.

openings_url_template = 'https://harvest.greenhouse.io/v1/jobs/{job_id}/openings'
open_jobs_with_openings = []

for job in open_jobs:
job_id = job['id']
openings_url = openings_url_template.format(job_id=job_id)
response = requests.get(openings_url, headers=headers)
openings = response.json()
open_jobs_with_openings.append({
'job': job,
'openings': [opening for opening in openings if opening['status'] == 'open']
})

4. Result

The open_jobs_with_openings list now contains all open jobs along with their open openings.

Knit for Greenhouse API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Greenhouse API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Greenhouse API.

Tutorials
-
Sep 9, 2024

Get all candidates for a job from Workable API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the workable API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the workable API to Get all candidates for a job from Workable API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the workable API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get all candidates for a job from Workable API

To retrieve all candidates for a specific job using the Workable API, you can follow these steps. This guide will help you fetch the first name, last name, and email of each candidate who has applied for a particular job.

Step 1: Set up your environment

Ensure you have the necessary libraries installed. You can install the required libraries using pip:

pip install requests

Step 2: Define the API endpoint and parameters

Use the /candidates endpoint to get a list of candidates for a specific job. You will need to provide the job's shortcode as a query parameter.

Example Request:

import requests

subdomain = 'your_subdomain'
shortcode = 'your_job_shortcode'
access_token = 'your_access_token'

url = f'https://{subdomain}.workable.com/spi/v3/candidates'
headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}'
}
params = {
    'shortcode': shortcode,
    'stage': 'applied'
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
candidates = response.json().get('candidates', [])

for candidate in candidates:
    print(f"First Name: {candidate.get('firstname')}, Last Name: {candidate.get('lastname')}, Email: {candidate.get('email')}")

Step 3: Handle the response

The response will contain a list of candidates. Each candidate object will have keys such as firstname, lastname, and email. You can iterate through the list and extract the required information.

Example Response:

{
    "candidates": [
        {
            "id": "ce4da98",
            "firstname": "Lakita",
            "lastname": "Marrero",
            "email": "lakita_marrero@gmail.com",
            "stage": "applied"
        },
        {
            "id": "108d1748",
            "firstname": "Cindy",
            "lastname": "Sawyers",
            "email": "cindy_sawyers@gmail.com",
            "stage": "applied"
        }
    ]
}

By following these steps, you can efficiently retrieve and display the first name, last name, and email of each candidate who has applied for a specific job using the Workable API.

Knit for Workable API Integration

For quick and seamless access to workable API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your workable API.

Tutorials
-
Sep 9, 2024

Get all candidates for a job from Greenhouse API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Greenhouse API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Greenhouse API to Get all candidates for a job from Greenhouse API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Greenhouse API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get all candidates for a job from Greenhouse API

Overview

To retrieve all candidates who have applied to a specific job using the Greenhouse API, you will need to utilize multiple API endpoints. This guide provides a step-by-step approach to achieve this using Python code snippets.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set Up Authorization

Greenhouse API uses Basic Auth for authorization. Ensure you have your API key ready.

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
auth = HTTPBasicAuth(api_key, '')

2. Fetch Candidates for a Specific Job

Use the GET /v1/candidates endpoint to fetch candidates who have applied to a specific job by providing the job_id parameter.

job_id = 'YOUR_JOB_ID'
url = 'https://harvest.greenhouse.io/v1/candidates'
params = {
    'job_id': job_id,
    'per_page': 100,
    'page': 1
}

response = requests.get(url, auth=auth, params=params)
candidates = response.json()

3. Extract Candidate Information

Iterate through the response to extract the first name, last name, and email of each candidate.

candidate_info = []

for candidate in candidates:
    first_name = candidate.get('first_name')
    last_name = candidate.get('last_name')
    email_addresses = candidate.get('email_addresses', [])
    email = email_addresses[0]['value'] if email_addresses else None
    
    candidate_info.append({
        'first_name': first_name,
        'last_name': last_name,
        'email': email
    })

print(candidate_info)

4. Handle Pagination

If there are more candidates than can be returned in a single response, handle pagination by iterating through pages.

all_candidates = []
page = 1

while True:
    params['page'] = page
    response = requests.get(url, auth=auth, params=params)
    candidates = response.json()
    
    if not candidates:
        break
    
    for candidate in candidates:
        first_name = candidate.get('first_name')
        last_name = candidate.get('last_name')
        email_addresses = candidate.get('email_addresses', [])
        email = email_addresses[0]['value'] if email_addresses else None
        
        all_candidates.append({
            'first_name': first_name,
            'last_name': last_name,
            'email': email
        })
    
    page += 1

print(all_candidates)

Knit for Greenhouse API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Greenhouse API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Greenhouse API.

Tutorials
-
Aug 7, 2024

Get all open jobs from Sage Recruitment API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Sage Recruitment API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Sage Recruitment API to Get all open jobs from Sage Recruitment API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Sage Recruitment API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get all open jobs from Sage Recruitment API

Overview

To retrieve all open jobs from the Sage Recruitment API, you need to make a GET request to the /api/recruitment/positions endpoint with the appropriate query parameters. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to achieve this using Python.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set Up Your Environment

Ensure you have the requests library installed. You can install it using pip:

pip install requests

2. Define the API Endpoint and Parameters

Set the API endpoint and the required headers, including the authorization token. Use the query parameter status=open to filter for open jobs.

import requests

# Define the API endpoint
url = "https://subdomain.sage.hr/api/recruitment/positions"

# Set the headers
headers = {
    "X-Auth-Token": "your_auth_token_here"
}

# Set the query parameters
params = {
    "status": "open",
    "per_page": 100  # Adjust as needed
}

# Make the GET request
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)

# Check if the request was successful
if response.status_code == 200:
    open_jobs = response.json()
    print(open_jobs)
else:
    print(f"Failed to retrieve open jobs: {response.status_code}")

3. Handle Pagination

If there are multiple pages of results, you need to handle pagination to retrieve all open jobs. Below is an example of how to do this:

import requests

# Define the API endpoint
url = "https://subdomain.sage.hr/api/recruitment/positions"

# Set the headers
headers = {
    "X-Auth-Token": "your_auth_token_here"
}

# Initialize parameters
params = {
    "status": "open",
    "per_page": 100,  # Adjust as needed
    "page": 1
}

# Initialize a list to store all open jobs
all_open_jobs = []

while True:
    # Make the GET request
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
    
    # Check if the request was successful
    if response.status_code == 200:
        data = response.json()
        all_open_jobs.extend(data["data"])
        
        # Check if there are more pages
        if data["meta"]["next_page"]:
            params["page"] = data["meta"]["next_page"]
        else:
            break
    else:
        print(f"Failed to retrieve open jobs: {response.status_code}")
        break

print(all_open_jobs)

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can retrieve all open jobs from the Sage Recruitment API. Adjust the parameters as needed to fit your specific requirements.

Knit for Sage Recruitment API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Sage Recruitment API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Sage Recruitment API.

Tutorials
-
Aug 2, 2024

Get employee details from Zenefits API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Zenefits API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Zenefits API to Get employee details from Zenefits API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Zenefits API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get Employee Details from Zenefits API

Overview

The Zenefits API allows you to retrieve detailed information about employees within a company. To get the first name, last name, manager name, and date of joining for each employee, you will need to use multiple API endpoints. Below is a step-by-step guide with Python code snippets to achieve this.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Get All Employees

First, you need to retrieve the list of all employees in the company using the /core/companies/{company_id}/people endpoint.

import requests

def get_employees(company_id, access_token):
    url = f"https://api.zenefits.com/core/companies/{company_id}/people"
    headers = {
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}"
    }
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    return response.json()["data"]["data"]

company_id = "your_company_id"
access_token = "your_access_token"
employees = get_employees(company_id, access_token)

2. Get Employee Details

For each employee, retrieve detailed information using the /core/people/{id} endpoint.

def get_employee_details(employee_id, access_token):
    url = f"https://api.zenefits.com/core/people/{employee_id}"
    headers = {
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}"
    }
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    return response.json()["data"]

employee_details = [get_employee_details(emp["id"], access_token) for emp in employees]

3. Extract Required Information

Extract the first name, last name, manager name, and date of joining from the employee details.

def extract_employee_info(employee):
    first_name = employee.get("first_name")
    last_name = employee.get("last_name")
    manager_url = employee.get("manager", {}).get("url")
    date_of_joining = employee.get("employments", {}).get("data", [{}])[0].get("hire_date")
    
    manager_name = None
    if manager_url:
        manager_id = manager_url.split("/")[-1]
        manager_details = get_employee_details(manager_id, access_token)
        manager_name = f"{manager_details.get('first_name')} {manager_details.get('last_name')}"
    
    return {
        "first_name": first_name,
        "last_name": last_name,
        "manager_name": manager_name,
        "date_of_joining": date_of_joining
    }

employee_info_list = [extract_employee_info(emp) for emp in employee_details]

4. Display the Information

Finally, display the extracted information.

for info in employee_info_list:
    print(f"First Name: {info['first_name']}, Last Name: {info['last_name']}, Manager: {info['manager_name']}, Date of Joining: {info['date_of_joining']}")

Knit for Zenefits API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Zenefits API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Zenefits API.

Tutorials
-
Aug 2, 2024

Get employee details from Namely API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Namely API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Namely API to Get employee details from Namely API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Namely API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get Employee Details from Namely API

Overview

To retrieve employee details such as first name, last name, and date of birth from the Namely API, you can use the GET /profiles endpoint. This endpoint returns all active and inactive employee profiles. Below is a step-by-step guide to achieve this using Python.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set Up Your Environment

Ensure you have the necessary Python packages installed. You can install the requests library using pip:

pip install requests

2. Define the API Endpoint and Headers

Set up the API endpoint and headers, including your API key for authorization.

import requests

sub_domain = 'your_sub_domain'
api_key = 'your_api_key'
url = f'https://{sub_domain}.namely.com/api/v1/profiles'
headers = {
    'Accept': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}'
}

3. Make the API Request

Make a GET request to the Namely API to retrieve the profiles.

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
profiles = response.json().get('profiles', [])

4. Extract Required Information

Extract the first name, last name, and date of birth from the profiles.

employee_details = []
for profile in profiles:
    first_name = profile.get('first_name')
    last_name = profile.get('last_name')
    dob = profile.get('dob')
    employee_details.append({
        'first_name': first_name,
        'last_name': last_name,
        'dob': dob
    })

5. Print or Use the Extracted Data

You can now print or use the extracted employee details as needed.

for employee in employee_details:
    print(f"First Name: {employee['first_name']}, Last Name: {employee['last_name']}, Date of Birth: {employee['dob']}")

Knit for Namely API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Namely API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Namely API.

Tutorials
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Aug 2, 2024

Get employee details from BambooHR API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the BambooHR API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the BambooHR API to Get employee details .
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the BambooHR API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

BambooHR API: Get Employee Details

Overview

To retrieve detailed information about employees in BambooHR, you can utilize multiple APIs. This guide provides a step-by-step approach to get the first name and last name of all employees using the BambooHR API.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Get Employee Directory

First, you need to fetch the employee directory, which contains basic information about all employees.

Endpoint

GET https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{companyDomain}/v1/employees/directory

Headers
  • Accept: application/json
Path Parameters
  • companyDomain: The subdomain used to access BambooHR. For example, if you access BambooHR at https://mycompany.bamboohr.com, then the companyDomain is mycompany.
Sample Python Code
import requests

company_domain = 'your_company_domain'
url = f'https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{company_domain}/v1/employees/directory'
headers = {
    'Accept': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Basic YOUR_API_KEY'
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
if response.status_code == 200:
    employees = response.json().get('employees', [])
    for employee in employees:
        print(f"First Name: {employee.get('firstName')}, Last Name: {employee.get('lastName')}")
else:
    print(f"Failed to retrieve employee directory: {response.status_code}")

Step 2: Get Employee Dependents (Optional)

If you need additional details such as employee dependents, you can use the following endpoint.

Endpoint

GET https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{companyDomain}/v1/employeedependents

Headers
  • Accept: application/json
Path Parameters
  • companyDomain: The subdomain used to access BambooHR.
Query Parameters
  • employeeid: The employee ID to limit the response to a specific employee.
Sample Python Code
employee_id = 'specific_employee_id'
url = f'https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{company_domain}/v1/employeedependents?employeeid={employee_id}'
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
if response.status_code == 200:
    dependents = response.json().get('Employee Dependents', [])
    for dependent in dependents:
        print(f"Dependent Name: {dependent.get('firstName')} {dependent.get('lastName')}")
else:
    print(f"Failed to retrieve employee dependents: {response.status_code}")

Knit for BambooHR API Integration

For quick and seamless access to BambooHR API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your BambooHR API.

Tutorials
-
Jul 23, 2024

Get Employee Details from Workline API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Workline API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Workline API to Get Employee Details from Workline API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Workline API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get Employee Details from Workline API

Overview

The Workline API provides various endpoints to retrieve detailed information about employees. To get the first name, last name, and email for all employees, you can utilize multiple APIs provided by Workline. Below is a step-by-step guide using Python to achieve this.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set Up Basic Authentication

All API requests require basic authentication. Ensure you have your AppID, Username, and Password ready.

2. Define API Endpoints

We will use the following API endpoints:

  • https://{domain}.workline.hr/api/GetEmployeesData
  • https://{domain}.workline.hr/api/GetEmpDetails

3. Fetch Employee Data

First, we will fetch the basic employee data using the GetEmployeesData endpoint.

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

domain = 'your_domain'
app_id = 'your_app_id'
username = 'your_username'
password = 'your_password'
start_date = '10-Apr-2019'
end_date = '25-May-2019'

url = f'https://{domain}.workline.hr/api/GetEmployeesData'
headers = {
    'AppID': app_id,
    'StartDate': start_date,
    'EndDate': end_date
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, auth=HTTPBasicAuth(username, password))
employees = response.json()

for employee in employees:
    print(employee['FirstName'], employee['LastName'], employee['Emailid'])

4. Fetch Additional Employee Details

For more detailed information, you can use the GetEmpDetails endpoint.

for employee in employees:
    email_id = employee['Emailid']
    url = f'https://{domain}.workline.hr/api/GetEmpDetails'
    headers = {
        'AppID': app_id,
        'EmailID': email_id
    }
    
    response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, auth=HTTPBasicAuth(username, password))
    emp_details = response.json()
    
    for detail in emp_details:
        print(detail['FirstName'], detail['LastName'], detail['Emailid'])

5. Combine Data

To combine data from both endpoints, you can store the results in a list or a dictionary.

combined_data = []

for employee in employees:
    email_id = employee['Emailid']
    url = f'https://{domain}.workline.hr/api/GetEmpDetails'
    headers = {
        'AppID': app_id,
        'EmailID': email_id
    }
    
    response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, auth=HTTPBasicAuth(username, password))
    emp_details = response.json()
    
    for detail in emp_details:
        combined_data.append({
            'FirstName': detail['FirstName'],
            'LastName': detail['LastName'],
            'Emailid': detail['Emailid']
        })

print(combined_data)

Conclusion

By following the above steps, you can efficiently retrieve the first name, last name, and email of all employees using the Workline API.

Knit for Workline API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Workline API, Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Workline API.

Tutorials
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Jul 19, 2024

Fetch all Employee Details from Rippling API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Rippling API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Rippling API to Fetch all Employee Details from Rippling API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Rippling API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Fetch all Employee Details from Rippling API

Step 1: Get Current User Information

First, retrieve the current user information to ensure you have the correct access token and company ID.

import requests

url = "https://api.rippling.com/platform/api/me"
headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
current_user = response.json()
company_id = current_user['company']

Step 2: Fetch All Employees Including Terminated

Next, use the company ID to fetch all employees, including terminated ones. Ensure pagination for optimal performance.

def fetch_employees(company_id, limit=100, offset=0):
    url = "https://api.rippling.com/platform/api/employees/include_terminated"
    headers = {
        "Accept": "application/json",
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
    }
    params = {
        "EIN": company_id,
        "limit": limit,
        "offset": offset
    }
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
    return response.json()

employees = []
offset = 0
while True:
    batch = fetch_employees(company_id, limit=100, offset=offset)
    if not batch:
        break
    employees.extend(batch)
    offset += 100

Step 3: Extract Required Employee Details

Finally, extract the first name, last name, email ID, and manager name for each employee.

employee_details = []
for employee in employees:
    details = {
        "first_name": employee.get("firstName"),
        "last_name": employee.get("lastName"),
        "email_id": employee.get("workEmail"),
        "manager_name": None
    }
    manager_id = employee.get("manager")
    if manager_id:
        manager_response = requests.get(f"https://api.rippling.com/platform/api/employees/{manager_id}", headers=headers)
        manager = manager_response.json()
        details["manager_name"] = manager.get("name")
    employee_details.append(details)

print(employee_details)

Knit for Rippling API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Rippling data, the Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Rippling data.

Tutorials
-
Jul 19, 2024

Get All Employees Details from Freshteam API

Introduction

This article is a part of a series of articles covering the Freshteam API in depth, and covers the specific use case of using the Freshteam API to Get All Employees Details from Freshteam API.
You can find all the other use cases we have covered for the Freshteam API along with a comprehensive deep dive on its various aspects like authentication, rate limits etc here.

Get All Employees Details from Freshteam API

Overview

To retrieve the first name, last name, email ID, and employee ID of all employees from the Freshteam API, you can use the GET /api/employees endpoint. This endpoint allows you to list all employees and filter the response based on various query parameters.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set Up Authentication

Ensure you have your Freshteam API key. You will need to include this key in the authorization header of your requests.

2. Make the API Request

Use the GET /api/employees endpoint to retrieve the list of employees. You can filter the response using query parameters if needed.

3. Extract Required Information

From the response, extract the first name, last name, email ID, and employee ID of each employee.

Python Code Snippet
import requests

# Define the API endpoint and headers
url = "https://.freshteam.com/api/employees"
headers = {
    "accept": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
}

# Make the API request
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

# Check if the request was successful
if response.status_code == 200:
    employees = response.json()
    for employee in employees:
        first_name = employee.get('first_name')
        last_name = employee.get('last_name')
        email_id = employee.get('official_email')
        employee_id = employee.get('employee_id')
        print(f"First Name: {first_name}, Last Name: {last_name}, Email ID: {email_id}, Employee ID: {employee_id}")
else:
    print(f"Failed to retrieve employees: {response.status_code}")

Knit for Freshteam API Integration

For quick and seamless access to Freshteam data, the Knit API offers a convenient solution. By integrating with Knit just once, you can streamline the entire process. Knit takes care of all the authentication, authorization, and ongoing integration maintenance, this approach not only saves time but also ensures a smooth and reliable connection to your Freshteam data.

Tutorials
-
Sep 21, 2023

How to Build and Deploy a Microsoft Teams Bot

Using Knit's Communication APIs, you can send text as well as interactive messages to any Teams channel or user either using Knit's Bot or your own Bot. In this guide, we will help you understand which kind of bot to use for development and production.

Using Knit's Teams Bot

The Knit Unified API's Teams Bot is for only testing and getting familiar with communication APIs. For the production use cases, organizations must setup their own bots.

Using Knit MS Teams bot for communication purpose mainly requires two steps-

Step I: Adding the Teams link during setup

  1. First, you click on the MS Teams icon in the communication section of Knit apps.
  2. On clicking the MS Teams icon you have to add your Teams link in which the bot needs to be installed [Check this out How to get teams link]
how to build a MS Teams Bot

Step II: Installing Knit's Bot in the team

1. The Knit Bot will be installed via a package file provided by us. Click on the _**Upload an app**_

2. Then choose_**Upload a custom app**_ . Add Knit's Package here. [Knit's Bot Package]

3. After successful upload a pop-up will open where you click on - _**Add to a team**_

4. Then select the _**General**_ channel in the populated channels list.

👍 Congratulations your setup is complete. You can use this Bot for development or testing purpose.

Using Your own Bot

You should use your own Bot in production. Do not use Knit's Bot for production use cases.

This involves a two step process -

  1. Create your Bot with the MS Teams.
  2. Provide OAuth credentials to knit using [Register OAuth Cred]

Create your Bot with MS Teams

1. First, you need _Developer Portal_ App from Microsoft Teams Store to build MS Teams Bot.

create your own bot with Microsoft Teams

2.After Installing it, open and navigate to the _ Apps_ section.

3. Now, select the **+** icon to create a new app.

4. When you add the name of your app, you will be asked to provide the Developer name, terms of use etc in the _Basic Information_ section. Fill out all the details carefully and then click on the  _Save_ button.

 5. Next, visit the _Branding_  section to add your icon and other display information.

6. Click on the _App Features_ section and select _Bot_.

7. Next, create one Bot by selecting _Create a new Bot_.

create MS Teams bot

8. Here, you will see the **+** icon to add a new Bot.

9. After giving Name to the Bot, you need to configure the endpoint address. Set this to [Teams Bot End Point]

10. Click on the _Client Secrets_ option and then _Generate Client Secret_. (Keep this information handy it will be required during OAuth Registration with Knit.)

11. Now, copy this key as it is a one time secret. After clicking _OK _ you will be shown the below screen and your Bot would have been configured.

MS teams bot

12.Now you need to link this bot to your newly created App in _Step 6_. You will see this bot in the dropdown. Select this Bot, then select _Team_ scope and click on _Save_ button.

Distributing your app to clients

1. Click on the _Publish_ button on the top right corner in the app home page.

2. You will see the following options.

To use within your org, select publish to org. For distributing to clients download the package.

3. If you have followed the right steps and filled in all the necessary information correctly, you will be able to download it.

If you have missed any of mandatory fields, errors will be listed for missing fields shown in the image below

4. In the example above, the developer website URL, privacy terms etc. are missing. You need to fix all errors before you can download the package. It can be used to install in any team using steps described in the section _Using Knit's Teams Bot_.

Tutorials
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Sep 21, 2023

What Should You Look For in A Unified API Platform?

Every SaaS company knows the difficulty of building and managing all integrations in-house. It  not only puts unnecessary strain on your engineering teams and resources but also leads to (avoidable) financial cost. 

Using a unified API platform can help you achieve integration success without spending unnecessary bandwidth or money. Let’s have a look at what a unified API platform is and what things you must check to make the right choice.

What is a unified API?

A unified API platform helps companies integrate the various applications, systems and software they use in a single, centralized platform. Such a platform makes the communication and exchange of data between the different applications seamless, quick and effective. With a unified API, data flow gets extremely streamlined, and it eliminates the need to manage multiple points of contacts for integrations. 

Of course, building all integrations in-house  is an alternative solution, when the number of integrations increase exponentially, individual connections can be difficult (and impractical) to manage and maintain from a technical standpoint. A unified API platform takes the friction out of such integration management with low-code or no-code solutions to reduce complexities and centralize integration management.  

Why do you need a unified API

 In any SaaS company, developers should focus on the core product roadmap – enhancing its features and usability Everything else, including building and maintaining integrations, becomes a non-core activity. 

Before we move onto the factors that should influence your unified API choice, let’s look at some of the real life advantages: 

1. Ease of extraction & transformation 

An integral part of data exchange that integrations rely on revolves around ETL or extraction, transformation and load. When performed manually for disparate applications, the processes can be highly time consuming. However, a unified integration platform can centralize the processes together and enable real-time data insights. It can automatically facilitate the extraction of data from operating systems like the ERP or the CRM and simultaneously transform it for effective use by different applications and systems within the platform. It reduces the burden on engineering teams to extract legacy data and automates the process of cleansing it to improve data quality and consistency for use by different applications. 

2. Improved efficiency

In addition to the ease of extraction and transformation, a unified API platform adds efficiency to the way businesses or developers leverage integrations. On the one hand, as it automates the process and reduces manual data entry, the incidence of errors and data contamination become significantly low. On the other hand, unified APIs facilitate data flow in real-time in different formats and protocols  while maintaining accuracy and timeliness, allowing applications and systems to exchange and access different data sets instantly. Companies no longer have to focus on data format similarity.

3. Reduced time-to-market and costs

A unified API  can help companies significantly reduce their time to market with new integrations that are needed with changing business realities. It can enable business agility by ensuring that new applications and systems are integrated in real-time with pre-built connectors without the need to build the integration API from scratch.

At the same time, costs associated with integrations also come down when companies use unified APIs. On the one hand, the cost of manual data entry and costs associated with errors is significantly reduced with automated data exchange. On the other hand, without a unified API , companies have to bear the monetary burden of maintaining multiple point-to-point connectors for data exchange between applications. Building an in-house integration can take anywhere between 2 weeks to 3 months. With a developer salary ranging from USD 80K to USD 125K, each integration can cost USD 10K to companies. At the same time, building it in-house can delay your core product offering by 3-6 months, putting you at a market disadvantage. 

What to look for in  a unified API solution 

Now that you understand how a unified integration platform can assist your product roadmap journey and facilitate business success, let’s look at some of the features your unified API tool must have .

1. Security and resilience

Start by understanding the security protocols in place for the unified API to ensure the confidentiality and security of your and your client’s data. 

Since the API tool  will have access to all the data that goes through your different applications, you need to ensure that the platform has robust security measures like risk based security, data encryption at rest/ in transit, least privilege security, continuous logging and access controls. Lack of effective security measures can render you vulnerable to security threats and data breaches. 

At the same time, check out whether or not the platform meets the security norms and compliances for your industry. Check the necessary certifications. Additionally, you must understand the security considerations and data access the platform has for your end customers, for how long it stores their data, what data it stores, etc. 

From a security lens, focus on the security posture of the platform for your as well as your end customer’s data, as they may not consent to data storage by a third-party application. Thus, be cognizant of these considerations and understand the security measures to address the same. 

2. Scalability

The main purpose behind using a unified APIis to ensure that you are able to efficiently manage large numbers of integrations and high volumes of data. Therefore, a key feature to look out for is scalability. There are two forces at play here. 

First, you need to check if the platform is able to take the load of your current and future integrations. This suggests you must ensure if it can manage the complexities of managing multiple integrations, a situation that may arise when you add a lot of integrations based on customer expectations. At the same time, you should gauge the number of integrations it is able to manage at once and the potential to add more as time passes. 

Second, the scalability test must understand the volume of data being processed by the platform. As data comes in from diverse sources at a high pace, the platform must support processing of high volume data in seconds. This can be accomplished with batch processing. You must ensure that the platform can easily support high volume requests. 

3. Compatibility 

When you use multiple applications and systems, the data and protocols you receive can be in a variety of types and formats. To facilitate real-time processing and data flow, the unified API platform must be compatible with different formats and should be able to process information accurately. Various protocols could include HTTP, FTP, and SFTP, and there can be different data formats, such as XML, CSV, and JSON. The objective is to ensure that while the sources of data might be different, leading to differences in the types of data you receive, the data which is loaded to other applications must be compatible with their understanding for processing and decision making. 

4. Ease of use and customer experience

The unified API platform that you choose should be easy to deploy, use and manage with a user-friendly and intuitive interface. If the tool requires a lot of technical knowledge to run, it will again eat into the bandwidth of your engineering team. Look for an API that is extremely low-code or nearly no-code to ensure that you don’t have to hire an entire technical team to run your integrations. Most unified APIs have a drag and drop UI, which makes the implementation of integrations very easy and reduces the dependency on technical teams for execution. 

Another factor is the customer experience that the unified API brings along. Since your end customers will be using the integrations, the experience they have will make a lot of difference when it comes to choosing the right platform. How well the customers are able to engage with the integrations and how well the integrations serve their business purposes via the unified platform can be a big defining factor.

At the same time, in case an integration breaks down, i.e. when either the API key becomes invalid or API experiences time out, your unified API platform must be able to seamlessly manage the customer experience flow. Before making a decision, you need to check how well the API tool in consideration ensures uninterrupted customer business even in times of integration breakdown or how quickly it is able to resolve the breakdown. 

Thus, when it comes to choosing the right unified API, make sure that it is easy to use, with low or no-code functionalities and preferably with a drag and drop interface. And look for options that have a proven track record of great customer experience to get an idea of whether or not the platform is able to meet expectations. 

5. Cost 

Another important parameter to look out for while choosing a unified API is the cost. There are several cost components for any platform and you need to check how much will the platform cost you in total, from deployment to end customer use. 

  • Some of the costs include an upfront cost for set up and implementation. 
  • Next, there may be subscription or monthly charges that you will pay to the platform vendor for using the services for providing integrations to your customers. 
  • Finally, there might be some additional or incremental charges for some integrations that you might wish to add later in your product journey. At the same time, you might want to check if the platform has extra costs or charges for providing technical support that your team, especially non-technical persons, might need. 

The cost can be based on connectors being used or CPU usages or data volume or number of users. Understand the pricing structure of the platform and do an in-depth study of your needs as well. Depending on the pricing structure, select the one which suits your budget the most. In general, it is a good practice to choose the platform which does not have constraints on the data volume or where cost is not a direct function of the data volume. 

Also Read: ROI of Unified API and Build vs Buy: What is the ideal approach to SaaS integration (for you)

6. API / SDK documentation

The platform should provide adequate API or SDK (software development kit) documentation. The SDK documentation is important to ensure that your engineering team has the right information to get started. While the unified API tool  is likely to be low-code with a drag and drop interface, you will still need information about the APIs, other components and even simple example codes to help you get started. 

The SDK documentation will help you understand how you can use the various components and functionalities of the API platform to run the various integrations you need. It will also have information on how to configure the platform and integrations as well as the APIs. 

7. Customer support 

A unified API solution  must offer robust support to help you address any challenges that you might face with the various integrations you use. There are many examples of this support here. 

  • First, if there is any error during any process for any integration, the error message should be displayed very clearly and appropriately. It should be in a language you understand and should be easy to communicate to others in the team as well. 
  • Second, once the error becomes clear, the customer support should help you with very clear solutions. It should have crisp directions or guidance on the next steps to address the challenges. The idea is to ensure that all errors are addressed quickly without any lag to ensure good customer experience.
  • Third, the dashboard must have adequate technical resources and documents which can help you stay on top of common errors and ways to resolve them on your end without contacting the customer support team every time. This will help reduce glitches and bugs in minimum time. 
  • Finally, the platform’s technical assistance must be present 24/7 as reliable customer support to assist you in case the shared solution is unclear or your team is unable to implement it. 

Thus, the customer support should ensure that you do not have to deploy additional engineering bandwidth and any error is solved without any friction in a timely manner to reduce lag or delays. 

8. Future roadmap and past record

At a macro level, the unified API solution is itself an application or a software that will get upgraded from time to time. You need to understand the impact of such upgrades on your business. Consider two major factors here. 

First, try to understand the future roadmap of the product. As a platform, are there any expansion plans on the map? Check if the platform has any plan to add more functionalities or support any new integrations that you might want to implement for your company as well. You would want to choose a platform that has a robust plan for growth in the future and not one which has reached its potential, since the market and customer expectations will keep growing. Furthermore, you might want to check if you can influence the product roadmap for the platform in some way to better meet your business needs. 

Second, you need to be equally focused on the historical records of the platform whenever it underwent an upgrade. When an application adds new functionalities or upgrades, there is a chance that existing processes or functionalities get impacted. It could be the addition of new connectors or security upgrades, etc. However, the best platforms ensure negligible or no impact on existing integrations. Therefore, choose a platform which has had a successful history of upgrades to prevent any negative impact on integrations you are using. 

These are some of the things you should look out for while choosing a unified integration platform. You can fall back on customer reviews, case studies and delve into technical assistance for better decision making. Try to research which successful companies are using the unified integration platform in question and how it has enabled them to scale their business with integrations. Also, check which platforms are being used by companies in your domain or the ones that use applications like yours. Finally, it is always best to try and see it for yourself. So, opt for API tools that offer free trials to review and recheck everything you have seen or read about the tool so far.

Wrapping up: TL:DR

As we conclude, it is clear that a unified API platform helps organizations deploy, manage and use different applications and systems from a single, centralized dashboard. It enables:

  • Easy data extraction and transformation
  • Improved efficiency by real-time and error free data exchange
  • Reduced time to market and cost savings

However, the key to integration success lies in choosing the right API tool. When choosing one, look out for:

  • Security and resilience to ensure that the data exchange for your company and your customers is safe and secure and is not vulnerable to unauthorized access
  • Scalability to check if the platform can meet high volume processing for your current and future integration needs
  • Compatibility with different types of data formats and protocols to ensure accuracy during data exchange
  • Ease of use for deployment and implementation with a drag and drop interface and low to no-code functionalities
  • Pleasant customer experience for your end users
  • Overall costs including upfront set up, monthly subscription and additional costs for future integrations/ customer support
  • SDK documentation with information of APIs and other components to successfully configure and use platform without reliance on technical skills
  • Robust customer support with online resources, technical assistance and clear error messages with appropriate solutions to prevent any lag
  • Future roadmap and records to ensure that platform upgrades lead to no or minimal impact on existing integrations

If you keenly look out for these factors, you will easily be able to compare the various platforms and select the right one for your needs. Make sure you have a clear idea of the integrations you need for your customers to map the scope for factors like cost, documentation, scalability, security, etc.

Tutorials
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Sep 21, 2023

How to Create a Slack Bot in 5 Minutes: A to Z Guide

Using Knit's Communication APIs, you can send text as well as interactive messages to any Slack channel or user either using Knit's Bot or your own Bot. In this guide, we will help you understand which kind of bot to use for development and which one to use for production.

Using Knit's Slack Bot

Knit Slack Bot is meant for testing only. It will help you get familiar with the communication APIs. For the production use cases, you must setup your own bots.

If you wish to use Knit Slack Bot then it is a simple one step process. You just need to select Slack, after which a typical question (similar to other apps) will be asked. You need to follow the OAuth flow and the app will be installed in your workspace. 

However, this should be done only for development/testing. **Please do not use Knit's Bot in production!**

Using your own Bot

You should use your own Bot in production. Do not use Knit's Bot for production use cases.

There are two simple steps to get started with your own Bot.

  1. Create your Bot with Slack.
  2. Register the OAuth creds like client ID and secret of your Bot with Knit.

1. Create your Bot with Slack

Follow these steps below to create a Bot on Slack.

1. Visit Your Apps and sign in with your account to create App.

2. Click on the option: _Create new App_

create a slack bot

3. Select the option: _From scratch_

4. You will be asked to provide a Name of App. You can choose a workspace linked to the signed in account in which you wish to create the app. Click on: _Create App_

5. On clicking _Basic Information_ in the left panel, at the end of page you can add _Display Information_ such as App Image, Description etc.

6.Now, configure the redirect URL .

Things to consider:

1. Use https://app.getknit.dev/oauth/authorize for Production

2. Use https://app.sandbox.getknit.dev/oauth/authorize for Sandbox

3. Do not forget to click on _Save URLs_

building a slack bot

7. Now, add the following scopes

  • channels:read
  • chat:write
  • chat:write.customize
  • chat:write.public
  • groups:read
  • users:read
  • users:read.email
slack bot scopes

8. If you want to subscribe to other Slack events, click here and do the steps mentioned in this guide.

9. Congratulations! Your Bot setup is done. Next, you must enable public distribution of the Bot for your users to discover and use this new Bot. To begin, click on _Manage Distribution_ on the left panel

create a slack bot distribution

10. To finally enable public distribution, just tick the checkbox for _I’ve reviewed and removed any hard-coded information_ and then click on _Activate Public Distribution_ button

11. Congratulations! Your Bot is now available for others to install.

launch your own Slack bot

You have now created your own Slack Bot! However, there's one small step to do before you can use Knit's API on your new Bot.

2. Register the OAuth creds like client ID and secret of your Bot with Knit

Share Bot's client ID and client secret with Knit via Register OAuth Cred API and that's it. You're all set to use Knit's API! 😀