Getting Started with the API

The API URLs

Use one of the following URLs to open the API reference.

Get Your API Key

Before you can use the API you'll need to get your API key, which you use to authenticate with the API. Your account manager at 360Alumni will coordinate with our Client Integrations Team to create an API key for your organization. Once you have the key, connecting to the 360Alumni API is easy. For each API request, simply include your API key as the value in an HTTP header named x-api-key. See the examples for details.

Requesting Data

The following steps walk you through the basics to get started using the API.

1. Click an API method to display it's reference documentation.
   For example, click GET /api/campaigns/.
   
   An API Reference Page
   
   
   Note, for a GET /api/campaigns/ request the page parameter indicates which set of results to return. The default page value is 1 representing the first 100 results.
   
   A page represents up to 100 results returned in a JSON array.
2. Click Sandbox to display a form for entering values and trying the request.
   
   
3. Enter your API key in an HTTP request header. 
   1. Use the header name x-api-key.

   2. Use the value obtained from your 360Alumni representative. 
      
      An API Sandbox Test Form
      

4. Click Try! to execute the API request.
   
   
5. The display shows results such as the following:
   
    .
    .
    .
   
   

   
   Note the following about the results:

   • Request URL: Shows what executed.
   • Response Headers: Contains messages about the success or failure of the request. 
   • Response Body: Contains a JSON array of the results, in this case an array of Campaign Objects. 
     Other API requests use the Donation Object or the User Object.
   • Curl Command Line: Contains a form of the request that you can copy and paste to execute at the command line or in scripts. 
     

     curl -X "GET" -H "Accept:\ application/json" -H "Content-type:\ application/json" -H "x-api-key:\ <<your-API-key>>" /api/campaigns

6. Each campaign object in the returned array is identified with an id value. Note the first object in the array above contains the id value 17.
   
   
7. To get a single campaign object, click GET /api/campaigns/{id}. 
   This API request requires an integer id parameter that represents the compaign identifier.
   
   The Reference Page for GET /api/campaigns/{id}
   
   
   
8.  Click Sandbox and enter the following to execute the API request:
   
   
   1. Enter your API key in an HTTP request header. 
   2. Enter an id parameter value representing the campaign you want to get.
   3. Click Try! to execute the API request.
      
      The Sandbox Form for a GET /api/campaigns/{id} Request
      
      
      
9.  The Response Body shows the results in a formatted JSON Campaign Object. 
   
   The Response Body, Formatted
   
   
   
10. Click Raw to show the JSON object without formatting, suitable for copying and using in code. 
    
    The Response Body, Unformatted