Introduction
An introduction to the Proactis API
The Proactis APIs are structured around REST. Our APIs have predictable resource-oriented URLs, accepts form-encoded request bodies, returns XML or JSON-encoded responses, and uses standard HTTP response codes and authentication.
What is a REST API
An API is an application programming interface - in short, it's a set of rules that lets programs talk to each other, exposing data and functionality across the internet in a consistent format.
REST stands for 'Representational State Transfer'. This is an architectural pattern that describes how distributed systems can expose a consistent interface. When people use the term 'REST API', they are generally referring to an API accessed using the HTTP protocol at a predefined set of URLs.
These URLs represent various resources - any information or content accessed at that location, which can be returned as JSON or XML. Often resources have one or more methods that can be performed on them over HTTP, like GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. The action represented by the first and last of these is clear, but POST and PUT have specific meanings. How they are defined is confusing, but the general rule is: use POST to create resources, and PUT to update resources.
Working with Proactis API
Proactis provides many separate REST APIs for master data and transactional documents. Each category has its own API, but you will work with each of them in roughly the same way. You can jump straight to the API category that interests you using the directory links on the left-hand side of this page.
The Proactis API does not support bulk updates. You can work on only one object per request.
What you will need
Clear Use Case
Identify the specific use case for the API connection. What data or functionality do you want to access or provide through the API? Clearly define the purpose of the integration to guide your implementation.
API Documentation
The documentation contains information about available endpoints, authentication methods, request and response formats, rate limits, and any other requirements for using the API. Read and understand the documentation thoroughly. Also make sure you have an understanding of the cXML message standard because most Proactis APIs use cXML.
API Access & Authentication
The Proactis APIs use OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials flow in combination with an API-Key for authentication. Include the OAuth token and API Key in the request header of any request you make. To obtain OAuth 2.0 credentials, contact Proactis support.
All API requests must be made over HTTPS. Calls made over plain HTTP will fail. API requests without authentication will also fail.
Endpoint URL
Depending on the region you should use a specific endpoint base URL to connect to the Proactis API, an example is apius.proactiscloud.com. Each region has two different environments, one for UAT and another for production.
Error Handling
Plan for error handling and gracefully manage API responses, including error codes, rate limiting, and unexpected issues. Implement robust error-handling strategies.
Monitoring and Logging
Implement monitoring and logging solutions to track the performance and usage of your API connection. This will help in identifying issues and optimizing your integration.
Testing and Quality Assurance
Thoroughly test your API integration in the development and testing environments. Perform functional, integration, and regression testing to ensure everything works as expected. Next to testing the happy flow, make sure you test negative flows.