Getting started with Adobe Experience Platform APIs

Last update: November 13, 2024

CREATED FOR:

  • Developer

Adobe Experience Platform is developed under an “API first” philosophy. Using Platform APIs, you can programmatically perform basic CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations against data, such as configuring computed attributes, accessing data/entities, exporting data, deleting unneeded data or batches, and more.

The APIs for each Experience Platform service all share the same set of authentication headers and use similar syntaxes for their CRUD operations. The following guide outlines the necessary steps for getting started with Platform APIs.

Authentication and headers

In order to successfully make calls to Platform endpoints, you are required to complete the authentication tutorial. Completing the authentication tutorial provides the values for each of the required headers in Experience Platform API calls, as shown below:

  • Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}
  • x-api-key: {API_KEY}
  • x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}

Sandbox header

All resources in Experience Platform are isolated to specific virtual sandboxes. Requests to Platform APIs require a header that specifies the name of the sandbox the operation will take place in:

  • x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}

For more information on sandboxes in Platform, see the sandbox overview documentation.

Content-type header

All requests with a payload in the request body (such as POST, PUT, and PATCH calls) must include a Content-Type header. Accepted values are specific to each API endpoint. If a specific Content-Type value is needed for an endpoint, its value will be shown in the example API requests provided by the API guides for individual Platform services.

Experience Platform API fundamentals

Adobe Experience Platform APIs employ several underlying technologies and syntaxes that are important to understand in order to effectively manage Platform resources.

To learn more about the underlying API technologies Platform utilizes, including example JSON schema objects, visit the Experience Platform API fundamentals guide.

Postman collections for Experience Platform APIs

Postman is a collaboration platform for API development that allows you to set up environments with preset variables, share API collections, streamline CRUD requests, and more. Most Platform API services have Postman collections which can be used to assist with making API calls.

To learn more about Postman including how to set up an environment, a list of available collections, and how to import collections, visit the Platform Postman documentation.

Reading sample API calls

Request formats vary depending on the Platform API being used. The best way to learn how to structure your API calls is by following along with the examples provided in the documentation for the particular Platform service you are using.

The documentation for Experience Platform shows example API calls in two different ways. First, the call is presented in its API format, a template representation showing only the operation (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) and the endpoint being used (for example, /global/classes). Some templates also show the location of variables to help illustrate how a call should be formulated, such as GET /{VARIABLE}/classes/{ANOTHER_VARIABLE}.

The calls are then shown as cURL commands in a Request, which includes the necessary headers and full “base path” needed to successfully interact with the API. The base path should be pre-pended to all endpoints. For example, the aforementioned /global/classes endpoint becomes https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/schemaregistry/global/classes. You will see the API format / request pattern throughout the documentation, and are expected to use the complete path shown in the example request when making your own calls to Platform APIs.