Getting started with Panaya APIs

Step 1 - Download an API Connection Software

We recommend using Postman as a tool for running the API connection. While there are many other tools available that will work for this purpose, in this guide we will be demonstrating the use of Postman.  If you are already using Postman, be sure to upgrade to the latest version before proceeding with the next steps.

Step 2 - Import a collection of Panaya API calls 

After you have imported the collection into Panaya, you should see the Panaya Catalog of API examples, and an environment called "Panaya Shared Environment"  as highlighted below:

Step 3  - Create your Access Token in Panaya 

Follow the steps in this article to create an access token in Panaya. There are 2 types of tokens available, API Token and Access Token. 

The difference is that an API Token never expires, and can be used directly in the header of any API call. 

The Access Token requires a login call to be sent which then provides a unique session token that can be used for 1hr, after which it expires and the user has to re-authenticate. The Access Token itself has an expiry date that is selected by the user when generating the token. 

Step 4  - Set the username, token and URL in Postman

Select the Panaya Shared Environment, and click on the "eye" icon to display the available variables (shown in red below). Click on Edit.

To use an Access Token: 

Set the accesstoken variable like shown below (in green) with the value you received in Step 3 as well as your Panaya username or the Panaya API user you are using like shown here:

Note: The username is case sensitive, so it must be the same as it is configured in Panaya User Management and how it appears in your User Profile.  Also take care not to insert any additional spaces in the values of any of the variables.

To use an API Token: 

Set the api_token variable like shown above (in yellow) with the value you received in Step 3. Ensure that your Panaya Username (Email address) was added in front of the token and separated by a colon. This is automatically done when the checkbox "Fill Token with user as it should be sent to Panaya's API" is used. 

Be sure to set at least the "CURRENT VALUE" column of each variable.

If you log into Panaya using emea.panaya.com, you would populate the URL variable as follows:

If you log into Panaya using my.panaya.com, you would populate the URL variable as follows:

Step 5  - Set the projectId variable and you are ready to go

Click on the "Login with token" API call,  Notice that the username and accesstoken created in step 4 are being passed dynamically using the {{username}} and {{accesstoken}} environment variables - do not modify these KEY fields or their Value.    Click "Send".  You will see that you receive a temporary session token which is valid for 15 minutes.  This token is then being used by all the rest of the API calls:

Next, expand the Project folder and click on "Get Projects - Friendly" API call, and click on Send.  You should receive a similar response, but with your projectId or several of them if you are connected to several projects.  In our example below, the projectId is 9930:

So now, just set the projectId of the Panaya project you would like to work with in the Panaya Shared Environment projectId variable:

You should now be able to try out and experiment with the rest of the many API calls in each of the folders.    You will now want to map the fields from your project to match the ones in the collection you have just imported, so please follow the steps in this article to do that.