Guide to EasyCargo API (part 1)

While browsing our website you might have come across the term API. This abbreviation is closely related to the IT industry, so you may not fully understand what this service is all about and what benefits you can get from it. We will discuss what an API is and how it works. We thought it was worth familiarizing you with this topic, as it will, for example, help you extend the functionality of your company’s software. So we decided to create a three-part series to cover this topic in a decent way. Today we will focus on the theoretical part. In the conclusion of this article, you will learn what the upcoming articles of the series will contain.

Source: https://bykowski.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/api-przyklad-dzialania-1.jpg

The diagram above shows the role of the API in a very simple way. However, it is worth answering the question beforehand – what is an API anyway? The extension of the shortcut is the application programming interface. There are different types of APIs – we have a REST API. Its meaning should not matter much to you, so we will not focus strictly on the API type here. An application programming interface is a specific set of solutions by which you can use the data of another service on your own website or software. What does it mean? If your company has an internal service for handling e.g. transport, you can download data from your account in EasyCargo, which will then be delivered directly to the company software.

However, to communicate with EasyCargo or other software via API, you still need an API key. It allows us to identify your site when it interacts with EasyCargo. If you would like to obtain it, then please contact us via email at support@easycargo3d.com or using our contact form. Once the key is generated, you can find it from your user profile in the top right corner by clicking on the Show API Key button.

Note: handle your API key as you would your account password – keep it to yourself.

With the most important information about APIs behind us, we can finally move on to explain the role of the application programming interface based on the diagram.

We think that by this part of the article you have already understood the idea of how the API works. You can find the EasyCargo application programming interface at this link. We still want to draw your attention to the fact that all the query examples in the API documentation are written using HTTP. We recommend using the more secure HTTPS protocol.

In summary, the first part of the series focused mainly on explaining what the API is and what the idea behind it is. The next article will be more practical. We will try to make you more familiar with using the API to EasyCargo, among other things using our API client. You will see for yourself that appropriate queries to the EasyCargo programming interface result in the requested data. In the last part of the series, we will discuss what communication through the API with EasyCargo makes possible.