What is REST?

REST - Representational State Transfer is an architectural pattern that describes how distributed systems can expose a consistent interface. Basically it means, "do nothing until asked, and don't worry about the API being at rest in between."

REST APIs are accessed via HTTPS protocol, via a predefined set of URLs known as "endpoints".

 /employees

Endpoints can have actions for business processes and workflows:

/employees/id/actions/force-password-change

API endpoints receive calls to provide, exchange, or capture information via methods like:

GET - Get information from the system.

POST - Send information to the system, usually to create new records or trigger a business process or workflow.

PATCH - Send information to the system, usually to update existing records.

All call methods usually result in a RESPONSE being sent back to you, to communicate outcomes.

JSON Data Format

The TrackTik API expects to work with JavaScript Object Notation formatted information. It's a hierarchical (nestable) key:value format.

[GET] /employees/322
{ 
     "id" : 322,
     "name" : "My Name",
     "email" : "myemail@domain.ca",
     "startDate" : "2010-01-01"
}

Anatomy of an API Call

"I want to see the data in an employee record whose unique identifier is 322.”

Tools of the Trade

You can access the TrackTik API from your favourite programming language, Electronic Data Exchange software (like Postman), JavaScript, and even a VBA macro in Excel.

E.g.

PHP Curl - Authentication

<?php
 $portal = 'https://<domain>/rest/oauth2/access_token';
 $ch = curl_init();

 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $portal);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, TRUE);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, array(
        'client_id'     => "d6543c...",
        'client_secret' => "bdc6ed2e...",
        'username'      => "developer@domain.com",
        'password'      => "secret",
        'grant_type'    => 'password'
 ));

 $data = curl_exec($ch);
 $auth_string = json_decode($data, true);
 print_r($auth_string);
?>

Postman - Report Templates Lookup

Integration Development Best Practices

• Authenticate Securely: Use HTTPS and refresh Bearer Tokens.
• Optimize Requests: Filter data, don't include too many depths of relations (2 or less helps) and make separate calls instead, and avoid unnecessary calls.
• Handle Errors: Implement retry strategies with an increasing delay between attempts.
• Respect Rate Limits: Avoid reaching 429 Too Many Requests error responses. Retain previously obtained (more immutable) data when possible.
• Test, Monitor, and Secure: Use logging and proactive error monitoring in production.