API Overview

This topic provides a high-level overview of the Application Programming Interface (API) capabilities offered by the Engage+ platform. APIs allow clients to simplify and / or automate the process of communicating with Messaging for a wide range of processing functions. For example, you can use an API to trigger the deployment of a marketing Campaign, or to create a new Filter, or to load data into your database.

The key benefit to an API is that the information passed back and forth is structured and pre-defined, so there's no ambiguity. The expectations on both sides are clearly defined. In simplest terms, an API provides a common understanding between two systems that states, "If you provide me with these instructions, I will perform the specified action, or return the requested information."

Disclaimer: The Cheetah Digital Support team can answer how-to questions regarding each API endpoint, or help resolve any errors in the response message. The Cheetah Digital Services team will help implement your business requirements with a combination of APIs and application logic.

API Categories

The Messaging API endpoints are grouped into the following categories:

Data Management: The endpoints in this category are used to load data into the your database.
Campaign Management: This category is composed of a suite of different endpoints, all used to define and manage Campaigns, and other supporting assets, such as Filters and Content Blocks, for example.
Campaign Deployment: The endpoints in this category are designed to trigger the deployment of a marketing Campaign.
Reporting: The endpoints in this category support the reporting capabilities of Messaging.

HTTP Methods

Through the use of different commands called "HTTP methods," many of the Messaging endpoints provide a full range of functionality -- creating new items, updating or deleting existing items, as well as requesting information about a specific item.

GET: Used to read or retrieve data without directly modifying it.
POST: Used to create a new asset.
PUT: Used to update an existing asset.
PATCH: Used to modify an existing asset; the request needs to contain only the necessary changes to the asset, not the complete asset.
DELETE: Used to delete an existing asset.

Please note that not every method is supported by every endpoint. For example, the "Email Campaign" endpoint allows you to use GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE, but the "Preview" endpoint supports only the POST method.

REST Architecture

Most of the Messaging endpoints are built using a standard REST architecture. Unlike other architectures, REST allows you to specify the data you want to access via a URL (with the ability to use optional parameters), and to specify the action to be taken via the HTTP method. Responses are returned in the expected format, along with a standard HTTP return code.

Most of the endpoints also require full security authentication utilizing an open standard security framework called OAuth 2.0. OAuth 2.0 offers several different methods of granting access, referred to as "grant types." Messaging supports only one grant type -- Password Credentials. With this grant type, you must provide your user credentials (called the "Consumer Key" and "Consumer Secret") directly to the application and request a "token." If your credentials are successfully validated, you'll receive the token. With this token now in hand, you can make requests using any of the API endpoints. Please see API Authentication for more details on how to request and use an authentication token.

Additional Resources

More information about the Messaging API endpoints can be found in the following documents: