This guide will show you how to connect any REST API with Databox and start building Custom Metrics. Rest APIs can be connected with no authentication, Basic Authentication, OAuth Authentication, or API keys.

This feature and other Custom API Integrations are available on that are available on the Professional and Performer plans. Request a trial of Metric Builder by following these steps.  

 If you’d like to connect your Custom API Integrations using OAuth authentication, please book a call with one of our product experts to get a custom quote for a new integration.

To create your own REST API Data Source connection in Databox, navigate to  Data Manager >  + New connection. Type  Custom REST API in the search bar and click on the green Connect button. 

This will open the  Activate Custom REST API window, which is where you will be prompted to enter your Custom Data Source connection details and authorize the Databox app.

A

  Connection name: Enter the connection name for your Custom data connection. This is how it will appear throughout the Databox app.

B

  Description (optional): Enter the description for your Custom data connection.

C

  Base API URL: Define the Base API URL, which is the root URL for all your API requests. For example, if the API’s URL is "https://api.company.com/endpoint/example" or  "https://api.company.com/users/list" use “https://api.company.com” as your Base URL.

You can change the root API URL anytime later as well, but it will impact all created Custom metrics and could result in non-functional metrics because of invalid request URLs.

D

  Custom authentication: Three different authentication methods are currently supported: 

When selecting an authentication method, keep in mind that both Query parameters and Headers have the same structure (key, value) where you can define the necessary parameters to authenticate your requests.

You could also select None and add all necessary authentication parameters later on when building the Custom Metrics. This approach is not recommended because changing one authentication property in the future will require you to edit all custom metrics. 

Pro Tip: If the API you are connecting supports standard Basic authentication, you should add custom authentication by setting the key of the query parameter to “Basic” and the value to “username:password” string encoded in base64.

E

  Activate: Click on the green Activate button to Activate Custom Rest API

How to create Custom Metrics