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      Guide: Using REST API Integrations with Databox

      IN THIS ARTICLE

      Overview

      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, or API keys.

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

      If you'd like us to help you get set up any REST API in Databox, please fill out this request form or book a call with one of our product experts: 

      - Free Databox users (or potential users) book a call here

      - Paying Databox customers book a call here

      How to connect your own REST API Data Source 

      IN THIS SECTION

      How to connect a Custom REST API to Databox

      To create your own REST API Data Source in Databox, navigate to  Data Manager >  + New Data Source. 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 details and authorize the Databox app.

      How to activate a Custom REST API

       

      • A) Name: Enter the name for your Custom data source. This is how it will appear throughout the Databox app.
      • B) Description (optional): Enter the description for your Custom data source.
      • 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: 
        • None: makes API requests to a non-protected public API.
        • Query parameters: requires you to define specific parameters to authenticate your requests.
        • Headers: requires you to define specific parameters to authenticate your requests.

        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

      Pro Tip: For Custom API Integrations using the OAuth authentication method, please book a call with one of our product experts to get a custom quote for a new integration. 

      How to create Custom Metrics

      Once you have created the Custom Data Source, you can start creating Custom Metrics. 

      Learn more about how to create Custom Metrics, prepare API requests, and handle different use cases and limitations here.