Introduction

REST API Overview

Vatom's REST API allows you to programmatically integrate many of the platform's features into your own applications. API endpoint capabilities include:

• Manage User Or Business Identities And Access
• Issue Tokens
• Manage Spaces
• Manage Events
• Manage Guest Lists
• Perform Queries Based On Wallet Facts

A few key patterns apply to the API documentation:

• Groups of related endpoints share common base URLs.
• Identity and access endpoints play a special role in authorization that all other endpoints rely upon.
• Access endpoints generate two kinds of access tokens, shared or unshared. All other endpoints accept only these tokens for authorization.

Use The Lab To Experiment

The API endpoint documentation that follows includes a "Lab" feature that allows you to issue real API requests. These API requests will have the same effect as the corresponding actions performed through Vatom.com user interfaces; they both operate on the same live data in your Vatom accounts including your wallet. Because The Lab allows you to operate on live data, take the same precautions that you would when experimenting with features of the Vatom.com user interfaces. For example, instead of experimenting with a guest list you've sent out to real people for a real event, create a new guest list named "My Experiment" and add fictitious users such as "jane.doe@example.com".

This is just a static image showing how The Lab's beaker icon will appear.

To open the lab, click on the beaker icon, shown above, in the documentation page of any endpoint. If not already logged in, you will be asked to do so when entering The Lab. This allows your credentials to be automatically added to your API requests.

Exporting Experiments As Reusable Code

Once you've used The Lab to understand how to use a particular API endpoint, you can export the http request along with any sample data and headers for reuse in your own applications. Your export options are:

• cURL – Export an entire request as cURL including headers, parameters, and your local authorization token.
• text – Copy the request, headers, parameters, and your local authorization token as clipboard text for pasting into your own code.

Note that local authorization tokens generally have an expiration timestamp that is only valid for between 10 and 60 minutes. This may be fine for a quick test to repeat a Lab request in your own application code but your application will ultimately need to call access endpoints to generate new authorization tokens. Visit the Authorization page when ready for more details. Since The Lab takes care of authorization tokens for you, this can be delayed until you are ready to take your experiments out of The Lab.