Objective

This article outlines how to use the Paradigm API to perform specific tasks through a series of sample POSTMAN commands.

Complexity: Expert

Be Advised

The Paradigm API examples calls may be viewed in the format of a Postman Collection available via this link: https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/541303/TVRpz4qD

Advanced programmers that are familiar with connecting to APIs are welcome to dive straight in using the postman documentation for reference.

Getting started

When reading the documentation you’ll notice contents such as {{apiUser}} , these will need to be populated with values that would exist only on your Paradigm system. If you are making use of Postman to test call executions, this is how Postman represents environment variables.

Common Variables

Variable Name	Description	Example Content

Variable Name	Description	Example Content
apiUser	This is the username of the user you wish to use the API with. This username can be any user login in your system.	`YourApplicationName.API`
apiPw	The password for the user	`*********`
host	The hostname of your site	https://abc.edu.net.au

Logging In

BE ADVISED

Do not use online tools to generate your base64 encoded logins as these 3rd party sites may store the login credential resulting in a significant risk to the security of your Paradigm site.

To use the API you will need to set the HTTP Authorization header as “Basic {{encodedPassString}}”. The encoded pass string is a base64 encoded form of the following information: username:password

Use the following examples as a guide on how to correctly generate a base64 encoded text string. Replace the parameters username and password with the values you want to use on your Paradigm site.

Windows Command Prompt:

powershell "[convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes(\"username:password\"))

Windows PowerShell:

[Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes("username:password"))

Linux Bash:

echo 'username:password' | base64

Example Requests

In the top menu, you have the option to select the LANGUAGE - as in the programming language or method that you will be using to connect to the API.

By default this is curl: