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UltraCart API
Our API uses cutting edge REST API functionality to deliver resource-oriented URLs that are efficient at exposing the maximum amount of functionality in an easy to use interface. Our APIs are all defined using the OpenAPI (Swagger) specification which allows us to provide generated client libraries and documentation that are always accurate and efficient to program against. Whenever possible, JSON is the format for the request and the response of our APIs and our client libraries convert the information into language specific objects.
Our APIs support two primary methods of authentication:
OAuth 2.0 and Simple Key.
Authentication
Our APIs support two primary methods of authentication
OAuth 2.0 authentication allows your application to interact with an UltraCart account with a limited set of permissions without knowing their username and password. The authentication of a third party application, such as our Wordpress plugin, is simple and straight forward for the end user.
Learn MoreMany businesses need to interact with our APIs to perform internal operations only. For these types of development we recommend utilizing the simple key authentication scheme.
Learn MoreWebhooks
A Webhook is a callback to an external server to notify it of events that the external party is interested in. The external party that is interested in receiving the notification will implement an end-point to receive the JSON based notifications as they occur. Since webhooks are an outbound process from UltraCart to the external party they happen quicker and are far more efficient than polling an API.
If you're wondering about the importance of Webhooks, look at a real-world example of their use in the Wordpress plugin. When the plugin is first authorized via OAuth 2.0 authentication, it sets up a webhook with three item events (item_create, item_update, and item_delete) so that all changes to the item information are quickly conveyed to the wordpress instance. After the webhook is created, the plugin makes another API call asking UltraCart to reflow all item_update events. UltraCart in an asynchronous and controlled fashion resends all the existing items from the UltraCart account to the wordpress plugin's webhook endpoint. Two API calls setup and trigger the entire process and no polling is required after that point.
GitHub
To make working with our API easier, we package and SDK that is available from our GitHub repository.