This article is the first of a new series of articles that will provide you with a jump start on developing with the new RESTful API for Sage CRM.
Not everyone reading this will be familiar with SData and so I need to start from the beginning and explain what SData is and how it works. I am not going to assume you already know SData.
The point is that right now you can start working with the new API with an instance of Sage CRM and then start playing with the new API. The API will eventually be extended to allow full CRUD on all entities in the Sage CRM system. But you can start learning now about the API and get going by following the detailed code examples I will provide.
Please note that this series of articles is meant to be as straightforward as possible. I want as many people as possible to be able to understand the contents of each article and see how the technology can be applied within their business.
Before I started to write this series I tried to identify as many questions that needed answering. These are the questions that I thought needed to be answered.
- What is the new API?
- What are its current features?
- What does it cover (actions and entities) and what does it exclude (processes)?
- When was it introduced?
- How does it differ from the previous the SData API?
- What changed between SData 1.1 and 2.0?
- What is JSON? Why is it better than ATOM?
- Where can you learn more?
- Can we still use the old API?
- What about the SOAP Web Services? What will happen to that API?
- How is authorization and security handled? What about SID? What about Sage ID?
- Can you access the API when no one is logged on? (Creating an instance)
- What is the future of the API?
- What will it be used for?
- How will this affect SData based features? E.g. Ajax calls using the Client Side API?
- How do we use it now?
- What REST clients can be used?
- How to write Simple Read, Insert, Update and Delete actions.
- Examples Using Chrome Advanced REST Client
- Examples Using JavaScript
The articles in the series are:
- Sage CRM's RESTful API, An Introduction
- Architecture and Web Services
- Working with an instance of Sage CRM
- Extending query access to custom entities and views in SData
- Thinking about security
- SOAP CRUD vs REST CRUD
- Limitations of SData 1.1
- Compatibility as a priority
- What is JSON?
- SData 2.0 CRUD
For articles about the REST API see: https://www.sagecity.com/sage-global-solutions/sage-crm/b/sage-crm-hints-tips-and-tricks/posts/the-rest-api-a-round-up-of-articles