First Steps

How do I get access to the API BETA?

As long as you are a Network Admin user on the Pro version of CharityTracker, getting access to the API BETA is as simple as filling out a form with your information!

How do I connect to my network's API?

Once you have been given your API Token, you can connect to your network’s API via the /api/v1 endpoint.

For example, Fred has a food bank aptly named Fred's Food Bank , and has an Oasis Insight network of fredsfoodbank.oasisinsight.net.

This means that Fred can access the root API directory by sending a GET request to:
https://fredsfoodbank.oasisinsight.net/api/v1

Please note: while you can access this URL while logged in to an admin account with a valid API token associated with it, this is mainly just for troubleshooting and exploring the API. The API is intended to be accessed by software programmatically.

Please do not develop your solution around logging into an admin account and then accessing endpoints via user session authentication. This will result in the revocation of your API key by the API security system!

What can I do with the API?

In simple terms, our application programming interface (API) will allow Charity Tracker and Oasis Insight to "talk" to other software.

This opens a world of possibilities. Programmatic access to your data means integrations of all kinds can be created.

For example, you could pull data from Charity Tracker or Oasis Insight into a data warehouse dashboard that combines data from your multiple software platforms for a holistic view of all your organization's data.

Or, you could create cases from a mobile app you use for event registration.

As another example, if you frequently work between Charity Tracker or Oasis Insight and another database, the API could be used to reduce double entry.

As with any API, the CT/OI API will be a technology tool that will require the expertise of a programmer, but it opens doors that were previously unavailable. We're excited to see what you build!

What can I - not - do with the API?

There are a few limitations to what you can and can’t do with the API. With each version we hope to reduce the number of these limitations, but there are still some things that the API will not be able to provide.

For example, if you want a live, up-to-the-second data channel from Charity Tracker or Oasis Insight to stream into your data warehouse, you’ll soon run up against your rate limits. Additionally, constant heavy uses of the API like this will affect the performance of your network for everyone using it!

We also don’t support post-action events (such as webhooks) at this time. There are a number of elements we do want to support with post-action events though - such as emailing ID cards to clients, notifying agents of assistance requests, or sending a custom data payload as a response to a designated endpoint ( such as forwarding an entry event to your data warehouse ).

Keep an eye out for these in the future!