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Integration Checklist

After completing the initial setup in our Get Started guide, the next step is to build a secure, stable, and scalable integration. This checklist provides essential best practices to ensure your application is robust and aligned with API People's technical and security standards.

Reach Out for Support

If you have questions about the API integration, get in touch with API People Support using the Contact Us form or your onboarding contact.

Phase 1: Review the Core Concepts​

A solid understanding of the API's architecture is crucial for a smooth development process. Before writing code, take the time to review the fundamental building blocks of our platform.

Pay close attention to:

  • Authentication Flows: Understand how to securely connect using OAuth 2.0 and mutual TLS (mTLS).
  • Required Headers: Every request requires specific headers, such as the x-correlation-id for idempotency. Learn more on our Authentication page.
  • Data Formats: All request and response payloads use application/json. Review the Data Format standards.
  • Response and Error Codes: Know what to expect for successful requests and how to handle failures by reviewing the standard HTTP Response Codes.
  • API Reference: Explore the complete API Reference for detailed information on specific endpoints, required parameters, and request/response schemas.

Phase 2: Secure Your Implementation​

Proper management of data, credentials, and tokens is a critical security requirement.

  • Protect Sensitive Data: Restrict access to any data retrieved from API People APIs. Use role-based access control (RBAC) within your application to enforce the principle of least privilege.
  • Secure Your Credentials: Never hardcode API keys, access tokens, or client_secret values in your source code or expose them in version control systems like Git.
  • Use a Secure Vault: Store your access tokens, client secrets, and mTLS certificates in a dedicated secrets management system (e.g., AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or HashiCorp Vault).
  • Rotate Credentials Regularly: Follow a schedule for rotating secrets and certificates to minimize risk in case of exposure.

Phase 3: Plan for Testing and Validation​

Comprehensive testing the API is essential to ensure your integration is reliable. API People provides a sandbox environment and testing tools to help you validate your work.

  • Validate Your Connection: Use the Hello API People API to perform an end-to-end connection test. This simple endpoint confirms that your authentication, mTLS certificate, and headers are all configured correctly.
  • Test for Edge Cases: Your testing plan should include handling different scenarios, such as malformed requests, invalid parameters, and different error responses (e.g., 4xx and 5xx status codes).
  • Use Non-Production Data: Never use live production data for testing. Always use synthetic or masked data in the sandbox environment.

Phase 4: Design for Resilience and Monitoring​

A production-ready integration must handle errors and provide visibility into its operational health.

  • Implement Safe Retries with Idempotency: To prevent duplicate transactions during network issues or timeouts, all POST requests must include an x-correlation-id header. If a request fails, you can safely retry it using the same x-correlation-id without creating a second transaction. For more details, see the Idempotency section.
  • Handle Timeouts: All API requests have a Timeout of 180 seconds. If a request exceeds this limit, you will receive a 504 Gateway Timeout error. Your application should handle this response by terminating the request, notifying the user if necessary, and checking the transaction status later.
  • Build a Retry Strategy: For transient server-side errors, such as a 503 Service Unavailable, implement a retry mechanism with exponential backoff. This strategy prevents overwhelming the API with rapid-fire retries and increases the chance of success once the service recovers.
  • Monitor and Alert: Actively monitor your integration's API usage, latency, and error rates. Set up automated alerts for critical failures or unusual spikes in error responses to enable quick detection and resolution.