STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Follow the steps below in order to get started learning about, building, and testing your applications.
Step 1: Learn
Review the Autodesk Partner Development Portal Guide
Learn the basic functions and processes to build and test API Services within the Development Portal. The Autodesk Partner Development Portal Guide can be found here.
Learn about our API Services
Get acquainted with our services by reading our reference documentation found here. You can also navigate to the Reference Documentation menu at any time.
Inviting a Developer as a Partner Admin
As a Partner Admin, you will need to invite your company’s developers to the site so that they may begin creating and testing apps through the Autodesk Partner Web Services.
After logging in as a Partner Admin, go to your profile arrow and select Invite Developer:
After that, you will be taken to the My Developers view. SelectInvite Developer:
On the following screen, fill in the First Name, Last Name and Email of said developer and select Save:
You will be taken back to the My Developers view. The developer will receive an email and you will see said developer listed on the My Developers view:
Finally, you have the option to Disable or Enable a Developer by selecting said options under the Action column associated with a particular developer.
Step 2: Build
Navigate to the My Apps menu item and begin building an app for your selected API Service(s). You will need do the following in order to get started with development.
- Name Your Application
- Provide a Callback URL
- Select the API Services/API Products that will be associated with your app
- Create Your App
Once these steps are complete, you will need to receive and generate the client credentials necessary for interacting with Autodesk API Services.
Receive Consumer Key and Consumer Secret
Autodesk will provide two client credentials that are specific to each Partner. They are a Partner’s Consumer Key and Consumer Secret. They are essential in the generation of other client credentials specific to API Service use. A Partner cannot generate a Consumer Key or Consumer Secret on their own: they are provided directly by Autodesk by email. These client credentials will also have to be contained within your application, given it will be the application providing these credentials as it interacts with Autodesk API Services.
Request Transactional Service Access
When selecting an API Service in the steps outlined above, you may notice that the services PlaceOrder and GetMyPrice are not readily available, while GetOrderDetails, GetInvoice, and GetLicense are. To gain access to these transactional services, you must do the following. [The following only applies to Direct Developer Partners, Indirect Developer Partners will not have these transactional services available]
1) Request Transactional Service Access within My Apps
The My Apps page will allow you to select the Request Transactional Service Access Button, directing you to a window where you can enter the details of your request (such as which transactional service(s) you need access to and why). Once you’ve written down your message, select Send. Your request will be sent to Autodesk. Remember that approval of this request is not guaranteed
2) Approval Confirmation
Autodesk will receive an email on your transactional service access request. Autodesk may approve the request depending on whether your account has been judged as appropriate for transactional service access or not. Autodesk may revoke access if deemed necessary.
Note: These services will not be automatically integrated/compatible with existing applications. You must edit your application yourself or create a new application to interact with these services.
Step 3: Authenticate & Test
Begin testing your application by going to the Testing with API Documentation site, and performing the corresponding steps necessary for testing.
1) Authenticating & Testing with API Documentation
The Testing with API Documentation page under the MyApps section contains SmartDocs corresponding to each API Service. These SmartDocs handle both authentication and testing for your application.
In order to authenticate and test your application using said SmartDocs, first select the API Service or subservice (GetInvoiceList, for example) you’d like to test your application on along with the corresponding method being tested.
Once you have selected the corresponding service, the Resource URL will be provided and you will be asked to input your client credentials: Consumer Key, Consumer Secret, and the Callback URL associated with your application. Authentication credentials such as Timestamp, Signature, and Authorization (Access Token) will be generated and will populate their respective fields within the below Header Parameters section. These parameters in particular authenticate your application’s interaction with a given service. You will also need to fill in the unpopulated Header Parameters associated with the service, such as CSN (the CSN used to login to the Developer Portal).
Finally, you will be asked to input your Query Parameters (in the case of GetInvoiceList, for example, these would be customer_number, invoice_date_from, and invoice_date_to).
Once these fields are filled, select Send this request in order to authenticate and test your app.
2) How Authentication Works
Each session of use of an Autodesk API Service requires the submission of signatures and an Access Token (which is generated using client credentials) that validate said session. The application you create will need to be able to provide client credentials in order to generate new Access Tokens after old ones expire, given each Access Token is only valid for 15 minutes. Said application should
- Access the OATH 2 proxy
- Pass your consumer key (as the client ID parameter) and Consumer Secret (as the client_secret parameter) to the Authentication API. The response contains the access token and expiry time (in seconds).
For a more detailed explanation of how Authentication works, consult the API Authentication Guide.