Overview

The API provides access to data in the ForestCRM system.

Terms

Some of the most important terms and their respective definitions used in this document:

Tenant: The company which subscribes to ForestCRM and on whose behalf the API is used.
Server: The ForestCRM server (web application). The server provides the API services.
Client: The system which uses (consumes) the API services.

General information

All API requests are in the form of HTML requests to designated URLs. It is a RESTful API, though not all services ('verbs') are implemented for all entity types.

API URLs are of the format: <server>/api/<format>/<API key>/<data-type>[/function]

The URLs contain an API key part (<API key>); thus the client needs a valid API key in order to use the server's API services. API keys are provided to tenants as defined in the service conditions.
Important! Please note, that — for security reasons — the QuickAdd API uses a different API key than the rest of the APIs!
<format> can be either "xml", "xls" or "csv". Available endpoints and responses may differ by format; it is intentional because they are designed for different use-cases:
- xml: full integration with external services
- xls (Excel XLS file): easy access for end users for simple manipulations
- csv: detailed data analysis / business intelligence integration
See details in API description by format (XML, Excel xls, CSV).

Relationship of the main entities are depicted in the following diagram:

Download "everything"

If — for any reason — you want to download all your data available through the APIs, you can use the following UNIX/Linux script:

#!/bin/bash
key='demo-en'
wget --no-check-certificate -o /tmp/wget.log -O - \
        https://app.forestcrm.hu/api/xml/$key/companies \
        https://app.forestcrm.hu/api/xml/$key/contacts \
        https://app.forestcrm.hu/api/xml/$key/activities \
        https://app.forestcrm.hu/api/xml/$key/products \
        https://app.forestcrm.hu/api/xml/$key/opportunities \
        https://app.forestcrm.hu/api/xml/$key/invoices \
        | gzip > forest_data_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).gz

Of course the key variable has to be replaced with your own API key. Also make sure that the output is placed where you mean.

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