API Integration Options

API Integration Options

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the possible integration options available on our platform if you ever need to connect to a third-party web service. This will help you make an informed choice for the option best suited to your technical capabilities and circumstances when you need to perform an integration.

API Integration Overview

As you use our platform and get comfortable with some of its more advanced features and functions, you may wish to extend its functionality by integrating with various third-party APIs to perform certain functions or achieve a particular outcome that isn’t natively supported by our platform’s default functionality. In such cases, you may use our REST Field or REST Form Connector to facilitate connections with third-party systems.

While this might suffice for most use cases, some require a slightly more complex solution. Often, this involves custom development of your own API REST endpoint to offload data from our platform for further processing by your own custom scripts or the use of 3rd party services like Google App Scripts or an API integration aggregator. We’ll explore all these options in this article.

Native REST Integrations

These refer to any integration you do from our platform that uses our platform’s built-in REST integration functions, either our REST Field, REST Form Connector, or a REST-connected data source. We recommend using our native REST API features to integrate with your API endpoints as far as possible.

Pros

  • Functionality and documentation are readily available.
  • There is no additional cost or specialized hosting and skills required beyond being technically competent in web integrations.
  • Supports XML and JSON.

Cons

  • You will need to know how to write a suitable JSON or XML body in order to interface with the desired API endpoint you want to integrate with.
  • Might not be ideal for integrations that require more than 2 steps.
  • Requires a fair amount of technical web development knowledge in order to properly utilize it.

Self-hosted Custom API Endpoints

For very specific technical scenarios, it may be necessary to code your own API endpoint in your own programming language, as long as the endpoint supports properly formatted JSON and XML. This is the most technical option as it requires not only technical skills to develop the endpoint but also resources to host and manage it.

Pros

  • It can be used to circumvent any technical integration challenge you may encounter.
  • There are no constraints on the data you submit.

Cons

  • You will need your own Scripts (e.g., PHP scripts, Google Scripts)
  • Or an Integration Aggregator (e.g., Zapier or Make.com)

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