Getting Started

Documentation is currently under development. Please get in touch if you need details for endpoints that are not yet fully documented. :::

This documentation covers the Synap API endpoints and use-cases.

Looking for our legacy "Org API" documentation? Please click here.

Looking to extend or customise your organisation's Synap platform experience? You've found the right place. Please read on.

API Design

The Synap API is built upon two well-known industry standards:

• OpenAPI v3: Specification
• JSON:API v1.1: Specification

You do not need to be familiar with either of these standards to begin building with the Synap API. However, any client libraries you wish to use to interact with the API can safely assume that the requests and responses will adhere to these standards.

First Request

You do not need an organisation-level "secret" API Key to access the Synap API. Instead, we have opted for a self-managed token approach called Personal Access Tokens (PATs). Once obtained, you add this to each request as an Authorization: Bearer <token>. Read the Authentication guide to learn more.

Once you have obtained a PAT, here is a simple CURL request that you can try:

curl 'https://api.synap.ac/v3/portals/current' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer <PAT>'

If you see some data related to your organisation's Portal, the request was successful:

{ "data": {"type":"Portal", "id":"...", "attributes": { ... }} }

Otherwise, if your PAT was invalid or misconfigured, you may see the following:

{ "errors": [{"status":"404","title":"...","detail":"..." }] }

Testing

For simple API tests, use your production portal. You can set up a 'Staging' or 'Dev' user group and dummy users, as well as dummy exams, tests etc. We generally recommend this approach over a separate portal, as it sures you are testing against a realistic environment with any specific customisations or configurations you have made such as custom attributes, webhooks, data fields etc.

However, if you are planning to use the API extensively and would prefer to have a separate staging environment, please get in touch with your account manager. This option is not available on all plans.