An API user allows you not only to make direct use of our API, it is also a necessary step in the installation of our integrations such as Adobe Commerce or Microsoft Dynamics.
Each API user has its own credentials (a username and password) that must be used to authenticate each operation or call.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
Only an account owner or a user with the Can manage account permission enabled can add API users.
Learn more in Restrict and grant user access permissions.You can have multiple API users in one Dotdigital account.
⚠️ Protect your API credentials
API credentials must be treated as sensitive data, and never be distributed to your customers, or anyone else who does not have legitimate cause to require them. For example, do not embed them on a website, or in a mobile application. If you do, someone malicious could use those credentials to access, edit, or delete your customer data, or send spam or other harmful content which appears to come from your organisation.
Data breaches as a result of such an action could incur large financial penalties. We have some guidance around data legislation for different parts of the world in our Help Centre here, but you must also seek your own legal counsel to ensure you have adequate data protection processes in place.
Create a new API user
Multiple API users
When creating API users, it's best practice to create one user per system — for instance, one for an Adobe Commerce integration and another one for a Dynamics integration — and not share an API user for different purposes.
We advise this so that it's easier to revoke individual API users should you need to, as well as isolate and diagnose problems with integrations.
Expand the User menu and select Settings.
Go to Access > API users.
Select NEW USER.
The username (email address) is automatically generated for you and must not be edited. You can also add a description.
The Description field is most commonly used to help you identify the purpose of an API user, so you might enter something like Adobe Commerce Production or Dynamics CRM. This is particularly useful when you have multiple API users in a single account.
Enter a password and confirm it. Your password must be at least eight characters in length and contain at least one digit or non-alphanumeric character. Please avoid including your email address or company name as part of your password.
It’s also not possible to use the word password as part or all of the password for your API user.For rate limiting, select TIERED or FLAT.
TIERED
This is our preferred rate limiting and is based on each API call being in a tier with its own rate limit per minute.FLAT
This type of rate limiting and is based on a given number of API calls per hour.
Learn more in Call rate limits.
Select Enabled.
Select SAVE.
The API user is now ready to use.