This article explains how to call an Appian web API object.
Web APIs can only be called by an authenticated Appian user.
There are three ways to authenticate users when calling a web API:
If you wish to invoke an Appian Web API from another system, you must use either API key or basic authentication.
API keys can be used to authenticate Appian Web APIs. There are several advantages to using API keys:
Each API key is tied to a service account. To invoke a web API with an API key, the associated service account must be granted access to that web API via group management.
API keys and service accounts can be managed in the Admin Console by system administrators. Service accounts should be created in each environment with the same username and placed in the same groups so that permissions can be promoted to higher environments. API keys can only be used for the environment they're created in.
Once object security has been configured for a service account, there are multiple ways to use API keys:
Appian-API-Key Header:curl https://example.appian.com/suite/webapi/endpoint -H "Appian-API-Key: ${API_KEY}"
Bearer Token Header:curl https://example.appian.com/suite/webapi/endpoint -H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_KEY}"
Basic Authentication Header (with null username):curl -u :${API_KEY} https://example.appian.com/suite/webapi/endpoint
Basic Authentication Header (with null password):curl -u ${API_KEY}: https://example.appian.com/suite/webapi/endpoint
If you encounter a 404 error while using an API key, make sure that the corresponding service account has been added to a group that has permission to call the web API.
Users that use Appian authentication or LDAP authentication can use their Appian username and password to call web APIs:
curl -u ${USERNAME}:${PASSWORD} https://example.appian.com/suite/webapi/endpoint
Basic authentication cannot be used by members of the SAML system group or Service Accounts system group.
Session-based authentication is reserved for browser-initiated web API calls. A session can be established using either the standard Appian login page or via a SAML SSO configuration. When a user invokes an Appian web API from their browser (for instance to populate a task list for use with an embedded interface), session cookies will be honored.