Bidders - API semantics

This page explains how to work with our impression bus REST API. It includes information on:

• How to authenticate
• How to ask a service about itself - what fields it supports, which fields can be used to filter
• Response codes and errors

HTTP protocol

Xandr's impression bus API supports HTTP Protocol version 1.1 or later. While some calls may work with the deprecated 1.0 version, this is not guaranteed. Please ensure that your client communicates using at least version 1.1.

API endpoints

REST

Xandr API services are "RESTful." REST (Representational State Transfer) is a type of software architecture in which requests model the communication from a web browser to a web server. Below are the central REST methods used in Xandr's API Services and their uses:

In our documentation we use cURL to make REST requests. cURL is a command line tool for transferring files with URL syntax, supporting FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SCP, SFTP, TFTP, TELNET, DICT, LDAP, LDAPS, and FILE. The example scripts on each API wiki page will make clear the structure of the cURL commands you will need to run Xandr's API Services.

Append on PUT

For PUT requests, only the fields included in the JSON file will be updated, except in the case of arrays.

When updating an array using PUT, all fields in the array are overwritten with the contents of the new array you upload, unless you add this to your request's query string: "append=true".

Meta calls

All Bidder Services support meta calls, which will return the service's fields and the value type. Meta calls look like this:

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies 'https://api.adnxs.com/SERVICE/meta'

For example (partial output of a meta call):

            "bidder_id": {
                "type": "int"
            },
            "agent_id": {
                "type": "int"
            },
            "code": {
                "type": "string"
            },
            "active": {
                "type": "boolean"
            }

Limiting GET request records

Adding this string to the end of any GET request to the API will limit the number of records retrieved:

?start_element=N&num_elements=N

Examples

segment/1?start_element=0&num_elements=1000
member?start_element=0&num_elements=100
creative/1?start_element=0&num_elements=200

• The first element is element 0.
• All GET responses will have a "count" property showing the total number of elements matching that GET request.
• This will also apply to non-reporting services, such as the creative search service, that are requested with methods other than GETs.

Filtering and sorting

Most API Services support filtering and sorting. Filtering allows you to specify a subset of objects to be returned. Sorting allows you to control the order of the objects returned.

Get multiple objects by ID

You can get multiple specific objects by ID by passing a comma-separated list of IDs. The result object will contain an array holding just those specific objects. In the example below, we ask the Creative Service for just the creatives with IDs 1, 2, and 3.

$ curl -bc -cc 'https://api.adnxs.com/creative?id=1,2,3
{ 
  "response" : {
     "count" : 3,
     "status" : "OK",
     "creatives" : [ ... ]
  }
}
      

Filter by IDs

Pass a query string parameter for the field with a comma-separated list of IDs.

Example: Request all creatives for certain members

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies 'https://api.adnxs.com/creative?member_id=123,987' 

Filter by Min and Max Values

Fields that are of the type int, double, date, or money can be filtered by min and max. For example:

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies 'https://api.adnxs.com/creative?min_id=47'
$ curl -b cookies -c cookies 'https://api.adnxs.com/creative?min_brand_id=20'

Fields of the type date can be filtered using the min_last_modified filter. Note the required date/time syntax: YYYY-MM-DD+HH:MM:SS

$ curl -b cookies 'https://api.adnxs.com/creative/114?min_last_activity=2017-10-27+21:00:00'

Filter by field names

To limit the response to specific fields of an object, pass the fields query string parameter with a comma-separated list of field names. For example:

$ curl -b cookies "https://api.adnxs.com/user/current&fields=username,user_type,id"
{
    "response":{
        "status":"OK",
        "count":1,
        "start_element":0,
        "num_elements":100,
        "user":{
            "id":14311,
             "username":"rloveland",
             "user_type":"admin"
        }
    }
}
  

Misc filters on field

We support the following additional field-based filters on API responses:

• not_*
• like_*
• min_*
• max_*
• nmin_*
• nmax_*
• having_*
• having_min_*
• having_max_*

Example

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies 'https://api.adnxs.com/creative?like_[fieldName]=partialValue'

JSON field values

POST and PUT requests require JSON-formatted data. POST request generally create objects in the database, and thus require all of the information about that object (unless it is subsequently modified by a PUT request). For PUT requests, only the JSON fields included in a request will be updated. All other fields will be unchanged.

Different fields require different types of values.

Authentication

Before you can use the APIs, you must authenticate yourself with your username and password. Please see Authentication Service for details.

Response codes

All API Services return JSON-formatted data. When Service calls are successful, the JSON response will include a "status" field set to "OK". The response to POST and PUT calls will also include the ID of the relevant object, such as bidder, member, tag, or creative, as well as any relevant attributes of that object. (In the example below, we are using cookies to store our authentication token and adding the file "tag" to the Tiny Tag Service.)

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies -X POST --data-binary @tag https://api.adnxs.com/tt/32/
{
    "response": {
        "status": "OK",
        "id": "242"
    }
}

Errors

When invalid input is sent to the API - for example, an incorrect password - a JSON response will be returned with "error" and "error_id" fields. For some error conditions you may also see the optional "error_description" and "error_code" fields.

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies 'https://api.adnxs.com/api/auth?username=admin&password=Wr0ngP@ss'
{
    "response": {
        "error": "No match found for user\/pass",
        "error_id": "NOAUTH"
    }
}

The "error" field is useful for debugging purposes, as it contains a verbose description of the error. The "error_id" field can be used programmatically as follows:

Related topic

Bidder API Services