What is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface. APIs enable communication between two software components, typically a client and a server. The application sending the request is the client, and the application sending the response is the server. When interacting with the Mobile Text Alerts API, the Mobile Text Alerts database is the server, and you send requests as the client.

There are different types of APIs, the MTA API is a REST API.

REST APIs

REST stands for Representational State Transfer, a REST API is a way for software systems to communicate using HTTP. The main principle of REST APIs is statelessness, which means each request from a client to a server must contain all the information needed (no session stored on the server). The server processes the request and returns the necessary data as plain text.

HTTP Methods in REST

HTTP methods indicate the action the client would like to perform on a given resource. Examples of possible actions when calling the Mobile Text Alerts API: send a message, add/delete a subscriber, create a drip campaign, and many more.

Each HTTP method is mapped to a specific operation and is included with every request to the API.

HTTP Methods:

• GET - Retrieves data from the server.

  • Example: A GET request to the /subscribers endpoint would return a list of all subscribers.

• POST - Sends data to the server to create something new.

REST API Responses

After making a request to the API, it will return a response that contains the following information:

• - This three-digit code indicates the outcome of the request

  • Example: 200

• - This provides metadata about the response.

Header Parameters

Header parameters are included in the request header, all requests to the Mobile Text Alerts API require a valid Authorization header. See Request Headers to learn more.

Path Parameters

Path parameters (sometimes called path variables) are part of the endpoint itself and are not optional when making a request to certain endpoints.

For example, when calling the Update Drip Campaign endpoint:

The {dripCampaignId} is a string that identifies the id of the campaign to be updated.

Request Bodies

The request body contains the actual data being transferred. This is particularly important in methods such as POST, PATCH, and DELETE, where data is sent to the server. This data is typically sent as JSON.

For example, when calling the Update Drip Campaign endpoint, the name and endDate of a campaign can be updated in the request body:

Example request to Update Drip Campaign endpoint:

HTTP Status Codes

Each request to the API will return an HTTP status code, a three-digit code that indicates the outcome of the request.

An API rate limit is a restriction on the number of requests a client can make to an API within a given period of time.

General Rate Limit

Most Mobile Text Alerts API endpoints have a general rate limit of 30 requests per minute per IP address. However, some individual endpoints may override the general rate limit (see below).

Request Headers

Request headers contain information about the client request. Learn more about the header types used by the Mobile Text Alerts API.

Authorization

The Authorization header is used for authentication purposes in HTTP requests. This is a token or credentials used to prove the client's identity. The Mobile Text Alerts API uses Bearer Token Authentication with an API Key.

Header structure: "Authorization: Bearer {myAPIKey}"

Example request:

See to learn how to generate and send this key in a request.

Content-Type

Content-Type is an HTTP header that indicates the data type of the request’s message body. This is needed for the server to understand how to process the request data.

Header structure: "Content-Type: application/json"

Example request:

Response Headers

Response headers provide metadata about the response to the client. Most of the MTA API response headers provide information about your individual account's usage.