API Basics

API Basics

API Keys

API keys, also known as the AppKey and AppSecret, are a way to authenticate applications. Upon registering an application with SEI Developer Portal, a consumer key and secret pair is generated. This serves as an application identifier and is unique to each application registered with the Developer Portal. The key/secret must be encoded base 64 to be utilized to obtain an OAuth Token.

Environments

SEI’s API products have various options for different environments accessible to developers for their stages of integration from building/testing to live environments.  

Environment Description Host URL MTLS URL Extranet URL
Build Integration environment available to developers to test drive APIs with masked data. https://build.api.seic.com https://build.mtls.api.seic.com https://extranetbuild.api.seic.com
Sandbox Sandbox environment available to developers to test drive APIs with dummy data.  https://sandbox.api.seic.com https://sandbox.mtls.api.seic.com https://extranetsandbox.api.seic.com
Test Pilot environment used for testing with unmasked data prior to deployment in production. https://test.api.seic.com https://test.mtls.api.seic.com https://extranettest.api.seic.com    
Production Production environment used for production ready applications. https://api.seic.com https://mtls.api.seic.com https://extranet.api.seic.com

Methods

Methods Description
GET The GET method is used to retrieve information from the given server using a given URI. Requests using GET should only retrieve data and should have no other effect on the data.
POST A POST request is used to send data to the server, for example, customer information, file upload, etc. using HTML forms.
PUT Replaces all current representations of the target resource with the uploaded content.
DELETE Removes all current representations of the target resource given by a URI.
PATCH Replaces a particular representation of the target resource with the uploaded content.

 

Key Definitions

  • Tracking ID: Each API request made returns a tracking Id that should be stored by the consuming application and can be used by SEI to trace or troubleshoot at the request level.

  • Open API Specification 3.0: An API specification for REST APIs. 

  • Token: The authentication key minted after invoking the OAuth API endpoint with valid credentials.

  • MTLS: Mutual Transport Layer Security.

  • IP Whitelisting: Security mechanism to allow application access to only a certain range of IP addresses.

  • cURL: Client URL command. This is the API request sent to the server. 

  • Path parameter: Help identify or narrow down the hierarchy of the resource. These parameters are included within the URL path, i.e. PATCH https://mtls.api.seic.com/v1/thirdparties/{externalId} = https://mtls.api.seic.com/v1/thirdparties/zH745A

  • Query parameter: Used to filter, sort, or search within an API request. These parameters are included at the end of the URL, i.e. GET https://mtls.api.seic.com/v3/thirdparties/metadata?limit=10&active=true

  • Header parameter: Used to define HTTP headers. These parameters are included within the API request/cURL, i.e. curl --location --request GET 'https://mtls.api.seic.com//v3/thirdparties/metadata' \ --header 'Authorization: Bearer xxx' \ --header 'AppKey: yyy'