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Introducing the new RESTful API

By Adam Hoover posted 06-02-2020 17:16

  

Introducing the new RESTful API

With a platform as flexible and powerful as Quickbase, it could be easy to forget about all the different processes and tools that businesses rely on that go beyond their Quickbase apps. One thing that we have always understood however, is that there is no limit to the innovative new ideas that our customers can dream up. We're always looking for new ways to make those ideas possible, investing in features and enhancements that continue to make it easier for inspiration to become reality, and for businesses to perfect the processes that make them unique.

That's why I'm so excited to introduce Quickbase's entirely new RESTful API. The RESTful API provides a modern and intuitive new experience to help our community of app builders and developers extend their workflow beyond the native capabilities of their Quickbase apps. Whether your business process needs Quickbase to integrate with third party software tools, to aggregate data from multiple systems, or even to support a new end-user experience with a customized mobile and web interface, there's is no limit to what's possible.

 

Integration Offerings

The introduction of our new RESTful API enhances our already robust suite of integration capabilities, and allows us to provide comprehensive support for the widest possible range of custom use cases with the following tools:

  • Quickbase Pipelines
  • Quickbase RESTful API
  • Quickbase XML API


Those of you who have already begun using the Quickbase Pipelines technology, which we introduced earlier this year, will find that the new capabilities of our RESTful API can be leveraged within a Pipeline to facilitate an even broader range of integration and automation scenarios. By supporting all 4 of these tools, we believe that there is now a path for any Quickbase builder to quickly solve even the trickiest business challenges.

 

Supporting Two APIs

The best news is that our existing XML API, which has already helped thousands of customers to build, integrate, share, and administer their Quickbase applications, is not going anywhere. By supplementing, rather than replacing, our extensive XML API offering, we are able to offer a new suite of flexible and intuitive API calls that fully support JSON, without disrupting any existing scripts or extensions that are running successfully today. So, if you already have calls configured to use our existing API, you can be sure that they'll continue to be processed safely and securely as always.

Of course, now that our RESTful API is here, you'll want to take advantage of its scalability and easy implementation. Our team has been hard at work, designing the RESTful API from the ground up to ensure that we provide a consistent experience, with capabilities that we will continue to expand on and invest in for years to come. Basing our design decisions on industry-standards and best practices helps us create APIs that are easy to understand, accelerating the ability for developers to quickly solve new challenges. Additionally, continued access to our XML API ensures that nobody loses the incredibly broad range of powerful capabilities that many of you have spent years helping us enhance.

Today, the RESTful API already supports the majority of scenarios that our builders are using our XML APIs to facilitate, including the full range of App, Table, Field, and Record management API calls. With the ability to address such a wide range of use cases, and with our team geared up to continuously add powerful new capabilities, the RESTful API is ready to be your one-stop-shop for any new integration challenges or use case ideas moving forward.

Getting Started

To make it easy to get started, we recommend using the new RESTful API Portal, which houses both documentation and implementation tools that are intuitive enough for developers and experienced business builders. Use the portal to learn about, plan, and try out any of our API calls as you begin thinking about the next problem you'd like to solve.

With interactive documentation at your fingertips, it's easier than ever to test new extensions, plan new integrations, and even begin to migrate and streamline existing logic that you still have running on our XML API. Now that access to the RESTful API is available to all Quickbase customers, you can build your next integration today!

 

Next Steps

If you want to jump right in, we encourage you to start with the RESTful API Portal, but if you're interested in reading about how our team has thought through some of the specific decision points involved with these new capabilities then click here to learn more.

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