API Authentication
You must call Cvent APIs with an HTTP POST Header and identify yourself with your API token, which is provided by your Conference Business Analyst. Use the token parameter, “apiToken”, in your calls as follows:
apiToken=<TOKENNAME>
Test and Production URLs
Your event has both test and production Cvent Conference sites. We refer to the test site as UAT (User Acceptance Testing). Please use the UAT environment for your testing, and use the production URL with live users and applications. For Admin, UAT and Production URLs, contact your Conference Business Analyst.
You can access the Session Data API at this URL:
https://EVENTURL.smarteventscloud.com/api/sessionData.do
IP Filtering
Access to Cvent Conference external APIs are limited to specific IP addresses. You will be asked to provide Cvent with IP addresses where your API Posts originate. If you are not sure about the IP addresses for your servers, speak with your network engineers.
Account-Level APIs
You can access all your events through one event’s URL using the Account Level APIs. To enable the Account Level APIs, go to the admin page for the event and navigate to Manage > Settings > APIs. Then click on the API profile button and turn Account Level Access on. You can then run any API for any event or all events from this single URL.
Event GUID
To retrieve all event GUIDs, call the event.do resource from your event’s URL. For any API, use the event parameter to call a specific event or use “all” to retrieve information from all events. You can only set the event parameter equal to all on the resources indicated in this document. If you do not specify the event parameter, the API returns payloads from the event whose endpoint you are referencing.
| ID | Description |
|---|---|
| event | For some APIs, you can set the event parameter equal to all to retrieve information from all your events. For all APIs, you can set the event parameter equal to any event GUID in your account to access that event. |
Response Codes
Each API returns an XML response containing a response code and a response message. The response code is a machine-readable number that indicates what happened during the API call and that you can use to drive programmatic behavior. The description is a human-readable description of the error that should not be parsed.
For a list of error codes, the associated response messages, and a description, see “Appendix A: Error Codes” at the end of this document.
Parameters for Unique IDs
In APIs, each event record (such as a user, session, or exhibitor record) is referenced using a unique identifier. For some records, more than one parameter is available to use as the unique identifier.
Cvent ID vs. Client ID
The Cvent Conference system provides unique IDs that are used in APIs to edit or perform actions on records. In this document, those IDs are called “Cvent IDs.”
The client may want to keep track of records using an ID from their own system instead of the Cvent ID. In this document, those IDs are called “Client IDs.”
NOTE: If an API lists parameters for both the Cvent ID and the Client ID, decide which parameter to use before you integrate, and use it consistently throughout the integration. In the Cvent system, the Client ID is stored in the custom field “External API Identifier”.
| Cvent ID | Client ID | Description |
|---|---|---|
| userKey | clientID | Used in APIs to edit or perform actions on user records. NOTE: For more information on user record IDs, please see “userKey vs. userRef” below. |
userKey vs. userRef
A user record may be referenced by either a Primary ID or a Secondary ID, depending on the type of action being performed:
| ID | Description |
|---|---|
| userKey OR clientID | The Primary ID allows the API to act as the user and includes permission to update the user’s record. It is used in APIs that edit a user record or perform actions that an authenticated user would perform from his or her account (such as updating contact information or scheduling a session). |
| userRef | The Secondary ID is used when the API only needs to know about user, but does not have permission act on behalf of the user. It is used in data dump APIs or where a secondary user is referenced (for example, sending a message from a primary user to secondary user). |
Custom Field Parameters
Users, Sessions, and Exhibitors may be assigned custom values. Create custom fields in the Cvent Conference system that match the custom values you intend to send. Work with your Cvent Business Analyst to configure custom fields. Set the “code” field for the question to match the name of the query parameter you would like to send. If the custom field being set has a fixed set of answers, you must enter a code for each custom field value that can be accepted as the query values on the Post.
For example, if you wanted to send a custom value for the question “What is your type of business?” and the two possible answers were “Government” and “Education”, you would first create the custom field in the Cvent Conference system, then make up some simple abbreviations that can be used to pass the data to our system to set as the code. For example, you could make the code for the custom field be “type_business” and the code for the values be “govt” and “education”. Then, when you send your Post, include the parameter “type_business=govt” and that custom value will be added to the user record.
Here are some rules surrounding custom fields passed in from API calls:
- Text custom fields will simply store whatever is sent.
- If a custom field has a fixed set of values, but one of them is an “Other: please specify” option, any unrecognized value will be stored as the “Other” value.
- If a custom field is passed whose name or value is not recognized, and there is no Other-specify option to put the value in, the API call will fail and an error will result.
- If the custom field value is one of the following constraint values, the API response will return a custom value ID. (The value ID is used instead of a custom value code because the value code is not unique.)
| Response Value | Description |
|---|---|
| publicViewPrivateSchedule | Profile values that let this user schedule sessions that have the same “Public View; Private Schedule” values |
| privateViewPrivateSchedule | Profile values that let this user schedule sessions that have the same “Private View; Private Schedule” values |
| cannotViewOrSchedule | Profile values that restrict this user from scheduling sessions that have the same “Can NOT view or schedule” values |
5. API responses of Data APIs return custom value codes. The response will be formatted as follows:
<custom field display value from custom field location>custom value code</>
6. APIs that update a custom value on a record will reference the custom value updated by both the custom field code and custom value code.
The “code” of a custom field can be used for purposes other than API integrations. If the custom field you want to send in your API calls already has a code when you go to set one up, you won’t be able to change it. It is recommended that you leave it alone and use whatever values are there as your API parameters. If you must use different parameter names, that should be fine, but a Cvent Business Analyst or Developer will need to look to make sure that changing the code won’t cause any harm.