Who Generates Access Token?

[NicholasW174]

Hello everyone,

I plan to develop an API between my company's database and Constant Contact. My company already has an account set up with Constant Contact, but the existing account holder is in another department in another country. 

I will be making API calls through my account, though it seems that I need to generate an access token. Does the existing account holder in my company need to generate this access token for me so that I may make calls between the databases? Any advice helps. Thanks for your time.

[DaveBerard]

The access token can be generated by anyone with a valid Username/Password to the account and a valid API key through our interactive documentation here: https://constantcontact.mashery.com/io-docs.  If your integration is only going to be accessing a single account, this is the best option for you since you won't have to implement OAuth 2.0 access flows.

[NicholasW174]

Thank you, Dave! 

So the developer (me, in this case) generates the API key and pairs it with the access token generated by the Constant Contact user?

That is my understanding of the process before making the API calls.

[Elijah_G · Accepted solution]

Hello,

It sounds like you've got it mostly figured out. The one thing worth mentioning is that there are two methods of generating access tokens:

1. For a single account integration (Will only be used by a single Constant Contact User), you can use the I/O Docs page to generate a single token for use.

2. For an integration that expects more than a single user, you will want to implement the OAuth 2 authentication flow that will allow users to grant access to your application, and give you the ability to retrieve an access token to connect with their account. You can read more about the authentication flow here: http://developer.constantcontact.com/docs/developer-guides/authentication.html

Sincerely,

[NicholasW174]

Thank you, Elijah. You have been a great help.