HTTP Requests and Responses

Advantus uses standard HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) response codes for various API requests, allowing other tools using HTTP to seamlessly communicate with our API. A successful API call results in access to the full range of Advantus's functionalities.

Following are the conditions for a successful API call:-

1. The correct URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) needs to be called upon.
   
   
2. The right authentication keys must be used.
   
   
3. All requests should be made over HTTPS. This results in protocol encryption, leading to enhanced security

Given below is a brief introduction of the various response methods used by our interface:

Method	Details
GET	Used to 'read' or retrieve information from your account. Responses will have a JSON body. Additional requests can then be made using the response attributes. GET is not idempotent
DELETE	Used to 'remove' or delete a particular resource from your account. The response will be in the form of an XML or a JSON. In case the object is not found, it will result in an error response . DELETE is idempotent, in that the state of the resource changes, irrespective of its current value
PUT	Used to 'update' or replace a resource in your account. Its idempotency means that like DELETE, one doesn't need to check for the resource's existence prior to using PUT, it will make the necessary changes regardless, that is, create a new resource altogether.
PATCH	Used to 'modify' a resource. However, unlike PUT, it can be used when only partial changes are required, that is, it does not require a complete representation of the resource. Only the changes required to the resource are entered in this command
POST	Used to 'create' a new resource. POST requires entering all the attributes neccesary for the new resource. Thereafter the POST request can be shared with the parent resource (endpoint), resulting in the creation of a new URI
HEAD	Used to 'retrieve' the metadata of an object. However, unlike GET, it does not retrieve the entire response body. This is useful to get critical information like resource status, total content length, number of objects without viewing the whole file