API authentication

Before you can make calls to any API service or report, you must use your username and password to get an authorization token from the authentication service. The token remains active for 2 hours, during which you do not need to re-authenticate. This page walks you through the authentication process.

Tip

If you have forgotten your username or password, you can use the Account Recovery Service to retrieve your username or create a new password.

Step 1: Create a JSON-formatted file including your username and password

Below, we have used the cat command to show the output of the file.

$ cat auth
{
    "auth": {
        "username" : "USERNAME",
        "password" : "PASSWORD"
    }
}

Step 2: POST the file to the authentication service

The request returns a token that remains valid for 2 hours. We suggest using "-b cookies -c cookies" in the POST request to store the token in a cookie.

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies -X POST -d @auth 'https://api.appnexus.com/auth'
{
    "response": {
        "status": "OK",
        "token": "h20hbtptiv3vlp1rkm3ve1qig0",
        "dbg_info": {
            ...
        }
    }
}

Step 3: Use the token when making calls to API services and reports

In the example below, we call the Member Service and authenticate using the token stored in the cookie.

$ curl -b cookies -c cookies 'https://api.appnexus.com/member'
{
    "response": {
        "members": [
            {
                "id": "1",
                "name": "Car company c\/o Ad Agency",
                "active": "1",
                "bidder_id": "2"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Alternately, if you didn't store the token in a cookie, you can put the token in the request header as "Authorization: TOKEN".

$ curl -H "Authorization: 622cee5f8c99c81e87614e9efc63eddb" 'https://api.appnexus.com/member'
{
    "response": {
        "members": [
            {
                "id": "1",
                "name": "Car company c\/o Ad Agency",
                "active": "1",
                "bidder_id": "2"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Authentication frequency

After authenticating, your token remains valid for 2 hours. You do not need to re-authenticate within this time.

Note

If you do re-authenticate, be aware of the following limitation:

1. The API permits you to authenticate successfully 10 times per 5-minute period.
2. Any subsequent authentication attempts within those 5 minutes will result in an error.

Tip

It is best practice to listen for the "NOAUTH" error_id in your call responses and re-authenticate only after receiving it.