Upcoming Changes to OData and API Authentication for Blackbaud Altru®

Jillian Vrba
Jillian Vrba Blackbaud Employee
Ninth Anniversary Kudos 3 Participant Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Altru® Blog
Starting October 31, 2024, Blackbaud will require all OData and SOAP API connections to authenticate with non-interactive users and personal access tokens (PATs). This change impacts organizations that use custom applications, reports, or other integrations that rely on OData or SOAP API connections.

What’s changing

To provide a more secure and streamlined authentication experience for custom integrations, starting October 31, 2024, OData and SOAP API connections will require a non-interactive “proxy” user and PAT to authenticate. After this date, you'll no longer be able to authenticate these types of connections with your Blackbaud ID.

Note: This change doesn't impact SKY API connections or traditional Altru application users.

About non-interactive users

In 2022, Altru released the ability to create non-interactive “proxy” users to authenticate with SOAP API endpoints. Earlier this year, we also expanded this support to OData connections.

Non-interactive users differ from traditional Altru users in that they require programmatic access to your database but don't need to sign in and perform tasks within the Altru application itself. This industry-standard authentication method offers many benefits, including reduced risk in the event credentials are compromised, and the need to only authenticate every 365 days.

Action required by October 31, 2024

To avoid interruption in custom applications, reports, or other integrations, if you currently use Blackbaud ID to authenticate with OData or SOAP API connections, follow these steps before October 31:

  1. Set up a proxy user and PAT for your account.
  2. Update your connection to use the proxy user and PAT (instead of your Blackbaud ID).

Note: For integrations built by a Blackbaud Partner, reach out to them for assistance updating the connection.

Additional resources

For more information, see the following resources:

For assistance creating non-interactive users in Altru, contact Blackbaud Support.

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