Authorization issues FE NXT to Middleware

Matt Scott

My team and I have hired a third party implementor to help us connect Financial Edge NXT to a middleware platform. While attempting to test the connection, after we already obtained the primary/secondary subscription keys from the developer account, we receive an error saying client credentials are invalid and the subscription key is missing. We reset the primary key and tried again, same error still received. The reset the Blackbaud's account password that we are using and still received the same error.

Alex Wong

@Matt Scott
Did the 3rd party implementor have experience working with SKY API? if not, did they spend time reading through how to authorize?

in order to make SKY API call, you need to get bearer token, subscription key, client id, client password it not used directly.

Matt Scott

@Alex Wong

Yes. Our third party and I read this page together. I provided our Blackbaud account details (username and password) to the third party to use as direct access to our data, as well as the subscription keys from our developer account. The bearer token may be the issue? Unless the client ID and client password are something other than account username and password.

Alex Wong

@Matt Scott
to make any SKY API calls, you need to provide in the HTTP Headers: Bb-Api-Subscription-Key and Authorization, where Authorization begins with Bearer follow by the authorization token.

Your developer.blackbaud.com account will give you Subscription Key, Application ID (client_id) and Secret (client_secret). You are not going to get authorization token from developer.blackbaud.com

The link I pointed you to: https://developer.blackbaud.com/skyapi/docs/authorization goes into details on how you can get authroization token through OAuth 2.0 protocol.

If your implementor is not familiar with OAuth 2.0 protocol, you can search the community, there has been many post previously on how to do this, and how to get “around” the need to have “user” sign in (server to server authentication).

Matt Scott

@Alex Wong
Regarding the application ID, we aren't building or registering an application. Where does the client id and client secret come from if we just want to use a middleware solution to FE NXT?

Alex Wong

@Matt Scott
You are not building an “Application” but a developer application is required to make SKY API calls. This is also similiar to many platform's RESTful API where an “app” registration is required first. That makes me wonder how experience your 3rd party implementor is with API and if they qualify to do the work you intent for them to do. Good luck.

Matt Scott

@Alex Wong
Would the platform “Insomnia” qualify as a developer application in this case? I know the third party uses Insomnia to make calls.

Alex Wong

@Matt Scott
I am not familiar with Insomnia platform, however, whatever platform you use, you have to do the setup needed for that platform to communicate with SKY API, and to do this, a SKY API application is required and “authorized” and provided the right “access level”.

Matt Scott

@Alex Wong
Is there any chance you would have a call with my third party and me? Hopefully a quick 5-minute call with concise guidance is all they need to get us up and running.

Alex Wong

@Matt Scott
Unfortunately, authentication and authorization with SKY API isn’t a quick five-minute task—given how you/your 3rd party experience with SKY API.

If you'd like my help, I’d be happy to assist as a separate consulting engagement. If you’d like to proceed, email me separately at ffxkenshin@gmail.com and I can provide details on the scope and next steps.