Application ID and Key

Unified API
1

Dear Helper

I am very new to using APIs and REST, and I only have experienced IDs and Keys using RANDOM.ORG’s API.

That said, Transport for London Unified API’s front page says: ‘to use the Unified API, developers should register for an Application ID and Key. Append the app_id and app_key query parameters to your requests’. I have registered and I have chosen a product: ‘500 Requests per min’ but if I look at my profile for my ID and Key, there is nothing.

What am I doing wrong? Could someone please set down the steps that I should follow to generate an app_id and an app_key.

Many thanks.

Andrew

2

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Below are instructions on how to obtain a subscription key (you no longer require a separate app ID):

  1. Sign in to the API portal (or create an account if you don’t have one yet).
  2. Go to the Products page.
  3. Select the “500 Requests per min” product.
  4. In the text field labelled “Your new product subscription name”, enter a name for your subscription (I suggest using the name of your application).
  5. Press the “Subscribe” button next to the text field.
  6. Go to your Profile. You should see the subscription you have just created.
  7. In the subscription details, you should see a line that says “Primary key” and " XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX". Press the “Show” button next to this.
  8. Your subscription key will now be revealed (replacing the “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”). Copy this subscription key.

You can now make requests to the Unified API by adding to your HTTP request a header that looks like:

app_key: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef

(Use your own subscription key instead.)

Alternatively, in the request URL, add to your query string:

app_key=0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef

(Again, replace with your own key.)

Your requests will be associated with your subscription and you’ll benefit from a more generous rate limit.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.

3

Thank you very much for being so quick and helpful. The instructions you provide seem complete. Now that I have asked this question, others should, hopefully, pick it up. I would suggest adding this to the FAQs because I don’t think this problem is listed, but I might be wrong.

Did you know that TfL was the first organisation in the world to try out, and deploy, contactless payments. Makes ya think, dunnit?