Designing API integration: retrieving only changed/new records since last sync

[Sathya]

Hi there,

I am working on a new integration between Simpro and another system. This may be either:
1. a direct integration between the two systems via Simpro’s APIs, or
2. an integration where an Oracle-based layer sits in between to perform additional validations and transformations.

Before I go too far into design and implementation, I’d like to get some expert advice on the following:

1. Which is better - Direct integration via APIs or having Oracle in between for certain validations
2. Either way, how do i capture the changes_since_last_sync and new_records_since_last_sync
3. Do we have any limitations on the requests per minute? (for APIs like JOB list(GET), AP Invoices list(GET), AR Invoices(GET), PAYMENTS(PATCH),..)
4. Is there any retry limit on responses other than 200 or 2xx? if so, how many for each key endpoint
5. Is api_key a better option over OAUTH2 for authorization/authentication
6. How simpro helps with PATCH/GET calls monitoring incase of direct integrations

For direct integrations, what tools or mechanisms does Simpro provide to help monitor and troubleshoot API calls (e.g. GET / PATCH requests, error logs, usage metrics)?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can share their experience or point me to relevant documentation.

[[email protected]]

ALl the info you need is here
https://developer.simprogroup.com/apidoc

[Sathya]

Thank you. I am referring to the API documentation. Thats highly helpful.
There are few questions below for which i still cant get an idea from the developer centre. Please assist.

1. How do I get the count for the number of pages that i get as response for a GET request. I need this count to loop in oracle for each entity.
Also couldnt find any difference in the response with these headers Result-Total, Result-Pages, Result-Count
2. Does the If-Modified-Since header support only GMT timezone , because the local timezones are not bringing us the right results.
3. Limitations on the total number of records the API can retry.

Thank you

[JackEcuyer]

Result-Pages is the total amount of pages of data based on your pageSize parameter (maximum pageSize = 250, default = 30)
so if you have 1000 records with pageSize of 250, Result-Pages will equal 4.
Result-Total is the total number of records.
Result-Count is the total number of records returned on the page you retrieved, so if you have pageSize = 50 and 100 records in the system and you retrieve page 1, Result-Count will be 50. But if there's lesss than 50 records on the page, Result-Count will be lower.