Scope
This document details the public REST API for the OpenAthens system. In supersedes all previous versions.
The API described in this guide provides programmatic-access to OpenAthens user administration and may be used to perform registration and account management operations on data held within the system. This guide does not cover all possible account operations supported by the system – it primarily covers operations related to account and organisation management.
If you are looking for documentation about connecting your local directory to OpenAthens, see: API connector
Intended Audience
This document is intended for application architects and developers.
It is assumed that readers of this document are familiar with REST architectures, their associated standards, and identity management and federated access management (FAM) terminology.
Document structure
This document is structured to cover the following main areas;
API overview and conventions.
An introduction to the API and a description of the conventions used throughout this guide.
Object types
An overview of the major objects used in the API and the relationships between them.
API usage
Describes how a client can use the API to perform tasks such as creating and modifying accounts.
Usage examples
Provides worked examples showing how the API can be used to perform common tasks.
The API documentation is split into the following sections:
- API overview
- Authenticating to the API
- API entry-point
- Fetching attribute schemas via the API
- Fetching organisations via the API
- Fetching Groups via the API
- Account management via the API
- API bulk operations
- Fetching available service providers via the API
- Generating authentication tokens for end-users via the API
- API usage examples
- Fetching statistics reports via the API