Calling the API

Calling the Barion API

The Barion API

Barion offers you a RESTful API service to communicate with your web or mobile merchant services. Learn more about RESTful behavior the original Wikipedia article.

Protocols and communication

The Barion API communicates via standard HTTP1.1 GET or POST requests. A given API endpoint accepts only GET or only POST requests - there are no universal endpoints available. On each API endpoint reference page, you can find the path of the API endpoint and the HTTP method it accepts.

Example:

POST	/v2/Payment/Start

Important: all communication must be done over HTTPS.

If the caller uses an incorrect method, the system responds with an XML error message.

Example: calling a POST endpoint with a GET request

<Error>
  <Message>The requested resource does not support http method 'GET'.</Message>
</Error>

Data and content types

The API sends and receives all content in standard JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) string format.

Some things you must ensure when creating an API request:

• JSON strings are UTF-8 encoded.
• The MIME type of the request sent to the API is defined as application/json.
• Content-length should also be specified explicitly in all HTTP request headers.

The data types used in the API communication are the following:

Data type	Type description
string	Standard character string. The Barion API uses UTF-8 encoding.
int	32-bit signed integer format
GUID (Global Unique Identifier)	A 128-bit long hexadecimal identifier with 32 character string representation, like this: 21EC2020-3AEA-4069-A2DD-08002B30309D. Its value is always unique in the Barion system. This is used e.g. to identify payments.
DateTime	Date and time values, represented in a string format of the ISO-8601 standard, like this: 2014-12-06T08:35:46Z. All API call responses contain datetimes as strings.
TimeSpan	A time range value represented in a string format of the ISO-8601 standard, like this: 3.14:15:28 (three days, fourteen hours, fifteen minutes, twenty-eight seconds). All API call responses contain datetimes as strings.
bool	Boolean true or false values. Note: avoid integer or byte evaluation when constructing the request JSON!
byte	Byte representation of an enumeration value. This is only for internal use in the Barion system, API call responses always contain the string representation.

API URLs

The base URL for the Barion API depends on the environment you are connecting to.

Base URL for API requests in the Live (production) environment: https://api.barion.com

Base URL for API requests in the Sandbox (test) environment: https://api.test.barion.com (learn more about the Sandbox environment here)

Note: Always double check that you are connecting to the proper environment to avoid unnecessary hassle and troubleshooting!

API versioning

To avoid breaking changes, whenever there is a major update to an API endpoint, it is moved to a higher level of API version. At the moment, the Barion API offers two different API versions (noted v1 and v2). Some API endpoints are only available in v1 or v2. See the reference page of a given API endpoint to see which versions are available.

Note: Though version numbers can be omitted from the endpoint path (such requests always fall back to v1), it is recommended to always specify the API version when sending requests to the Barion API to avoid confusion.

Example paths:

• https://api.barion.com/Transaction/List - implicit call to a v1 endpoint (version number is omitted from path)
• https://api.barion.com/v1/Transfer/Send - explicit call to a v1 endpoint
• https://api.barion.com/v2/Payment/Start - explicit call to a v2 endpoint

Authentication

For every request sent to the Barion API you have to authenticate yourself. For this every API request should cointain a POSKey property containing the secret API key for the shop. This key is in the confirmation e-mail that was sent to you when you opened the shop or can be copied from the details page of the shop (secure.barion.com -> Manage my shops -> Details).