Introduction

Step 1: Create an API-Token

The first step is to create an API-Token with write permission for one of your bases at SeaTable Cloud. If you don't know how to do this, check this help article. You only have to do this once! The API-Token keeps valid forever for this one base. Of course you can generate as many API-Tokens as you want. You can even use the API to generate additional API-Tokens.

An API-Token might look like this: 1de50f1a57143bfe72873cbbd28ecb4de9eb3c61

Step 2: Generate Base-Token

Next you need the API-Token to generate a Base-Token. The Base-Token is only valid for three days and exactly for the one base for which you created the API-Token. If you want to interact with your base more frequently via API, you need to repeat this step. You need the Base-Token to authenticate all the following API requests.

The result of the Get Base-Token with API-Token request might look like this. Write down all values, you will need them in the following. The access_token, this long string of characters, is what we will call a Base-Token in all future requests. The dtable_uuid is equivalent to base_uuid.

{
  "app_name": "my first api token",
  "access_token": "eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJleHAiOjE2ODA0NDcxMTQsamX0YWJsVZ80dWlkIjoiZmJlMTZkNzMtYjI4Zi00YWY4LWIzOWQtZDc4YzU3YTg4YjkwIiwidXNlcm5hbWUiOiIiLCJwZXJtaXNzaW9uIjoicnciLCJhcHBfbmFtZSI6InRlc3QifQ.huQz07WOQUvaJNy2bTR2iRm0-oATjaMGPAAIYtpkZjU",
  "dtable_uuid": "fb3f1d72-b28f-3af8-a29d-d78c57a88b90",
  "dtable_server": "https://cloud.seatable.io/dtable-server/",
  "dtable_socket": "https://cloud.seatable.io/",
  "dtable_db": "https://cloud.seatable.io/dtable-db/",
  "workspace_id": 234,
  "dtable_name": "My Base"
}

Step 3: Get to know the structure of your base

Equipped with the Base-Token we can start to display the current structure of the base. Use the Get Metadata request and pass the Base-Token and the base_uuid as parameters. The result will be a very long metadata object which contains all tables with all their columns and views. The metadata does not contain any data, it contains only the structure of your base.

Use the small arrows in the response box to fold the elements to get an overview of the complete object. The result might look like this:

{
  "metadata": {
    "tables": [
      {
        "_id": "0000",
        "name": "Table1",
        "columns": [{
            "name": "First name",
            ..
        },
        {
            "name": "Last name",
            ..
        }],
        "views": [..]
      }
    ],
    "version": 482,
    "format_version": 7,
    "settings": {..}
  }
}

Note down the name of the tables and the name of the columns. You will need these values to write a new row to this table.

Step 4: Write some data to your base

The request to Add a row to a base, requires the following information. You have to know ...

• the Base-Token for authentication -> ok
• the base_uuid to identify the base -> no problem
• the table_name -> you should know this from the last request
• and you have to define the row object, meaning that you have to tell the API what values you want to write to the table.

At first it looks difficult to define the row object, but in fact it is quite easy. The row object consists of key:value pairs. The key is the name of the column and the value is that what you want to write to the base. So if you want to create a line with John Doe, then the row object looks like this:

{
    "First Name": "John",
    "Last name": "Doe",
}

Easy, right? This documentation helps you to create the API request just by filling out all the input fields. The code that is generated in the right black box, is the API request that you can execute either via this page or with any programming language.

Step 5: Get all rows of your base

Also this last step is quite easy. Use the List rows request and fill all mandatory input fields. Leave all optional fields blank and hit the Try It! button. You should see your previously created line with John Doe now in the result list.

Congratulations! You wrote your first row to a table in a base in SeaTable via the API and then retrieved it.

Step 1: Generate an Account-Token

SeaTable requires a different authentication depending on whether you want to do something inside a base or outside. To create a Base, we need an account token, which we can generate with our credentials. Therefore you have to use the Get Account-Token with Username and Password. Fill in your username and password and hit Try It!. The result will be your Account-Token which might look like this:

{
  "token": "25285a3da6fff1f7a6f9c9abc8da12dcd2bd4470"
}

Step 2: Find out the workspace id

To generate a base inside SeaTable you have to tell SeaTable where the base should be created. It could be in the area of My bases or it could be in one of your groups. To define the target where you want to create a base you have to provide the workspace id. The easiest way to determine the workspace id of a group or My bases is to open a base of that area in the browser and look at the URL. This help article explains this in more details. Open the base and write down the workspace id.

Step 3: Create the base

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