Rest API

Softr’s REST API data source allows you to connect to almost any platform, database, or service. If Softr doesn’t natively support your data source, you can likely still integrate it using the REST API connector.

With the REST API connector, you can:

• Import real estate listings from Zillow, inventory from Shopify, or invoices from Stripe

• Connect to public APIs (for example, APIsList, Public APIs, or RapidAPI)

• Integrate new CRMs and productivity tools

• Fetch and create data using any standard HTTP REST API

1. Connect a REST API to Softr

You connect a REST API once per workspace. Then you can use it in all your apps.

2. Configure the optional sections

Below the Execute button, the resource has more sections. Turn on a section with its toggle. Every API is different, so you may need all of these sections or none of them. Check the API’s documentation.

Headers

The Headers section always shows the authentication header of the integration. Click Add to add a header that only this resource needs.

URL params

Use URL params to add query parameters to the URL. Add each parameter as a name and a value. You can also type them in the URL field, but this section keeps them easier to read and change.

Find the parameter names and values in the API’s documentation. In the example above, the customer parameter tells the Stripe invoices endpoint to return the invoices of one customer:

A parameter value can be static or dynamic. The customer changes with the person who is logged in. Thus the example uses the placeholder {LOGGED_IN_USER:StripeID}. Softr replaces it with the StripeID field of the logged-in user.

Placeholders

Placeholders send dynamic data to the API, based on the logged-in user, the page, or the filters and search of a block. Write a placeholder in curly braces, for example {placeholderName}, in the URL, the URL params, or the body. Softr doesn’t replace placeholders in headers.

You can use four kinds of dynamic placeholders:

• {LOGGED_IN_USER:<FIELD NAME>}: Sends a field of the logged-in user. {LOGGED_IN_USER:EMAIL} and {LOGGED_IN_USER:NAME} send the email and the name of the user.

• {recordId}: Sends the ID of the record that the page shows (the recordId in the page URL).

• {URL_PARAM:<PARAMETER NAME>}: Sends the value of a parameter in the page URL.

• {filter.<FIELD NAME FROM API>}: Sends the value of a search or filter in a block.

When a request has placeholders, the Placeholders section lists them. Enter a sample value for each one, so that Execute can test the request. Your live app doesn’t use these sample values.

Use a {filter.<FIELD NAME FROM API>} placeholder to filter or search the API from a block. In the example below, the Customers by email resource sends the search text to Stripe in the email URL param. When the block has no search or filter value, Softr removes a URL param whose value is only a filter placeholder, so the API returns all the records.

Then turn on the search bar of the block in its Content tab:

Body

The Body section shows when the HTTP method is POST. Some APIs use POST to return data, for example search endpoints, GraphQL APIs, or previews. Write the body as JSON. Use the API’s documentation to know which keys to send.

In this example, the Upcoming invoice resource gets a preview of the next Stripe invoice of the logged-in user:

Pagination

Most APIs return a limited number of records per request. Use the Pagination section to tell Softr how to get the next page of results. Softr uses cursor pagination:

• Response parameter - cursor: Where the cursor of the next page is in the response (Body or Header), and its name. Turn on Transformer function if you need JavaScript to read the cursor.

• Request parameter - cursor: Where Softr sends the cursor in the next request, and the parameter name.

• Request parameter - limit: The parameter that sets the number of records per page, and its value.

In the Stripe example, Softr sends the ID of the last invoice as starting_after, and asks for 25 invoices per page with limit.

Transformer

Use the Transformer section to change the API response with JavaScript. A transformer can extract a nested list from the response, or calculate a new field. AI tools are good at writing these functions.

In the Stripe example, return response.data; keeps only the list of invoices in the data key of the response.

3. Check the response and the schema

When you click Execute and the request succeeds, three tabs show below the sections: Schema, Transformed JSON, and Raw JSON. Scroll down to see them.

Schema

The Schema tab lists the fields of the response. Softr Studio shows these fields when you set up a block. Each field has four settings:

1. Key: The name of the field in the response.

2. Type: How Softr shows and filters the field. The types are TEXT, NUMBER, BOOLEAN, DATE, DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, OBJECT, ARRAY, EMAIL, and URL.

3. Enabled: Clear this checkbox to hide the field in Softr Studio.

4. Is ID field: Turn on this toggle for the field that identifies each record. When no field is the ID field, Softr shows a warning.

Transformed JSON

The Transformed JSON tab shows the response after your transformer runs. The Schema tab is built from this JSON.

Raw JSON

The Raw JSON tab shows the response exactly as the API sent it. Check this tab first: it shows which transformer you need, if any. In the Stripe example, the invoices are in the data key, so the transformer returns response.data.

FAQs