Quick Start

In this example, we will call an Onshape REST API endpoint to send a document name to our console. We highly recommend completing the Learning Center’s Intro to the Onshape API course and mastering using Onshape APIs within the Glassworks Explorer before moving on to creating scripts and apps. Please note that the sample shown on this page is only designed to be used as a quick start guide and does not represent a full Onshape application.

Code Snippets

import requests 
import json

# Assemble the URL for the API call 
api_url = "https://cad.onshape.com/api/v10/documents/e60c4803eaf2ac8be492c18e"

# Optional query parameters can be assigned 
params = {}

# Use the keys from the developer portal
access_key = "ACCESS_KEY"
secret_key = "SECRET_KEY"

# Define the header for the request 
headers = {'Accept': 'application/json;charset=UTF-8;qs=0.09',
           'Content-Type': 'application/json'}

# Putting everything together to make the API request 
response = requests.get(api_url, 
                        params=params, 
                        auth=(access_key, secret_key),
                        headers=headers)

# Convert the response to formatted JSON and print the `name` property
print(json.dumps(response.json()["name"], indent=4))

curl -X 'GET' \
https://cad.onshape.com/api/v10/documents/e60c4803eaf2ac8be492c18e \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json;charset=UTF-8; qs=0.09' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic CREDENTIALS'

import fetch from 'node-fetch'; 

async function getDocument(url='') {
    const response = await fetch(url, {
      method: 'GET', 
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json', 
        Accept: 'application/json;charset=UTF-8;qs=0.09', 
        Authorization: `Basic ${btoa('CREDENTIALS')}`
      }
    });
    return response.json(); 
}

getDocument('https://cad.onshape.com/api/v10/documents/e60c4803eaf2ac8be492c18e'
).then((data) => {
    console.log(data.name); 
});

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    string url = "curl ";

    url += "-X 'GET' "; 
    url += "'https://cad.onshape.com/api/v10/documents/e60c4803eaf2ac8be492c18e'"; 
    url += "-H 'accept: application/json;charset=UTF-8; qs=0.09' "; 
    url += "-H 'Authorization: Basic CREDENTIALS'"; 
    
    system(url.c_str());
    return 0; 
}

Quick Start Video

Watch the Onshape Quick Start video as you follow along with the steps on this page.

Quick Start Steps

System Requirements

You must be signed in to your Onshape account at https://cad.onshape.com (or https://companyName.onshape.com for Enterprise accounts).
This example is coded in Python. The equivalent code is provided in other languages at the end of the example. To follow along with this tutorial, you can download and install Python here: https://www.python.org/downloads/.

1. Review the API Endpoint

Go to the API Explorer and scroll to Document.
Expand the GET /documents/{did} endpoint. Note that in the URL, the name of this API is getDocument.
Make a note of the URL structure and the parameters required to make this request. This will become the fixed URL part of our API call.

For this endpoint, we only need to get the document ID from the document URL.
Scroll down and make a note of the Media Type that we’ll need to include in our header.

2. Review the Document

Navigate to this public document, and make a note of the document ID in the URL (e60c4803eaf2ac8be492c18e).

3. Create your API Keys

Go to https://cad.onshape.com/appstore/dev-portal.
In the left pane, click API keys.
Click the Create new API key button.
Select the following permissions for your app:
- Application can read your documents.
- Application can write to your documents.
Click the Create API key button.
Copy both the access key and secret key from the pop-up window, save them somewhere, then click the Close button.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You will not be able to find the secret key again, so save it somewhere safe!
The details for your application appear. We’ll refer to these strings as ACCESS_KEY and SECRET_KEY in this example.
Some scripts might require that you base-64-encode your API keys. You’ll see either ACCESS_KEY and SECRET_KEY in the code examples below, or you’ll see CREDENTIALS to specify that the keys must be encoded before use. See API Guide: API Keys for details.

4. Write Your Code

Follow along with the steps in this section to create the final code. This example uses python, but you can refer to the code snippets at the top of this page for other languages.

Create a new file called getDocInfo.py.
Start your file by importing the necessary libraries.
```
import requests 
import json
```

Next, define the URL for the API call:

# Assemble the URL for the API call 
api_url = "ASSEMBLED_URL"

Replace ASSEMBLED_URL with the fully formed API. This is where we’ll put together everything we’ve learned so far:
1. The base URL:
  - https://cad.onshape.com/api
  - https://companyName.onshape.com/api for Enterprise accounts
2. The fixed URL is specified in the getDocument API in Glassworks: /documents/{did}
3. The document ID parameter from the public document URL to include in the fixed URL: {did}: e60c4803eaf2ac8be492c18e
4. Together, this makes the URL for our API request: https://cad.onshape.com/api/v10/documents/e60c4803eaf2ac8be492c18e
We don’t need to send any optional parameters with our request, so we can define them as an empty object:
```
# Optional query parameters can be assigned 
params = {}
```
Now let’s add variables to represent our access and secret keys. Make sure to replace ACCESS_KEY and SECRET_KEY with your strings from the dev portal.
```
# Use the keys from the developer portal
access_key = "ACCESS_KEY"
secret_key = "SECRET_KEY"
```

Next, define your headers:

# Define the header for the request 
headers = { 'Accept': 'MEDIA_TYPE',
            'Content-Type': 'application/json'
        }

Replace MEDIA_TYPE with the Media type we obtained from the API Explorer during the Review the API section above:
```
'Accept': 'application/json;charset=UTF-8;qs=0.09',
```

Put all the variables you just defined together into the request. The requests library implements Basic Authorization using the supplied API keys.

# Put everything together to make the API request 
response = requests.get(api_url, 
                    params=params, 
                    auth=(access_key, secret_key),
                    headers=headers)

And finally, print the name value from the response:

# Convert the response to formatted JSON and print the `name` property
print(json.dumps(response.json()["name"], indent=4))

Make sure your file matches the full example shown at the beginning of this section.

5. Run Your Code

Open your terminal/command prompt and navigate into the folder where you saved your getDocInfo.py file:
```
cd ~/<your-path>
```
```
cd \<your-path>
```
Install the necessary modules. If you have pip installed on your machine, you can run pip install requests instead.
```
python3 -m pip install requests
```
```
py -m pip install requests
```
Run your code:
```
python3 getDocInfo.py
```
```
py getDocInfo.py
```
Confirm that your console displays:
```
"Onshape API Guide"
```