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Adnab

Connect your systems with the API

Create and manage API keys so your own website, CRM or back office can list your events and register attendees directly.

The API lets your own systems talk to Adnab directly. If you take bookings on your own website, or keep your contacts in a CRM, you can list your events and register attendees from there instead of asking people to fill in an Adnab form.

Anyone you register this way is a normal attendee. They get their confirmation and their personal QR code straight away, they appear in your attendee list, and they check in on the day exactly like everyone else.

API access is included with your Adnab subscription at no extra cost, so if you can see this tab you are ready to go.

You will need a developer
Creating a key takes a minute and this page walks you through it. Actually using the key means writing code, so hand it to whoever builds your website or looks after your systems. Send them to adnab.co/developers, which has everything they need.
A key is a password, not a setting
Anyone holding one of your keys can read every event in your account and register people against them. Treat it the way you would treat the password to your bank: give it only to people you trust, never paste it into an email or a chat, and never put it on a public website. If a key ends up somewhere it should not be, revoke it here and create a new one.

  1. Create a key

    Choose New key to get started. A panel slides in where you give the key a name and decide what it is allowed to do.

    Make a key for each thing that connects to Adnab, rather than sharing one everywhere. If you later need to shut one off, you only break the one system rather than all of them.

  2. Give it a name you will recognise

    The name is only for you. Something like "Our website" or "Ticketing partner" is ideal, because it tells you what breaks if you ever revoke it.

  3. Decide what it can do

    Read events lets it see your events. Register attendees lets it sign people up. Tick only what that system actually needs.

    A system that only displays your upcoming events on a web page needs Read events and nothing more. Giving it Register attendees as well would let it create attendees it has no reason to create.

    This cannot be changed later
    You cannot edit what an existing key is allowed to do. If a system needs more access than you gave it, create a new key with the right permissions and revoke the old one.

  4. Copy the key immediately

    The panel closes and your key appears here, once. Copy it and give it to your developer straight away.

    We cannot show it to you again
    Adnab does not keep a readable copy of your key. That is deliberate, and it is what stops anyone, including us, from getting hold of it later. It also means that if you close this panel without copying it, it is gone for good. There is no recovery: you would revoke it and create a new one.

    Send it to your developer somewhere private. A password manager is best. Email and group chats are not, because the key sits in those inboxes for as long as the messages do.

  5. Keep track of your keys

    Every key you have made is listed here with its name, the last few characters, what it can do, when you made it and when it was last used.

    Only the last few characters are shown, which is enough to tell two keys apart without revealing either. The last used date is the useful one: a key that has never been used usually means the connection was never finished, and a key that stopped being used may belong to a system nobody runs any more.

  6. Revoke a key you no longer trust

    The bin icon on a key's row stops it working immediately. Use it the moment a key might have been seen by the wrong person, or when you stop working with a supplier.

    There is no undo, and no delay. Anything using that key stops working straight away, so make sure you know what depends on it first. Your other keys are unaffected.

    Revoked keys stay on the list, marked as revoked, so you keep a record of what existed and when you turned it off.

  7. What happens with paid events

    Registering someone through the API creates their registration but does not take any money.

    Their registration is created unpaid, and you settle it the way you normally would. If they pay through Adnab it is marked paid automatically. If they pay you by bank transfer, you confirm it yourself as usual.

    If you are taking payment on your own website instead, Adnab will not know about it. Agree with your developer how you will tell the two apart, so your attendee list and your takings still match at the end.

  8. Turning API access off

    If you ever need to stop all API access at once, ask us and we will switch it off for your account.

    That stops every key immediately without deleting any of them, so if you change your mind, switching it back on brings the same keys back to life. It is the fastest way to close everything down at once if you are not sure which key is the problem.

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