How to use the Interswitch Developer Console

Edidiong Asikpo | Software Engineer, Developer Relations

The Interswitch Developer Console provides self-service integration, giving developers the ability to access our product APIs, authentication parameters, sandbox, production keys, documentation, and seamless project management.

In this article, I will explain how to create an account on the developer console, how to create a project, access your authentication parameters, generate an access token, and go live with your product.

Step 1 — Create an account

Go to our Developer Console and click on the Get Started button at the top right of your screen.

On clicking the Get Started button, you will be redirected to the Interswitch Passport page where you will be add your name, email, phone number and password.

After adding your personal information, click on the Create Account button to complete the account creation process. After completing the account creation process, you will be redirected back to the Developer Console.

Now, you can click on the Sign in button on the Developer Console and grant it authorization to the passport account you created.

You will have access to the Interswitch Developer Console immediately after you click on the Authorize button.

Step 2 — Create a project

Your project is the app or website you want to integrate Interswitch APIs with. To create a project on the developer console, click on Create Project or Add New Project.

Add your project name, type, description, logo and agree to Interswitch’s terms and conditions.

After adding the required information, click on the Create button to complete the project creation phase.

Step 3 — Access your credentials

Once you’ve created a project, you will have access to authentication credentials (Client ID and Secret) that will be used to generate an access token.

With this access token, you will be authorized to integrate with any of our APIs in test mode.

Step 4 — Generate an Access Token

Interswitch utilizes OAuth 2 to facilitate authorization and grants access to an application either on behalf of a user or on behalf of the application itself.

In order to use our APIs, you must authenticate your API calls by including your access token in the Authorization header of every request you make.

This access token can be generated using any of the two ways below:

Generating it automatically from Postman

• Download Postman.
• Make a POST request to this endpoint https://api-gateway.interswitchng.com/passport/oauth/token?env=test
• Click on the Headers tab and add Content-Type : application/x-www-form-urlencodedas seen in the image below.

• Click on the Body tab and add grant_type:client_credentialsas seen in the image below.

• Now, click on the Authorization tab and select Basic Auth in the Type dropdown menu. Copy your Client ID from your project on the Developer Console and add it as your Username. Then, copy your Secret Key and add it as your Password.

• After adding your Client ID and Secret Key as the Username and Password, click on the Update Request button at the top right of Postman.
• Once you do that, an Authorization Key:Value pair will be generated automatically for you in the Headerstab.

• Click on the Send button at the top right of your screen to see your newly generated access token.

• Voila! You are done. You can now use your newly generated access token to integrate with any of our APIs in test mode.

Note: The description above can also be implemented directly in your code. Here’s a code snippet used to generate an access token in Python.

import requests
url = "https://api-gateway.interswitchng.com/passport/oauth/token?env=test"
body = {"grant_type":"client_credentials"}
headers = {
    'authorization': "Basic SUtJQTFCNzU5M0M0NDAyQkM1RTAwQzQ2QUM4QjFDMUNDMEI4NUVFQkIwODg6c2VjcmV0",
    'content-type': "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"}
response = requests.request("POST", url, data=body, headers=headers)
print(response.text)

Step 5— Request to Go Live

Once you are comfortable with the integration in test mode. The next thing to do is request to go live with your project.

To do this, carry out the following steps:

1. Click on the Permissions tab.
2. Select the APIs that meet your project needs and save changes.
3. Click on the Toggle to Go-Live switch at the top right of the developer console to get your live credentials on which the requested APIs will be granted access if approved.

Finally, your request will be reviewed internally and granted access to go live.

Voila, you’ve successfully created an account on the new developer console, created a test project, requested for permissions and gone Live with your project in just these few steps.

More Info?

If you have any questions or suggestions, we’re more than happy to hear from you. Create an account on the Developer Console, click on the Our community button, and chat with us.