Quick Start

This quick start guide will take you through making your first requests with BigCommerce's APIs.

REST Management API

Create an API account

See the Guide to API Accounts for instructions on creating API accounts.

Use Request Runner

You can experiment with our REST Management APIs using the Request Runner, which is built in to the API Reference for most endpoints.

Copy and paste your store_hash and access_token into the form, then click Send.

Visual Studio Code REST Client

If you use Visual Studio Code, another way to make API requests is with the REST Client (opens in a new tab) extension. Once you have it installed, create a new file called bigcommerce.http and paste in the following:

@ACCESS_TOKEN = your_access_token
@STORE_HASH = your_store_hash
 
###
 
GET https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{{STORE_HASH}}/v3/catalog/products
X-Auth-Token: {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json

Save and you'll see the send request link above GET. Click send request and the response will open in a split window.

Postman

To try out REST endpoints and view responses, you can import our API specification files into Postman (opens in a new tab) or any other tool that can import Open API Specification (opens in a new tab) files.

To view sample JSON request bodies for each REST API resource, see the API Reference for that resource.

REST Storefront API quick start

To make your first requests in a browser with the REST Storefront APIs, see the step-by-step tutorial Working with Storefront Cart and Checkout APIs.

GraphQL Storefront API

Create a storefront token

This example uses Request Runner to make an initial request that creates a Storefront API token. It is a REST API request, so you will need to copy and paste your API credentials.

In the allowed_cors_origins array, include the URL(s) of the storefront from which you plan to use the token.

POST https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{store_hash}/v3/storefront/api-token
X-Auth-Token: {{access_token}}
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
 
{
  "channel_id": 1,            // int (only ID 1 currently accepted)
  "expires_at": 1602288000,   // double UTC unix timestamp in seconds (required)
  "allowed_cors_origins": [   // array (accepts 1 origin currently)
    "https://example.com"
  ]
}

Create sample request in the browser

While viewing your storefront in a browser, open the developer tools JavaScript console; for example, Google Chrome's Console (opens in a new tab). Add your API token to the authorization header in the following code sample and add a valid Product ID for the entityId, then run the code in the console:

  fetch('/graphql', {
    method: 'POST',
    mode: 'cors',
    headers: { 
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Accept': 'application/json',
      'Authorization': `Bearer {{TOKEN}}`
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      query: `query SingleProduct {
        site {
          products (entityIds: {{product ID}}) {
            edges {
              node {
                id
                entityId
                name
                prices {
                  price {
                    value
                    currencyCode
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }`
    })
  })
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

Customer Login API

For more information, see the Customer Login API Overview.