Types of Authentication 

S&P Global Commodity Insights offer two different authentication methods for using APIs. Please find below the two authentication options.

• Basic Authentication
• Token-Based Authentication

Basic Authentication:

For this authentication method, users provide their Username/Email ID and Password for access.

How it works:

• Users provide their encoded Username/Email ID and Password along with their API request.
• The API checks your credentials against its database. If they are valid, you gain access to the requested resources.
• After successful authentication, you will receive a session token for future requests.

                
                    curl -X GET https://api.ci.spglobal.com/endpoint -H "Authorization: Basic username:password"

• Many applications, like Microsoft PowerBI and Excel, automatically handle this encoding. See the PowerBI tab for more information.
• If your application doesn’t handle encoding, you can use tools like Postman or Base64 Encoder. The encoded username and password will look similar to this: dXNlcjpwYXNz.

                
                    curl -X GET https://api.ci.spglobal.com/endpoint -H "Authorization: Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz"

Token-Based Authentication: 

In this type of authentication, the API requires an Authentication Token (also called Access Token) for access. The Authentication Token acts as a proof of your identity or authorization to access specific data.

How it works

• Initiate the authentication process by providing your credentials (e.g., username and password) to an authentication service which is there in Token Generation in Service Catalog page.  
• The authentication service validates the credentials and issues an Authentication Token to you if the credentials are correct and authorized.
• You send the Authentication Token in the request headers for every API call. For example: Authorization: Bearer "YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN"
• The API validates the Authentication Token with the authentication service to ensure it is still valid and authorized.
• If the token is valid and authorized, the API responds to the request with the requested data or performs the specified action.

                
                    curl -X GET https://api.ci.spglobal.com/endpoint -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN"