The Nexar API is a GraphQL based API for accessing the Altium ecosystem, including supply chain data from Octopart, design data from Altium 365 and manufacturing services from Altimade.
This guide is for accessing design data in the Nexar API. It uses the Nitro (formally Banana Cake Pop) IDE for most of the examples and shows off some of the query capabilities of the API. It is not a complete reference, but designed to get you started, quickly.
This guide assumes you are familiar with Altium 365 and that you are a member of a workspace.
Nexar Accounts
Nexar.com is the home of Nexar on the web. Today, we have a simple portal that you can go to to get started with the Nexar API.
Navigate to the landing page and click on the “Sign In” link.
This will redirect you to the Nexar identity server to authenticate you:
Sign in with your Altium 365 credentials. These credentials are the same as your Altium Live credentials, which are a common set of credentials used across Altium’s digital properties, Nexar included.
The first time you sign in to Nexar, you will need to create an organization (unless you have already been invited to join one, you’ll skip this step). Give your organization a name:
Click Create and you’ll be logged into the portal:
API Playground
In the left panel, click API Playground. This is where our examples live.
Applications are a fundamental concept in Nexar - you need an application to interact with the API. The application provides an “identity” to the API - whenever an API call is made, it is in the context of an application. Query limits, scopes (what API endpoints the application is authorized to call), etc., are part of the application definition and configuration.
When you first join Nexar, you will have one app called the Evaluation App, with both Design and Supply scope. For this example, we will use the Evaluation app.
To query the Design side of the API, any future applications you create will need the Design scope.
As the API is querying data from your workspace in Altium 365, it does not affect your part limit.
Take a look at the Examples on the API Playground page. Each is labelled 'Supply' or 'Design' - this is the scope. Click Design Query Examples:
Click the blue play button. A drop-down menu will show you the queries housed in that example. Start by running "design1_Workspaces":
If you see "desWorkspaces": [] it means you do not have a workspace associated with your account!
Copy the URL for your workspace:
Paste this URL into Step 2 by workspaceURL, of the example, before clicking the blue play button to open the drop-down menu. On the drop-down menu, select design2_Library and run the query.
From the response on the right hand window, copy the node ID:
Paste this ID into Step 3 of the example into id, before clicking the blue play button to open the drop-down menu. On the drop-down menu, select design3_componentsbyID and run the query.
You have successfully queried your Altium workspace for a specific component!
Summary and Resources
As you can see, the Nexar API is really flexible and powerful, allowing you to build your own queries and get access to the things that you are interested in.
Here are some further resources:
More about the GraphQL Language: https://graphql.org/learn
Nexar frequently-asked questions: https://docs.nexar.com/faq
Nexar application examples in C# and Python: https://github.com/NexarDeveloper
The entire Nexar API schema (data model): https://api.nexar.com/ui/voyager
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