---
title: "Introduction"
slug: "introduction-to-mail-and-deploy-api"
updated: 2024-09-18T09:45:16Z
published: 2024-09-18T09:45:16Z
canonical: "help.mail-and-deploy.com/introduction-to-mail-and-deploy-api"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.mail-and-deploy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction to Mail & Deploy API

### General

Mail & Deploy provides an API that allows 3rd party developers to connect to Mail & Deploy and perform operations programmatically. To use the API, the following requirements must be met:

- An endpoint for the API [Service](/release34/docs/services) needs to be configured in the [Server Settings](/release34/docs/server-settings).
- You need a User with a user type of API User or Administrator to connect to the API.

A basic API call has the following format:

          Basic API Call URL

          

http(s)://<host>:<port>/Api/?Method=<method>&<additional_parameters>

The individual properties of the API call are:

| Name | Description |
| --- | --- |
| method | The [Method](/release34/docs/methods) to call. |
| additional_parameters | Additional parameters required by the called method. |

In addition to the additional parameters, some API calls also require to POST data.

#### Authentication

The API supports the following two [Authentication Methods](/release34/docs/methods):

- Access Key Authentication
- Custom Authentication

### Data Structures

When data is exchanged between the API and the caller of the API, JSON data structures are used (with the exception of query parameters).

#### InteropStructure

An interop structure represents a single entity that is exchanged between the API and the caller. The basic JSON format of an interop structure looks like this:

          InteropStructure JSON Format

          

{ "$interoptype": "<interop_structure_type>", "Property1": "Property1Value", ... "Propertyn”: “PropertynValue”, "Version": "dd409e67-6ad1-4724-b048-f0a836d4cf34", "Id": "99c20bac-5b47-4ba9-a9d2-0ee25d5eaa25" }

The must-have parameters of every interop structure are:

| Name | Description |
| --- | --- |
| $interoptype | The name of the interop structure type that the JSON string represents. |
| Version | A GUID that identifies the version of this interop structure. You can set this to a random GUID. |
| Id | A GUID that uniquely identifies the interop structure. You can set this to a random GUID to persist new entities and to a known GUID to update existing entities. |

An overview of all available interop structure types can be found in API Documentation which you can open by double-clicking the file *SDK\Docs\API Documentation.htm* in your installation directory.

#### InteropStructureCollection

This type represents a collection of zero, one, or more interop structures. The JSON format of an interop structure collection looks like this

          InteropStructureCollectin JSON Format

          

{ "$interoptype": "InteropStructureCollection", "$iteminteroptype": "<interop_structure_type>", "Items": [ ... ] }

It has the following properties:

| Name | Description |
| --- | --- |
| $interoptype | The name of the interop structure type that the JSON string represents; for interop structure collections this is always the constant text *InteropStructureCollection*. |
| $iteminteroptype | The name of the type of interop structures that the interop structure collection holds. |