Question: How do I configure my desktop installation of Act! Premium to enable the
Act! API and associated features such as Act! Marketing Automation, Act! Insights and Opportunity KPIs
The Act! API is used to connect your database to a wide range of Act! features, 3rd party applications and integrations! You can find out more about which features require the Act! API to be set up in the article below:
What Features are Available Using the Act! API?
The Act! API is a subscriber-only benefit, so you'll need to have an active Act! subscription to use it. You'll need to make sure that your installation of Act! is correctly registered with your subscription Activation Key. For help registering your software, check out the article below:
How to Register or Activate Act! from v21.1 Onwards
Ensure that Act! is installed on a compatible machine, following the requirements outlined in our Compatibility Matrix:
Act! Compatibility Matrix
It is strongly recommended that your make sure your version of Act! is up-to-date with the latest patches. You can download updates for Act! from the download center here
When Act! is installed on your machine, a basic version of the API is installed alongside it. This basic API does not connect to the Internet, but does allow features of Act! that use the API to work "out-of-the-box". Act! Insights and Act! Opportunity KPIs are examples of local API features that do not require internet access, so should function with no additional setup or configuration of the Act! API.
Please Note: This service is listed in Windows Services (services.msc) as ‘Act! Web API Host’ and is for Act! Premium (Desktop) Only. This service needs to be available in Services with the status of ‘Running’ for the above features to work.
In order to set up the fully-featured API to allow Internet-connected features to access your database, you'll need to install the Act! Connect Link on your database host machine:
How do I install the Act! Connect Link?
You can verify that the Act! Connect Link is active and installed correctly by checking that a Cloud Elements URL is present in the 'Act! Connect' section of your desktop software:
The URL displayed in this section is your API's public endpoint - you'll usually need to enter this when setting up new integrations such as the Act! Companion App or Zapier.
When the Act! Connect Link is installed on the machine hosting the database, a database preference is created called "UPWARD_API_STREAMER".
This preference is what allows all installations of Act! connecting to that database to use the same API endpoint for features like Act! Marketing Automation.
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Product Details:
- Product Family: Act
- Product: Act! Premium
What features are powered by the Act! API?
The Act! API is used to connect your database to a wide range of Act! features, 3rd party applications and integrations! You can find out more about which features require the Act! API to be set up in the article below:
What Features are Available Using the Act! API?
Act! API Prerequisites
The Act! API is a subscriber-only benefit, so you'll need to have an active Act! subscription to use it. You'll need to make sure that your installation of Act! is correctly registered with your subscription Activation Key. For help registering your software, check out the article below:
How to Register or Activate Act! from v21.1 Onwards
Ensure that Act! is installed on a compatible machine, following the requirements outlined in our Compatibility Matrix:
Act! Compatibility Matrix
It is strongly recommended that your make sure your version of Act! is up-to-date with the latest patches. You can download updates for Act! from the download center here
Setting up the Act! API
When Act! is installed on your machine, a basic version of the API is installed alongside it. This basic API does not connect to the Internet, but does allow features of Act! that use the API to work "out-of-the-box". Act! Insights and Act! Opportunity KPIs are examples of local API features that do not require internet access, so should function with no additional setup or configuration of the Act! API.
Please Note: This service is listed in Windows Services (services.msc) as ‘Act! Web API Host’ and is for Act! Premium (Desktop) Only. This service needs to be available in Services with the status of ‘Running’ for the above features to work.
In order to set up the fully-featured API to allow Internet-connected features to access your database, you'll need to install the Act! Connect Link on your database host machine:
How do I install the Act! Connect Link?
You can verify that the Act! Connect Link is active and installed correctly by checking that a Cloud Elements URL is present in the 'Act! Connect' section of your desktop software:

The URL displayed in this section is your API's public endpoint - you'll usually need to enter this when setting up new integrations such as the Act! Companion App or Zapier.
When the Act! Connect Link is installed on the machine hosting the database, a database preference is created called "UPWARD_API_STREAMER".
This preference is what allows all installations of Act! connecting to that database to use the same API endpoint for features like Act! Marketing Automation.