Question: How do I configure my server installation of Act! Premium for Web Server to enable the Act! API and associated features such as Act! Marketing Automation, Act! Insights and Opportunity KPIsProduct Details:
- Product Family: Act
- Product: Act! Premium for Web
Answer:
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! Premium for Web 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
You'll need to configure your database for access via the Web in order to use the Act! Web API with it.
How to configure an Act! Premium (access via web) database for access through a web browser
You'll also need to make sure that your network is configured to correctly route traffic to your web server, that any necessary port forwarding or firewall exceptions have been made and that you are able to access your database site without error. For more information on setting up your network environment successfully, please see the below article:
Understanding Port Forwarding With Act!
Some features of the API (including Act! Marketing Automation) require your Act! Web API application to be accessible via HTTPS, this will usually require your server to hold valid SSL certificate.
Please Note - The purchase and setup of a private SSL certificate is not supported by Act! or its Technical Support teams. For an alternative method for generating a secure URL that does not require SSL certification, please see the section below named "Setting Up the Act! Web API without an SSL Certificate via the Act! Connect Link"
Setting up the Act! Web API
When Act! is installed on a 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.
However, you will still be required to ensure your database is configured for web access as per the article below:
How to configure an Act! Premium (access via web) database for access through a web browser
In order to set up the fully-featured API to allow Internet-connected features to access your database, you'll need to make sure the Act! Web API application is configured on your Web Server.
Setting Up the Act! Web API on an SSL Certified Web Server
Once the database has been configured for web access as per the article above, the Act.Web.API application should be automatically installed as part of your IIS Server environment.
Your API endpoint URL will be dependant on the URL you use to access your server - as a default installation the URL will be as below:
- https://[Your Server Address]:[Port]/act.web.api
For example, if your Act! Premium for Web server is set up at the domain "myactserver.com" and you've configured your Act! Premium site on port 8080, then the API endpoint will be:
- "https://myactserver.com:8080/act.web.api"
Note: When using the default http port of 80, or the default https port of 443 - it is not necessary to include the port number in the URL, though it will still work if you do.
You can test your API to make sure it's been configured correctly by navigating to your API endpoint URL followed by "/api/system" in your browser eg:
- https://myactserver.com:8080/act.web.api/api/system
If your API has been correctly configured, you should see a plain text page displaying text similar to the following:
{
"apiVersion": "1.0.317.0",
"sdkVersion": "21.0.295.0"
}
Setting Up the Act! Web API without an SSL Certificate via the Act! Connect Link
Some features that use the Act! Web API require a secure connection to the API via HTTPS. One such feature is Act! Marketing Automation, which requires a secure connection to pull Group data from your database when creating campaigns.
You can use the Act! Web API on an unsecured server for many features simply by accessing your API site via your URL using http://[Your Server Address]:[Port]/act.web.api - however, for full functionality and the increased security afforded by HTTPS we strongly recommend either setting up SSL certification on your web server - or using the Act! Connect Link to generate a secure URL as described below:
Using the Act! Connect Link with Act! Premium for Web
The Act! Connect Link acts as a secured tunnel directly to port 80 on your machine via the Cloud Elements URL it generates. When installed, the Connect Link redirects all requests made to the generated URL to http://localhost:80 on your machine.
This means that because the Cloud Elements URL is secured via HTTPS you do not need to configure your Web Server with an SSL certificate to enjoy the benefits of secured HTTPS communication via the API.
Please Note: The Act! Connect Link will only work to route traffic to port 80 - if your Act! Premium for Web site or API application are configured to use different ports than port 80 - the Connect Link will not work for this purpose.
Installing the Act! Connect Link on your Server
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 server installation of Act!:
