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Frequently Asked Questions for API
Frequently Asked Questions for API

Learn about frequently asked questions relating to SportsEngine API.

Updated over 10 months ago

While we strive for straightforward and thorough documentation, there are always questions that don't fit nicely into a category or article. Visit our community forum to add a question to this list.

How does authentication work if I access multiple organizations on the platform?

There is only one authentication for the entire platform. From there, organization ID will be the most important thing to know. Most queries require an organization ID to retrieve any information. The only exception is the affiliation query, which requires an affiliation ID that you can find if you are working with a governing body, league, or franchise. See Completing Your First GraphQL Query on querying organizations.

What is a complexity error, and how do I fix it?

We leverage a complexity score algorithm to protect our internal systems from running queries that slow down platform performance. The basic idea is that the more data sources required for a query, the higher the complexity score. We will prevent the query from running at a certain score threshold – which you will see as a complexity error. To reduce the complexity score, you must either lower the page size or remove attributes that increase complexity. The schema will document all attributes that directly increase complexity.

What is the frequency of webhooks?

While the API is real-time data access, we aggregate changes on a single object in one-minute intervals for all webhooks. If a specific event is updated three times within 30 seconds, we combine that activity into a single webhook notification. This notification will prevent bombarding your endpoint that is receiving webhooks. Due to internet delay, we cannot guarantee webhooks will be in order. See Leveraging Webhooks for Data Changes for more information on webhooks.

Which webhooks are sent when data is merged together?

Data merges typically happen when there is duplicate data resolved. The data merge will send two webhooks when this happens. The first webhook is a delete on the object that will no longer be the primary object. The second webhook will be an update on the new primary object.

How do I access parent information for our athletes?

The profile query will return the parent's name and contact information if the parent profile is attached.

How do I get access to an organization's data?

If you are a SportsEngine customer, you automatically receive access to your organization's data with your client access key and secret. You must redirect an organization administrator to SportsEngine for authentication if you are a third-party integrator. The authentification will prompt them to grant access, and once it is successful, we will send the user back to your application's Redirect URL that we have configured.

How do I account for seasonality?

Teams contain season information, also known as program information. That will include the team's season name (primary name) and division name (secondary name). See the team query for more details.

How often does the API change or update?

We are constantly improving the API through continuous integration and deployment. We will not deploy a breaking change without posting in our community forums. See Changes and Deprecations to the Schema for more information approaching deprecation.

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