How Things API access works

The API Key

To access the KPN Things APIs you need an API Key. And these API Keys are managed by GRIP, the identify management platform of KPN. Your user account used to access the KPN Things Portal is also managed by GRIP. Learn more about the account you use to access KPN Things.

In GRIP there are API Keys. These are separate entities in a tenant (a customer environment). That means an API Key is not user bound, but it is rather a separate entity.

The access token

Each time you want to access the KPN Things APIs, you need to request an access token from the GRIP API using your API Key. This access token you get is valid for one hour, and can be used as a bearer token to access KPN Things APIs directly.

That means, for each API call you do to KPN Things, you need to add the following Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer {accessToken}

There is no refresh token. To regain access after your access token has expired, just request another access token through the GRIP API.

You can find more information about the access method we employ here on the Grip Knowledge Base website, linked below. The method is called Machine authentication.

Getting started

This is a step-by-step explanation to find all required information needed for requesting an access token from GRIP.

1. Find your GRIP Tenant ID in the Things Portal

In the KPN Things Portal, visit the Customer detail page by clicking on your name in the top right and then clicking "Customer Details" in the overflow menu. On the following page, you will find your GRIP Tenant ID.

2. Create your API Key and API Key's Secret in GRIP

Log into the GRIP Portal as an administrator.

• If you have a KPN Developer account, you will be an administrator in the GRIP Portal.

• If you have a MijnKPN Zakelijk account, you should ask your local administrator for access.

Learn more about the account you use to access KPN Things.

2.1. Go to API Key management

Then, open the Admin panel using the role drop down (#1 in the screenshot), click on Identity in the side menu (#2 in the screenshot) and click on API keys (#3 in the screenshot). This brings you to the API Key management page. Now, click Add to add a new API Key (#4 in the screenshot).

2.2. Create new API Key

In the following pop-up, give your new API Key a Display name and a Description. Then click Add to create your new API Key.

2.3. Give new API Key access to KPN Things

You need to give your newly created API Key access to the KPN Things service before you can use it. Click on Services and roles (#1 in the screenshot), and click on Add a service (#2 in the screenshot).

A modal will open. Click on the checkbox next to KPN Things (#1 in the screenshot) and hit Add (#2 in the screenshot).

Click on the KPN Things service and select the desired role and access level for your API key:

Then, click Save to finally give your API Key access to KPN Things.

2.4. Fetch credentials of new API Key

Now, when you click back on General information, you will see the ID and Secret key of your new API Key.

Perform Things API calls

Request access token through GRIP API

POST https://auth.grip-on-it.com/v2/{tenantId}/oidc/idp/c1/token

With this request, you obtain the access token you use to access the KPN Things API's.

Headers

Request Body

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 3600
}

More information in the GRIP Knowledge Base (documentation).

List devices

GET https://api.kpnthings.com/api/devices

Now you have an access token, execute the following call to list your Devices

Query Parameters

Headers

{
    "content": [
        {
            "uuid": "xxxxxx",
            "name": "My first own device",
            "description": "",
            "metadata": null,
            "deviceSpecificationUUID": "d2723e99-1fe4-4d60-9b6d-8061f7414b24",
            "barcode": null
        },
        ...
    ],
    "last": true,
    "totalPages": 1,
    "totalElements": 2,
    "sort": [
        {
            "direction": "ASC",
            "property": "name",
            "ignoreCase": false,
            "nullHandling": "NATIVE",
            "ascending": true,
            "descending": false
        }
    ],
    "first": true,
    "numberOfElements": 2,
    "size": 20,
    "number": 0
}

Response codes

Send downlink to device

POST https://api.kpnthings.com/api/actuator/downlinks

Body: [{"bn":"urn:dev:DEVEUI:{devEUI}:", "n":"payloadHex", "vs": "{payload}"}]

Query Parameters

Headers

Full documentation of KPN Things APIs

Currently the APIs of KPN Things are documented using Postman. Postman is an easy to use API development tool.

Postman API Collection

Postman environment variables

To get the Postman collection working, you need to create a Postman environment with the following variables:

API access to customer environments as a reseller

When you are a reseller of KPN Things, you can manage the KPN Things environments of your own customers on their behalf using the KPN Things APIs. To do so, you should indicate which API calls are meant to operate within the context of a specific customer by specifying the KPN-Things-Security-Context header:

KPN-Things-Security-Context: client:uuid:{{customerID}}

The value of {{customerID}} is the UUID identifying the customer for whom you intend to manage their KPN Things environment.

When you specify the KPN-Things-Security-Context header, KPN Things will validate the syntax and check that your own account is a reseller of the given {{customerID}}. If either check fails, your API call will be denied. Note that you can specify only a single KPN-Things-Security-Context header for each API call: multiple values are not supported.

⚠️Deprecated: performing API call in sub-customer environment

If you have Customer Management in your account, you can manage Things accounts for your own customers. These customers of you, let's call them sub-customers, have their own customer account in KPN Things. But you have access rights with your API Key to perform actions in their account.

The principle

To perform an API call in a sub-customer environment, there are two requirements:

1. You should have requested the access rights to the individual sub-customer environment

2. For all API calls you perform, you should add the following HTTP header:

x-client-id: {{customerID}}

Step 1: Request access rights

This only has to be one once per API Key per sub-customer.

1. Find the Customer ID from the sub-customer you want to perform an action on. You can use the All Customers page to search in your Customers and then open the Customer details page of the concerning Customer to find its Customer ID.

2. Perform the Request KPN Things access token through GRIP API call.

3. Perform the following API call:

⚠️Deprecated: request access rights to a sub-customer

GET https://api.kpnthings.com/api/v1/lifecycle/clients/:clientId/context-switch

Path Parameters

Headers

Step 2: Perform API call in sub-customer environment

Now you have access rights to the sub-customer environment with your API key. Now you can perform any API call you have the rights for in the sub-customer environment by simply adding the x-client-id header to the API call when you execute it.

SSL certificate information

The SSL server certificates of KPN Things and GRIP are provided by the new PKI Overheid CA hierarchy. On kpn.com you can learn more about the KPN certificates.

If required for your security implementation, all certificate files of the chain can be downloaded here:

• Root: Staat der Nederlanden EV Root CA

• Intermediate: Staat der Nederlanden Domein Server CA 2020

• Intermediate: KPN PKIoverheid Server CA 2020