Make your First API Call

After you create an account and application, you can use API Explorer to call Square APIs. This exercise creates a payment in the Square Sandbox.

In the Developer Console, your application displays the following blue banner:

1. Choose the Open API Explorer link on the banner. This opens API Explorer and populates all the fields that are required to send a CreatePayment request to the Payments API.

   Note

   Don't see the banner? Use this API Explorer link to open the prepopulated view.

2. In API Explorer, choose Run Request.

3. Review the Request and Response panes:

   • The Request pane shows the request that was sent. You can change the default cURL view to see the request in another programming language.
   • The Response pane shows the response from Square. If the payment is successful, Square returns a Payment object with the status field set to COMPLETED. If the request failed, Square returns an error.

The source_id in the request is a Sandbox payment token that represents a credit card. In production, payment tokens are generated by the Web Payments SDK or In-App Payments SDK. For more information, see Take Payments.