This section contains general troubleshooting information and some FAQs to aid client system developers and integration technologists working with Scholar Snapp.

Contents:

General Troubleshooting Steps

If you're having issues connecting with the Scholar Snapp Central API, we recommend these general troubleshooting steps:

Additional detail follows.

Step 1. Confirm that your API credentials (i.e., the client key and secret) are correct for the API environment with which you're connecting

Scholar Snapp always assigns different credentials for our test and production environments, so ensure that the credentials you're using are intended for use with the environment to which you're trying to connect.

The base URLs for our environments are:

• Test Environment: https://scholarsnapp-oauth-staging/
• Production Environment: https://auth.scholarsnapp.org/

Step 2. Confirm that the Redirect URI is correct for the API credentials you're using

The Redirect URI is a value your organization provides. It tells us "where" to send the OAuth Bearer Token once the Snapp user has given permissions to your application. This value is bound to a specific key and secret pair — so if your environment has changed, we'll need to update the Redirect URI on our end. 

Your Redirect URI MUST be a secure (i.e., https://) connection in production. The Redirect URI MAY be via standard http: in test. 

Step 3. Confirm that the Snapp Profile XML your client system is sending to Snapp passes XSD validation

The vast majority of issues we see in test and production are resolved by simply ensuring that the XML data payload being sent is aligned with the Snapp XSD specification. There are many fine XML validation tools for most developer platforms and code frameworks. So, even if XML validation is not part of your current development process, there are many inexpensive and easy to use tools out there

The Snapp XSD for v4.0 can be found here, along with some sample XML files that validate against the specification.

It's worth noting that our system will attempt to extract information from an invalid XML file. But, this only works for a limited set of known errors and elements, so it's best to ensure that the data being sent by your client system adheres to the specification.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few frequently asked questions related to troubleshooting:

Additional detail follows.

We want to get familiar with the API, but don't yet have a test OAuth Redirect URI set up. Will Snapp issue credentials before our Redirect URI is available?

Yes. We'll assign a temporary URI (since a value is required by the OAuth process), which we can update with the real value at some point in the future. You'll be able to use cURL or Postman or similar development tool to connect with the API.

Will Snapp issue OAuth credentials for a development machine?

Yes. We only issue developer credentials for our test environment, of course, but we're happy to do it.  

We want to test the Production environment connection using our staging system. Can you set a temporary OAuth Redirect URI for us?

Yes.

We're receiving a 503 - Service Unavailable error from the API. We know that indicates that the server is in maintenance mode, but we're getting it in the middle of the day over a long time period. Is there another cause for this error?

Yes. The 503 is, indeed, the error that client systems will see if the server is actually down for maintenance. But, this error will also be emitted in circumstances such as an operation that times out. In the past, we've resolved this by following the troubleshooting guidance above with our client developers — but if the error persists, please contact Snapp support.