The first step is to get an Ensign API key by visiting the sign-up page . Similar to getting a developer API key for Youtube or Data.gov , you will need an API key to use Ensign and to follow along with the rest of this Quickstart guide.
Ensign API Keys
An API key consists of two parts, a ClientID and a ClientSecret. The ClientID uniquely identifies a project, and the ClientSecret allows you to create and access event data within that project.
| API Key Component Name | Length | Characters | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ClientID | 32 | alphabetic (no digits) | DbIxBEtIUgNIClnFMDmvoZeMrLxUTJVa |
| ClientSecret | 64 | alphanumeric | wAfRpXLTiWn7yo7HQzOCwxMvveqiHXoeVJghlSIK2YbMqOMCUiSVRVQOLT0ORrVS |
Together, the ClientID and ClientSecret provide access to a project. They enable you to create Ensign topics, publishers, and subscribers, which will be the building blocks of your microservice! Anybody with the ClientID and ClientSecret has access to your project, so these values should be kept private and not shared.
SDKs
The SDKs are where you use your API key and allow you to integrate Ensign into your projects. There are currently two SDKs supported.
Authentication
Using the SDKs requires authenticating with your API key. By default the SDKs will read the Client ID and Client Secret from your environment.
export ENSIGN_CLIENT_ID=DbIxBEtIUgNIClnFMDmvoZeMrLxUTJVa
export ENSIGN_CLIENT_SECRET=wAfRpXLTiWn7yo7HQzOCwxMvveqiHXoeVJghlSIK2YbMqOMCUiSVRVQOLT0ORrVS
Publish and Subscribe
The most common use of the SDKs is to publish events to topics, and subscribe to events from somewhere else. Topics can be created from your dashboard or directly from the SDKs. See the SDK guides for a quick example of how to get started.
