Getting started

Join the Developer Program

1. Consider your project from both a commercial perspective (who will use it, what will it cost to deliver, how much can you charge, etc.) as well as the technical (technology, ongoing support, etc.).

2. Make sure you have the technical skills and infrastructure to deliver the solution. This will depend on the technical architecture of your final solution. Typically you will need to understand:

   • Developing and deploying solutions in the cloud. For example simple web applications on Google Cloud Run
   • The basics of Oauth security and related terminology
   • Using REST like network APIs (for example: What is an endpoint, handling JSON, HTTPS verbs, HTTP Status, setting HTTP headers and so on)
   • How to deploy and maintain solutions that are robust, easy to use, secure, and scalable.

   Please note that this list is not exhaustive and will depend on the technology platforms and solution architecture you choose.

3. Contact PaperCut to arrange an informal chat about your project. Email integration-dev-support@papercut.com. We will want to understand what you want to achieve and how you plan to succeed. Having a well-articulated value proposition and a clear idea of how to deliver it will help enormously. We’re very happy to have ongoing conversations to answer your questions, support your initial analysis, and help you articulate your vision.

4. Make sure that you’re enrolled as a PaperCut Pocket or PaperCut Hive organization and can log in as an org administrator.

   To create a PaperCut Pocket trial, go to https://www.papercut.com/help/manuals/pocket-hive/getting-started-for-sysadmins/.

   You can start development in PaperCut Pocket but you won’t have access to PaperCut Hive-specific features. If you need your own PaperCut Hive organization for development purposes, email us to get upgraded. Make sure you include your org id in the email.

5. Contact PaperCut to begin the process of configuring your development environment.

Begin your development project

1. Log in to the PaperCut Hive admin console as an org administrator, then click Add-ons. You’ll see a “card” representing your new add-on. (It’s only shown in your developer org.)

2. Design your solution architecture, paying particular attention to security and data privacy.

3. Have PaperCut review your design and provide feedback.

4. Create and test your solution. Your solution needs two components:

   • A web application that customers can use to connect and disconnect from your service.

   If needed, the same web application can also offer management and configuration functions.

   You can reuse the web application in multiple different solutions that you choose to develop.

   The web application will be displayed to customers in the PaperCut Hive and PaperCut Pocket admin console.

   • A service that uses the AOP APIs to deliver the solution to the customer.

Think about security and compliance

Before you submit your solution for publication make sure you have considered the following. For more details, see Publishing your Solution.

• Is the customer agreement aligned with the PaperCut standard customer agreement? You can find a template agreement here.

• Does the solution work correctly in the AOP test environment and create correct results?

• Does the solution make excessive and unnecessary use of AOP resources?

• Can the customer add, remove, and configure the solution as needed?

• Have you provided a clear explanation of how the customer’s data is managed?

• Are there any security concerns? Here are some basic starting considerations for data obtained from PaperCut:

  • Are you keeping your API credentials secured?

  • Is there adequate encryption in transit and at rest?

  • Is there authentication and authorization for accessing the data?

  • Once access is authorized do you have a mechanism for monitoring who accesses what, for example, an audit?

  • Do you have a way of deleting or anonymising data upon request?

Notes

• Remember that your solution might be used by customers globally so your solution must be legally compliant for global use.

• These APIs are for use in secure, server-based environments and should not be used in single-page web applications or on customer premises. This requirement is part of the API terms.

Where to next?

Follow these links:

• API Security guide.

• Managing Organizations for connection, disconnection, and configuration.