API integration for SuiteCRM 8.8 seems not working correctly

[Davidir]

As an old integrator from old versions of SugarCRM and SuiteCRM I spent several days to try to make running a clean SuiteCRM 8.8 environment with the API integration running but I failed.

The documentation is not clear and I tried lot of things, help from ChatGPT was non sense too cause of the lack of info from this version.

There’s someone or somewhere an update to make the API working? In my case I’m blocked in the User/token credentials. I create the Oath2 client but seems not working correctly as is need from the UI, and from this step it’s impossible to create and manage Tokens.

Hope someone has the right touch to it. Thanks!

[rsp]

Check out these guides:

SuiteCRM V8 API Guide: Authenticate, Retrieve, and Manage Leads with Postman

How to set up SuiteCRM API V8 for seamless integration

[pgr]

Start by choosing your API wisely.

Confusingly, “API v8” is a SuiteCRM v7 thing, and it is not the same thing as “the API for SuiteCRM v8” which is called “the GraphQL” API.

This last one is the one you should be using for any project starting in 2025, unless you have some strong reason to use another one.

There’s not much docs for this one either, but the upside is that the entire v8 codebase uses it for everything, so if you can navigate “code as documentation”, you’re good.

[BastianHammer]

@pgr

There’s not much docs for this one either

That’s probably already the best reason not to use it

As for the JSON API (V8) I’m recording a whole video series around it, before moving on to GraphQL.
So far, it’s working well:

If you’d like to look into GraphQL, there are some details on how to get started, but not much:

GraphQL on SuiteCRM - a tentative success

Due to the lack of documentation and hints around how GraphQL is working, it still seems to be more of a well guarded secret than anything that could be used by vendors to implement integration. GraphQL has multiple advantages over the more traditional REST, but is more developer focused as well. Here, the first tentative advancements with GraphQL for integration (and I’m very happy about feedback / corrections / optimizations / further options and opinions): 1. Send a first request to retrie…

[Davidir]

Thanks for the reply.

Just wanted to update that, after a lot of back-and-forth, we finally got OAuth2 authentication (grant_type: password) working reliably with SuiteCRM 8.8 using the V8 REST API — without needing any custom patches, just following (and double-checking) the official setup steps.

What made the process confusing — and honestly quite frustrating — was the need to implement an upsert workflow (create or update a record based on a unique field like email). Unfortunately, the V8 API doesn’t support this logic natively.

Unlike GraphQL-based platforms or those with true upsert endpoints, SuiteCRM:

• Requires manual GET then conditional POST or PATCH, which increases complexity.
• Does not handle filters or fields parameters consistently — especially when misformatted — and returns generic error messages.
• Offers limited documentation and almost no API explorer tools to trial payloads directly.

This led us to waste hours troubleshooting OAuth2 configs, when the real blocker was API structure and capabilities.

Additionally, the SuiteCRM platform should be more developer-friendly in two ways:

1. The API activation and configuration steps (keys, symlink, bean registration, etc.) are scattered and fragile. A single misstep breaks the flow with no clear diagnostic.
2. Built-in modules like Opportunities should support safe updates (PATCH/PUT) out of the box without requiring workarounds or direct DB introspection.

We’ve now rebuilt the setup successfully — but hopefully future versions make this API layer more robust, especially for automation and integrations.

Thanks again!