Mastering Keap’s API: A How-To Guide for Custom Incremental Backups of Specific Contact & Order Fields
In the high-stakes world of business, data is paramount, and nowhere is this truer than with your CRM. While Keap offers robust data management, relying solely on generic full backups can fall short when you need precise, granular control over specific contact and order fields. This guide demystifies the process of leveraging Keap’s API to implement custom incremental backups, ensuring you protect only the most critical information, reduce storage overhead, and maintain a nimble, resilient data strategy. Learn how to move beyond basic data retention to a targeted, efficient backup protocol that safeguards your essential operational data.
Step 1: Define Your Data & Backup Strategy
Before writing a single line of code, clarify precisely what data needs backing up and why. Identify the critical contact fields (e.g., lead source, last interaction date, custom fields essential for segmentation) and order fields (e.g., product details, payment status, fulfillment notes) that are indispensable for your business operations. Determine the frequency of your incremental backups – daily, hourly, or even more often for highly volatile data. Consider your retention policy: how long do you need to keep historical snapshots? This strategic clarity informs every subsequent technical decision, ensuring your backup efforts are both efficient and aligned with your organizational data governance requirements. A well-defined strategy minimizes resource waste and maximizes data resilience.
Step 2: Obtain Keap API Credentials & Access
To interact with Keap’s API, you need proper authorization. Start by logging into your Keap account and navigating to the API settings, typically found under “Settings” or “Admin.” Here, you’ll need to generate an API key. More importantly, for OAuth2 authentication (the recommended method for secure access), you’ll need to create an API application to obtain a Client ID and Client Secret. These credentials are vital for securely authenticating your backup script with Keap’s servers. Ensure you understand the necessary API scopes required for accessing Contact and Order data; typically, this includes `full` or specific read scopes for `contacts` and `orders`. Treat these credentials with the utmost security, as they grant programmatic access to your entire Keap database.
Step 3: Familiarize Yourself with Keap’s API Endpoints
Understanding the relevant Keap API endpoints is crucial for targeted data extraction. The primary endpoints you’ll be interacting with are `/contacts` and `/orders`. For custom fields, you might also query `/customFields/contactFields` or `/customFields/orderFields` to dynamically discover field IDs if needed, though often these are hardcoded once identified. Crucially, pay attention to pagination – Keap’s API typically returns data in pages (e.g., 100 records per request). Your script must handle iterating through these pages to retrieve all relevant data. For incremental backups, the `date_updated` parameter is your best friend. Many endpoints support filtering by `date_updated.gt` (greater than) or `date_updated.gte` (greater than or equal to) to fetch only records modified since your last backup.
Step 4: Scripting for Data Extraction & Filtering
With your strategy and credentials in hand, it’s time to build the core logic. Your script (e.g., Python, Node.js) will first perform OAuth2 authentication to obtain an access token. Then, it will query the `/contacts` endpoint, filtering by `date_updated.gt` the timestamp of your last successful backup. For each fetched contact, specifically extract only the predefined critical fields. Repeat this process for the `/orders` endpoint, applying the same `date_updated` filter and field selection. Handle pagination gracefully, ensuring you collect all pages of modified records. Error handling is paramount: implement retries for network issues and robust logging for API errors. This selective extraction prevents unnecessary data transfer and focuses only on what has changed.
Step 5: Implement Incremental Logic & Storage
The essence of an incremental backup lies in tracking changes. After successfully extracting the updated contact and order data, you need to store it. Consider structured formats like CSV, JSON, or Parquet files, perhaps organized into date-stamped directories (e.g., `/backups/2023-10-27/contacts.json`). Critically, your system must persistently store the timestamp of the *most recent* `date_updated` value processed in the current backup run. This timestamp will serve as the `date_updated.gt` parameter for your *next* backup run, ensuring you only fetch new or modified records. Store this “last backup timestamp” securely, perhaps in a small configuration file, a database, or even a cloud storage metadata field, so your script can retrieve it each time it runs.
Step 6: Automate & Schedule Your Backup Process
Manual backups are prone to human error and inconsistency. Automating your incremental backup process is non-negotiable for a robust data strategy. For server-based scripts, use a cron job (Linux) or Task Scheduler (Windows) to run your script at your defined frequency. Cloud-native solutions like AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, or Azure Functions can execute your script on a schedule without managing servers. Alternatively, for low-code environments, platforms like Make.com (formerly Integromat) or Zapier can orchestrate API calls, trigger custom scripts, and manage incremental logic, often simplifying the setup significantly. Whichever method you choose, ensure the automation is monitored, and notifications are configured for success or failure, providing peace of mind and data security.
If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Unbreakable Keap Data: Mastering Incremental Backups for HR & Recruiting
