Square Connect API - Connecting to a clients app

Question

I am building an online web store for a client of mine. I want to use all of their current inventory in their Square system to seed the online store.

It seems as though V1 of their connect API only supports /items which is fine.

However, I can not find a way to get the client's token. I expected that when I signed in to the Developer Portal with the client's credentials that I would be able to access their token, but it just asked me to create my first app -- which would be empty.

Is there a way to do this without OAuth? Since it is being used as a store, I do not want there to be a chance of the session expiring and customers hitting the store and seeing no items.

TL;DR How to connect an existing Square instance to the Connect API?

Answer 1

You're almost there.

If you have the square account credentials, go to connect.squareup.com/apps/ and click on the create app button. Pick something for the name, and after you finish that you'll see a page with the OAuth credentials, as well as the personal access token. If you are just making an app for one merchant, the personal access token will be all you need, and easiest to use.

Apps are just ways to organize API credentials, fairly distinct from merchant accounts.

Is there something you want that the /items endpoint doesn't give you?