Import from a REST API

Last updated: July 2026 · 5 min read

When your data lives behind an internal service or a third-party API, Dotwave can call the endpoint directly and turn the JSON response into a dataset. You supply the URL and authentication, point Dotwave at the array inside the response, and preview the first rows before committing. This article covers auth options, the data-path concept, and pagination limits.

Requirements

Dotwave connects to REST endpoints that return JSON, with a few ground rules:

The endpoint must be an HTTPS URL. Plain HTTP is not accepted.
Authentication can be none, a Bearer token, an API key (sent as a header or a query parameter), or Basic auth (username and password).

Warning

Dotwave only accepts HTTPS URLs. HTTP URLs are blocked for security.

How to connect

Add data source → REST API

From the Data sources page, click Add data source and choose REST API.

Enter the HTTPS URL

Paste the full endpoint URL, including any query parameters the API needs.

Select auth method and credentials

Choose None, Bearer token, API key, or Basic auth, and supply the matching credentials. For API keys, specify whether the key goes in a header or a query parameter.

Enter the data path if the array is nested

If the array you want is wrapped inside other objects, enter the path to it — for example data.results.

Test request

Click Test request to preview the first 5 rows. This confirms the URL, auth, and data path are all correct before import.

Import

When the preview looks right, click Import to create the dataset.

Data path

APIs rarely return a bare array. More often the rows are nested inside a wrapper object. Consider a response like this:

{
  "data": {
    "items": [
      {"id": 1, "name": "Ada"},
      {"id": 2, "name": "Linus"}
    ]
  }
}

Here the rows live at data.items, so you would enter data.items in the Data path field. Dotwave then treats each object in that array as one row. If the API returns a root-level array — the response itself is [ ... ] — leave the Data path field empty.

Tip

If the preview shows a single row with columns like data or meta, your data path is too shallow — Dotwave is treating the wrapper as the record. Drill one level deeper until the preview shows the individual records you expect.

Limitations

Two limits shape how much data a single REST import returns:

Only the first page of a paginated API is imported. If Dotwave detects pagination in the response, it shows a warning so you know more data exists beyond what was imported. For large datasets behind pagination, a webhook or database connection is usually a better fit.
The response is capped at 50MB. Larger responses should be filtered at the source using query parameters the API supports.

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