Legal Agreement Maintenance

Add and maintain legal agreements for your API.

Table of Contents

The platform allows you to upload one or more legal agreements associated with your API. When a legal agreement is active for an API, an app developer must accept the legal agreement in order to request a contract with the API.

Some points to note about legal agreements:

  • You can upload multiple legal agreements.
  • You can include such information as what is offered, service levels, limitations, and any other legal information you want to share with users of your API.
  • You must activate a legal agreement before you can assign it to the API.
  • If a legal agreement is associated with one or more active contracts, you cannot deactivate it.
  • If the auto-connect feature is enabled enabled in the version of the platform you are using, do not associate a legal agreement with the API, because there is no way for the user to accept the agreement in an auto-connect scenario. When auto-connect is enabled, this means that the API will be automatically connected with every new app that is created. If auto-connect in use in your environment, the only way to get end-users to accept legal terms associated with API usage is to get those terms included in the Developer Agreement that each user must accept when signing up for the platform.
  • Acceptance is required by only one app team member. Each app team member has equal rights and can make decisions on behalf of the team.
  • If an app team member accepts a legal agreement and then leaves the team, the legal agreement is still considered to be accepted, since at the time the individual accepted the agreement he/she had authority to do so.
  • If a contract is revised, and the legal agreement was already accepted for the contract by a member of the app team, the original legal agreement applies to the revised contract.

The following file formats are supported for legal agreements on the platform:

  • Text (.txt, .text)
  • HTML (.htm, .html)
  • PDF (.pdf)

Note: Supported file formats are the same for these two types of legal agreements supported on the platform:

  • Platform signup legal agreement: If a platform signup legal agreement is in place, all platform users much accept the agreement.
  • API legal agreement: Specific to an API. Must be accepted as part of requesting access to an API (API > Overview > Access).

The legal agreement maintenance process includes the following steps.

  • Step 1: Update and Upload Content: Prepare the file outside the Community Manager developer portal, and then upload it via the Upload Agreement button. See How do I add an API legal agreement?
  • Step 2: Activate / Deactivate Content: After you have published a legal agreement, it must be activated so it is available for selection in the Add a New API Wizard, and visible in the platform API Access Wizard. To activate: In the Agreements Summary page, Status section, click the Activate button. Assign a name and description to the legal agreement, and save. Users who are not API Providers / Administrators cannot view a legal agreement in the API wizards, or in the API > Agreements section until it has been activated. You can restrict visibility of the legal agreement by clicking the Deactivate button (see How do I deactivate a legal agreement?). After the initial legal agreement activation, you can also edit the legal agreement name and description (see How do I edit legal agreement details?).
  • Step 3: (Optional): Report Statistics: If you want to view statistics of legal agreement activation or deactivation activity, you can click the Report button and download a CSV file that includes the legal agreement name and username/date/time stamp of when the legal agreement was activated or deactivated.
  • See Content Development Guidelines for API Admins for more information on the legal agreement content development and maintenance.

Who can update API legal agreement content?

To update an API legal agreement, you must have update permission for the API. In most cases, this means that you must be an API Admin.

There are two steps to setting up an API legal agreement: first, uploading the file to the Community Manager developer portal, and then, activating it as your current API legal agreement.

To add an API legal agreement

  1. Go to APIs > My APIs > choose API > Agreements.
  2. Click Upload Agreement.
  3. In File Manager, click Upload a File.

    For more information on using the File Manager, see Content Development Guidelines for API Admins.

  4. Upload the file.
  5. In the File Manager window, click the Publish box so that the legal agreement can be assigned to the API.
  6. When done, click outside the File Manager window.

Once you've added the API legal agreement, you can activate it. See How do I activate a legal agreement?

What are the content guidelines for legal agreements?

The platform provides a set of content development guidelines for all types of content including legal agreements. See Content Development Guidelines for API Admins for details.

After legal agreements have been uploaded and the name and description have been assigned, the agreements must be activated. An activated legal agreement displays in the platform API Access Wizard where it can be reviewed and accepted as part of the API access request process, when a developer requests access to your API..

To activate a legal agreement

  1. Go to APIs > My APIs > choose API > Agreements.
  2. Click Manage Agreements.
  3. Choose the legal agreement that you want to activate. In the Status column, click Activate. The legal agreement will be activated and displayed to users requesting access to your API, as part of the API Access Wizard.

If you want to discontinue use of a particular legal agreement, you can deactivate it. For example, you must deactivate the current legal agreement before replacing it with a new one.

To deactivate a legal agreement

  1. Go to APIs > My APIs > choose API > Agreements.
  2. Click Manage Agreements.
  3. Choose the legal agreement that you want to deactivate. In the Status column, click Deactivate. The legal agreement will be deactivated and removed from the platform API Access Wizard.

After you have activated a legal agreement you can update the name and description using the Edit function. This information displays on the Agreements Summary listing of your legal agreement. The "Name" assignment also is used as the hyperlinked display name of the legal agreement on the Agreements page. The Edit function in the Status column is used to update legal agreement display information.

To edit a legal agreement

  1. Go to APIs > My APIs > choose API > Agreements.
  2. Click Manage Agreements.
  3. Choose the legal agreement that you want to edit. In the Status column, click Edit. The Edit pop-up displays.
  4. Specify a Name and Description for your legal agreement. Click Save to commit your changes.

Legal agreements can only be deleted when they are in a Draft state. After a legal agreement has been activated, it is registered as part of the API's contract and cannot be deleted.

To delete a legal agreement

  1. Go to APIs > My APIs > choose API > Agreements.
  2. Click Manage Agreements. Verify that the legal agreement that you want to delete is assigned a Draft status.
  3. Click Agreements in the left navigation to return to the home page. Click Upload Agreement.
  4. Select the legal agreement that you want to delete, uncheck the Publish check box, and click the red x in the Actions column. Click OK when you receive the delete confirmation message. The legal agreement is deleted.

If you want to view statistics of legal agreement activation or deactivation activity, you can download a CSV file that includes the legal agreement name and username/date/time stamp of when the legal agreement was activated or deactivated.

To download a legal agreement report

  1. Go to APIs > My APIs > choose API > Agreements.
  2. Click Manage Agreements.
  3. Choose the legal agreement that you want to view a report for. In the Status column, click Report. From the file dialog, navigate to the directory where you want to save the .CSV file and click Save.