A supplier API is what turns GSM X Tool from a shop window into an automated shop. Once it is connected, orders go to the supplier without anyone typing an IMEI, and results come back to your customers by themselves. This guide walks through adding one in the admin panel.
Before you start
From your supplier's website, in your account area, get:
- the API URL (usually the address of their site),
- your username with them,
- an API access key.
If the supplier asks you to whitelist an IP address, add your hosting server's IP in their panel first. Your host can tell you what it is.
1. Open Supplier APIs
In the admin panel go to Supplier APIs › APIs and click to add a new one. The form has three tabs: Connection, Auto Update and Group Prices.
2. Choose the API type
The first thing the form asks is which protocol the supplier speaks. It shows each one as a card with the kind of URL it expects:
- GSM X Tool (recommended) and GSM Eye: bulk send and get, automatic prices, quantity and delivery time.
- Dhru Fusion: the standard Dhru Fusion reseller API, which most GSM suppliers offer.
- Dhru Fusion Pro: the newer REST API that uses one long access token and no username.
- GSM Theme and GSM Hub: suppliers running those scripts.
- Simple Link: one URL per order, for example your own checker. An HTTP 200 answer counts as success.
- Instant Support: one order per request, with no cron job needed.
If you are not sure, ask the supplier which script their site runs. Most will say Dhru Fusion.
3. Fill in the connection
- API Name: any name you will recognise, such as the supplier's brand.
- API URL, Username and Access Key: pasted from the supplier. Each field has a paste button.
- Status: Active.
- Price Currency: the currency the supplier quotes its prices in.
- Instant Send: leave it off for now. Instant Send has its own guide.
The form only asks for what the chosen type needs. A Simple Link API, for example, asks for a Placeholder, the name of the URL parameter the IMEI goes in, instead of a username and key.
4. Save, and let it check the details
When you save, GSM X Tool contacts the supplier straight away to check the credentials and read your live balance with them. If anything is wrong, the save stops and tells you why. Nothing half-working is stored. The Balance field is filled in from the supplier each time you save, so you never type it.
5. Decide what follows the supplier
On the Auto Update tab, four switches decide what changes each time services are synced. They are all on by default:
- Price: follow the supplier's price.
- Fields: use the supplier's order form fields.
- Delivery Time: follow the supplier's quoted turnaround.
- Quantity: follow the supplier's minimum and maximum quantity.
Leave them on unless you have a reason. A service whose price you fixed by hand will not move when the supplier puts its price up, and you can end up selling below cost.
6. Set your markup per customer group
On the Group Prices tab, every customer group gets a markup on services from this API, either a Percent or a Fixed amount. For example, 20% for regular customers and 8% for resellers. Because the markup sits on top of the supplier's cost, your margin stays the same when the supplier changes a price.
7. Sync and pick the services to sell
Open the API's Services and click Sync API. Every service the supplier offers is imported, and new ones arrive as Pending, so nothing appears in your shop until you choose it. Then:
- search or filter by service type,
- click Add Service on the ones you want to sell, or tick several and add them together.
Start with a short list you understand. You can add more at any time.
8. Add the cron job
Go to Supplier APIs › Cron Jobs. Your new API now has its own cron line there. Add it to cPanel to run once a minute, exactly as described in how to set up cron jobs. Without it, orders for this supplier wait forever.
9. Test with a real order
Place an order on one cheap service as a test customer and watch it go through. If it fails, open Logs › API Logs: every request sent to the supplier and every answer it gave is there, and the error usually explains itself. Connecting suppliers lists the most common answers and what they mean.