Troubleshooting

This article offers potential solutions for common problems as well as pointers for some common gotchas.

Empty objects

In some cases, empty JSON objects (e.g. objects with no properties) returned from the API will be represented as an empty array. To illustrate, let's say an endpoint returns this:

{
  "name": "Jane Doe",
  "addresses": {
    "home": { ... },
    "delivery": { ... }
  }
}

The addresses property uses a common Schibsted account data structure, the "object of things". This is really a list of items represented as an object with special keys (typically one of the properties from the nested object, in the above case type) instead of an array with numeric indices.

If you request a user with no addresses, you may get this response:

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "addresses": []
}

Depending on your language of choice and how you handle JSON, this inconsistency may need to be worked around.

Searches with no results

Some endpoints that search data will return with HTTP response code 404 when there are no data, instead of returning an empty result set with a successful HTTP response code. Any code performing searches with the API should handle 404s. Refer to each individual endpoint for documentation on possible failure states.

Logging in a user with /oauth/token

When attempting to obtain a user token by POST-ing to /oauth/token, email addresses using an alias (e.g. the username part has a + in it) will result in a failure. Schibsted account is generally email address aliases (e.g. myaddress+myalias@domain.tld) aware, and this will be fixed in the future.

When using paylinks to sell products, you should not use the paylink as the action in an HTML form. The HTML5 spec specifies that the URL in action will not preserve it's query string, thus rendering the paylink broken. To send the user to Schibsted account to pay through a paylink, either use a regular <a href="...">...</a> element (style as a button if desired), or simply use a redirect right after creating the paylink.

Error code: invalid_client_id

When logging in with a redirect_uri for the first time you may encounter an error message that say invalid_client_id. If your client id is correct, your client is most likely missing a redirect_uri. Login to Stage/Pre to access the self-service.

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Do you have questions, or just want to contribute some newly gained insight? Want to share an example? Please leave a comment. Our team reads and responds to every question. Additionally, your experience can help others using Schibsted account, and it can help us continuously improve our documentation.