User Guide En – Individual API Key vs. Shared API Key

Redmine assigns API Keys to its users. An API Key is unique to each user and represents the user’s roles and permissions. RedSync uses the API Key to access Redmine’s API on behalf of the user.

There are two types of API Keys as follows:

Individual API Key

Individual API Key is the Key that Redmine assigns to the account for each project manager and project member. When RedSync updates an Issue, Redmine records it with the user’s ID associated with the API key.

You should register Individual API Keys in the Account Link.

Shared API Key

RedSync uses Shared API Key when a user does not have Individual Key registered in the Account Link. Shared API Key is convenient when some users do not have an account with Redmine. To create a Shared API Key, you may add a dummy user in Redmine and assign the user to the project with the appropriate role.

Redmine records an update operation on Redmine data with a user ID associated with the API Key. Hence the use of the individual API Key is better for traceability.

You should register Shared API Key in the Settings.

In both cases, you should assign an appropriate role to the user. The user needs to have at least the “developer ” role in changing the data. If you give the “reporter” role, the user can see Redmine data on a Card but cannot change them.