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Create an Application

This guide will go through the steps needed for you to build an application for production.

Not ready to build an app?

Read our guide on getting your developer keys.

Sign Up For Nylas

  1. Register for an account at Nylas.com.
  2. Expand the All Applications menu on the left and click Create New App.
  3. Name your application and select the type of application you want to create. All of the other fields are optional.
  4. Click Save.

What's an application?

The word "application" can mean many different things out in the world. Here in the Nylas docs, there are three types of "applications". We do our best to be clear and specific about which one we're referring to.

  • Your application (sometimes "your app") - This is the thing you, our customer, are building. Whether that's a mobile scheduler app, an automated email responder, or something else, this is the overall project and code you are working on.
  • Nylas application - A Nylas application is a set of configurations, authentication settings, and user grants used to connect to a specific provider using a specific authentication type.
  • Provider application - Large service providers require that you connect to their servers using an application tailored to their platform. For example, Google requires a Google Cloud app to connect to to Gmail, and Microsoft requires an Azure app to connect to Outlook365 and other services.

Set up your application

You should set up separate Nylas applications in your Nylas organization for your development, staging, and production environments. Each application has a unique Client ID and Client Secret which are used to manage and authenticate user accounts.

The Client ID and Client Secret allow account and application management so you should treat them like any other credentials and store them securely. Don't save them in your source code, don't leave them in unencrypted storage, and follow security best practices.

The Client ID and Client Secret cannot be used to access to user account data. Only the access tokens Nylas generates during end-user authentication can access user data.

Each Nylas application has separate configurations for the following:

  • API Version - Nylas uses API versioning to make sure that the new feature releases and breaking changes don't impact your production applications. See API versioning for more details.
  • Webhooks - Each Nylas application has its own webhook configuration. This allows you to create a development application to test webhook changes with a limited amount of traffic.
  • Customized Authentication - Nylas stores customization information, for example your company name and logo, or each Nylas application that uses Hosted Authentication. This means you can have multiple products, each with its own Nylas application and with different customized auth experiences.
  • Google and O365 OAuth credentials - You might want a separate provider application for each environment production and staging for Microsoft 365 or Google Cloud application. This way you don't lock yourself out of a development or test environment when you put a provider application in for review.

Decide how to authenticate your users

Nylas offers two ways to authenticate: hosted authentication and native authentication. For more information on these methods, check out our guides below:

  • Hosted Authentication - Nylas handles the authentication. Hosted authentication is faster and easier to implement than Native Authentication.
  • Native Authentication - Use this method if you want to customize every step of the authentication process.

Choose a Provider

Once you're familiar with how to authenticate Nylas accounts, review the information for the specific provider you'll be using. Nylas connects with every email, contact, and calendar provider. Most integrations are straightforward and only require the IMAP/SMTP settings but for providers that require a bit more work, check out our guides below:

Create a Provider Application

Google and Microsoft require an app to start adding accounts. If you're using another provider such as iCloud, you can skip to Install an SDK.

We recommend creating an provider application for both testing and production.

Install an SDK

Our SDKs give you access to the Nylas API in the language of your choice.

Authenticate Your Accounts

Once you've decided on your authentication method and picked a client library, grab a copy of our sample application to learn how to implement both of these in your application and authenticate an account.

If you're using a Nylas production and testing application, you'll have to authenticate each account against each application. After you authenticate an account, you'll get an access_token which can be used to make API requests.

Set Up Webhooks

Webhooks let you monitor your application health. Get webhooks for account status, when messages are opened, new events, and more.

Make an API Request

You're now ready to make API requests!

Ready for production?

Review our production checklist to make sure you're ready for launch.

What's Next?