Higher logic vanilla Python API Docs | dltHub

Higher Logic Vanilla is a community platform that exposes forum, discussions, contacts, communities, resource library and other site features via a REST API (API v2). The REST API base URL is https://api.higherlogic.com/api/v2.0 and Role tokens (query param) for select endpoints; standard bearer/session tokens used for authenticated API v2 calls..

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Higher logic vanilla data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Higher logic vanilla?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Higher logic vanilla:

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How do I authenticate with the Higher logic vanilla API?

Role tokens can be issued via POST /api/v2/tokens/roles and are passed to supported endpoints as a role-token query parameter. The platform also supports standard authenticated requests using session/Bearer tokens returned by authentication endpoints (e.g., Authentication/Login).

1. Get your credentials

1. Sign in to your Higher Logic / Vanilla tenant administration console or contact your tenant admin.
2. If using role tokens: call POST /api/v2/tokens/roles as an already‑authenticated user to create a role token; the endpoint returns the token and expiration.
3. If using standard API auth: use the tenant's Authentication endpoints (e.g., POST api/v2.0/Authentication/Login) or the dashboard to create API credentials/tokens per your tenant's configuration.
4. Copy the returned token (or role token) for use in API requests.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.higher_logic_vanilla_source]
api_token = "your_bearer_token_here"
role_token = "your_role_token_here"

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

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dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the Higher logic vanilla API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

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python higher_logic_vanilla_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

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Pipeline higher_logic_vanilla_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset higher_logic_vanilla_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/higher_logic_vanilla.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline higher_logic_vanilla_pipeline show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads system_get_api_details and contacts_get_my_contacts_page from the Higher logic vanilla API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def higher_logic_vanilla_source(api_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.higherlogic.com/api/v2.0",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "api_token": api_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "system_get_api_details", "endpoint": {"path": "System/GetApiDetails"}},
            {"name": "contacts_get_my_contacts_page", "endpoint": {"path": "Contacts/GetMyContactsPage"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="higher_logic_vanilla_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="higher_logic_vanilla_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(higher_logic_vanilla_source())
    print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.

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How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("higher_logic_vanilla_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.system_get_api_details.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM higher_logic_vanilla_data.system_get_api_details LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("higher_logic_vanilla_pipeline").dataset()
data.system_get_api_details.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load Higher logic vanilla data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

If you receive 401/403 responses, verify that you are using a valid token. Role tokens are only valid for the endpoints listed in the role‑token documentation and must be supplied as a role-token query parameter. Regular bearer/session tokens must be provided in Authorization: Bearer <token>.

Pagination and continuation tokens

Many GET endpoints use cursor‑style paging (afterX/beforeX or continuationToken) and/or return Link headers with rel="next". Use the provided after/before keys or continuationToken values to page through results; do not assume fixed page offsets.

Rate limits and errors

The public docs do not expose a universal rate‑limit header; if you encounter 429 responses, implement exponential backoff and retry. For 4xx/5xx errors, inspect the response body for error details and contact Higher Logic support if errors persist.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

• data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
• dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack