Lightspeed provides a very powerful application programming interface (API) with access to numerous fields. You can read and write data to almost every field in the Point of Sale system.
With the Lightspeed application programming interface (API), you can expand the functionality of Lightspeed with Hyperspace to support integrations for eCommerce, ERP, CMS, WMS and more.
The Lightspeed API is a RESTful API that supports XML and JSON with OAuth2 authentication. Below is a list of errors you may receive when using Hyperspace with the Lightspeed API.
Rate Limits
Lightspeed makes use of an algorithm to control rate limiting. While the analogy below is simplified, here is one way to think about it...
Pretend you have a bucket that can hold 60 blocks. Updating 1 data element or creating new data requires 10 blocks. Reading data for 1 data element requires 1 block.
So it is much easier and faster to read the inventory counts in Lightspeed vs. updating the inventory counts in Lightspeed. Writing data is slower and much more time consuming compared to reading data.
You are able to fill the bucket with 60 blocks every second, but sometimes this speed varies during the off-hours.
The Lightspeed API limits the number of requests that can be sent to an account over a period of time. When the rate limit has been reached, a 429 Rate Limit Exceeded error will be returned and Hyperspace will post the error above in your Hyperspace system.
The Rate Limit applies to all of your integrations for all 3rd parties. It is one rate limit that governs your entire Lightspeed account.
So if you use Hyperspace for Amazon and eBay, Joe's Logistics for UPS Worldwide integration and Mary's CRM Solutions for Content Management integration, your Rate Limit is shared by all 3 vendors across your Lightspeed account.
Note 1: Hyperspace has also noticed that heavy use of price levels and custom fields takes an excessive toll on the API. To correlate this to the analogy above, reading these elements should be allocated 4 blocks.