Authentication basics

The Ecwid platform provides two ways of installing and operating applications in an online store: native and external apps.

Native apps work solely in the Ecwid Control Panel by adding a new tab into one of its sections. When a user visits that tab, Ecwid will load the app page in an IFRAME window. The app can interact with a store (get access token, get store information) and with the Ecwid Control Panel using Ecwid JS SDK.

External apps work outside of the Ecwid Control Panel on an external website or in the background with no setup required. These applications need to handle the oAuth process themselves in order to get an access token. Usually, they work on the server side with their own database to store the access tokens of their users’ stores.