Create a module to access a 3rd party API and store the keys in the database

Question

I am new to Drupal module development, and have searched but haven't found any tutorials or guides on how to create a module to do the following:

1. Access a 3rd party API via a form
2. Store the user API key in the database
3. Access the API key when the user uses the 3rd party API via a form submission

Can someone show me how or point me in the right direction for at least steps 2 and 3?

Answer 1

You can handle the storage and retrieval of the API keys in the database via the Drupal API functions: variable_set and variable_get.

To store the key (step 2):

variable_set('mymodule_api_key', $api_key);

To access the key (step 3):

$api_key = variable_get('mymodule_api_key', t('-key not set-'));

Where "mymodule" is the short name of your custom module.

As for a comprehensive example: There are many bridge modules in the Drupal.org repos that connects to an external service using an API and authenticates using API keys. One example of this is Mollom.