Meraki provides easy to use and comprehensive APIs connected with our highly programmable, cloud-based network architecture. Our APIs are free to allow rapid development of apps, and our open source development community is growing quickly. We give developers a free wireless access points with built-in bluetooth beacons as well as 24x7 support.
The Meraki Dashboard API allows developers to handle tedious tasks quickly and simply. The Dashboard API enables access to the Meraki dashboard configuration via a modern programmable RESTful API using HTTPS and JSON.
Using this API, a large retailer provisioned 1,800 store networks in 9 minutes. The same customer built their own portal for field technicians to add and remove appliances without requiring access to the Meraki Dashboard. The automation added security and simplification that has made their day to day job less tedious.
Meraki Wi-Fi access points include a built-in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio with ability to transmit, receive, and locate BLE Beacons. Client devices like smartphones “hear” the BLE Beacon transmitted by a Meraki AP, and an app on the smartphone can respond to a recognized Beacon using Apple’s iBeacon protocol.
Asset tracking using bluetooth beacons is now possible with the Meraki access points. Enabling BLE scanning on the Meraki dashboard allows the Meraki AP to detect, and geolocate all nearby Bluetooth Low Energy devices. The Meraki access points can locate Bluetooth beacons from all major vendors, wearables like fitness monitors, and even smartphones running a beacon-enabled app.
Cisco Meraki recently upgraded all of our customers to enable API access to the Bluetooth devices. The Bluetooth devices are available in the same API as Wi-Fi devices allowing API integration for both technologies. This includes the Cisco Meraki access points MR32, MR42, MR52, MR53, and the ruggedized MR72 and MR84.
Meraki Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) is a feature that displays real-time location statistics to help teams understand user behavior, improve customer engagement, and increase loyalty across sites. CMX comes included with any Meraki MR access point license. With CMX, the Meraki Dashboard can help administrators analyze traffic trends, dwell time, and new vs. repeat visitor loyalty.
Developers can use the CMX Location API to integrate latitude, longitude and x, y location data from their Cisco Meraki networks with their own custom-built applications. Our developer ecosystem around the CMX API has grown recently to include dozens of partner companies providing all types of value-adding features including enhanced analytics, location based apps, and notifications.
Cisco Meraki access points and security appliances provide an external captive portal API or EXCAP API. With the API, developers can deploy their own user-facing splash pages to collect analytics, social networking data, and marketing information.
The Splash page API can be used in tandem with Meraki’s CMX API to design a system where shoppers’ identities are tied to their devices upon their first visit, facilitating real-time shopper engagement without a captive portal on subsequent visits. Our development partners have taken this to another level, adding Social Network integration and proximity-based marketing campaigns.