. Xano will build the request for you.
| Option | Description |
| ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| url | The URL of the API you're calling, such as: `https://api.service.com/send_message` |
| method | The verb the API is designed to respond to, such as GET, POST, DELETE, etc... |
| params | Also known as "query parameters", these are options sent along with the request, such as searching and filtering options, or other data that the request needs to execute.You may also see this referred to as **request body**.
Hover over the params value space and click **set** to add a new parameter.
|
| headers | Any headers you need to send with the request, such as authentication.Add headers by hovering over the value space and click **push**
|
| timeout | How long Xano should allow the request to take before considering it timed out (failed) |
| follow\_location | Determines if you wish to automatically follow the redirects (if there are any) in the API call.An example of this would be an API that generates a file for you, then gives you a redirect to get that file. |
### Sending mixed data (files and text)
Some APIs will ask for mixed content, such as a file plus a text field with a description. In this case, you can use the 'set' filter to add multiple key:value pairs to the params, with the file resource as the value for the file field, and text for the other fields.
### Sending multiple images as the whole request body
To send multiple images as part of the request body, you can send an array of file resources via the 'params' option. You may also need to set the Content-Type in the headers to the type of files you're sending, depending on the API.
## Security Settings
### Host Verification
When an API request is sent to a secure server (you'll know if it's a secure request if the URL starts with https — most requests will), the domain's secure connection is verified using a certificate. Enabling host verification checks the certificate to make sure that it matches the domain you're sending the request to.
This value can be `true` or `false`
**Recommended Setting:** `true`
You might want to set Host Verification to 'false' in a few specific scenarios:
1. **Development and Testing Environments**: When working with development servers that use self-signed certificates or have hostnames that don't match their certificates
2. **Internal Services with Misconfigured Certificates**: In corporate environments where internal services may have certificates that don't exactly match the hostnames used to access them, especially in legacy systems.
3. **Troubleshooting SSL Issues**: To isolate whether hostname verification is causing connection problems when debugging API connectivity issues.
### Peer Verification
Secure certificates are usually issued by certain trusted authorities, such as [LetsEncrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/). Peer Verification enables checking whether or not the certificate is issued by one of these known trusted authorities, validating its authenticity.
This value can be `true` or `false`
**Recommended Setting:** `true`
You might want to set this to false if the server you're sending the request to falls under one of the scenarios outlined above under **Host Verification**.
### SSL Authentication
This is a set of additional options you can use to validate the security of the request being made. The provider of the service you're calling should be able to provide these for you, if necessary.
* `certificate`: The content of the client certificate file. Usually, you'd be provided with a .crt or a .pem file — just open it up in your text editor of choice and paste the contents here.
* `certificate_pass`: Password for the certificate if it's password-protected
* `private_key`: The contents of the private key file. Usually, you'd be provided with a .pem file for this — just open it up in your text editor of choice and paste the contents here.
* `private_key_pass`: Password for the private key if it's password-protected
### CA Certificate
Custom CA certificates allow you to specify your own trusted Certificate Authority for peer verification. This is an advanced option that is useful when connecting to servers that use certificates signed by private or internal CAs — as in, a CA that is not listed as a known trusted authority.
A custom certificate is usually provided as a file that you'd just open up in a text editor and paste here. It will look something like this:
```
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDITCCAgmgAwIBAgIUJqrGM2rS34H8YryJJLAMarvab8AwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEL
BQAwIDEeMBwGA1UEAwwVbXlDdXN0b21DZXJ0aWZpY2F0ZUNKX...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
```