Error: “Invalid API key” or "HTTP Error 403: FORBIDDEN" when generating an API key for Symantec Mobility / App Center

Products

• Mobility Suite

Issue/Introduction

 You are invoking a Symantec Mobility API, which requires that you generate an API key. You generate the key and include it with the API call to the Mobility server. However, when you attempt to access Mobility via the API, the API call is rejected and you one of the following errors:.

• “Invalid API key” is displayed in the logs
• "HTTP Error 403: FORBIDDEN" is returned from the API

 

Cause

 The API key contains one of the following symbols: ! # $ & ‘ ( ) * = , / : ; = ?

Resolution

You can either regenerate another API key that doesn’t have one of the reserved characters, or you can encode the symbol in the URL by using the hexadecimal representation of the symbol’s ASCII value. This value is preceded by the % symbol.  The following table provides the encoded values for the reserved symbol set:

Symbol	HEX Encoded Value
!	%21
#	%23
$	%24
&	%26
'	%27
(	%28
)	%29
*	%2A
+	%2B
,	%2C
/	%2F
:	%3A
;	%3B
=	%3D
?	%3F