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Order SSL (type_hint)

POST https://www.digicert.com/services/v2/order/certificate/ssl

Use this endpoint to request or renew an SSL/TLS certificate using the product type_hint. To renew a certificate, you must place the request from the same account used to order the original certificate.

This endpoint automatically determines the appropriate SSL/TLS product for the request based on the submitted data. If a product cannot be determined, a 400 ambiguous_product error is returned.

Public SSL/TLS certificates support Multi-year Plans. With Multi-year Plans, you pick the SSL/TLS certificate, the certificate validity period, and the duration of coverage you want. To order a Multi-year Plan with this endpoint, use the order_validity object to set the validity period of the order (up to three years). Optionally, use the certificate.cert_validity parameter to customize the validity of the first certificate issued for the order. For more information, see Multi-year Plans.

Warning

End of 4- to 6-year Multi-year Plans

On October 31, 2023, DigiCert will no longer sell 4- to 6-year Multi-year Plans for TLS and VMC certificates. We will continue to offer 1, 2, and 3-year Multi-year Plans. For more information, see End of 4- to 6-year Multi-year Plans.

Notice

Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) and Flat Fee contracts only support 1- and 2-year Multi-year Plans.

Example requests and responses

Request parameters

Notice

For information about allowed values for certificate fields, see Publicly Trusted Certificates – Data Entries that Violate Industry Standards.

Name

Req/Opt

Type

Description

certificate

required

object

Details about the certificate.

.. common_name

required

string

Domain to be secured.

.. dns_names

optional

array

Additional domains to be secured. Can result in additional costs. (See Best practices – Get both versions of a domain for free.)

.. csr

required*

string

Certificate signing request (CSR).

*See Glossary – CSR requirements.

Note: The Services API does not extract information from the CSR to fill in the details of a certificate request. You must provide values for all relevant request parameters, including certificate.common_name, certificate.dns_names, and organization.id. If you are requesting a certificate for an organization without an existing ID, you must provide values for all required parameters of the organization object.

.. signature_hash

required

string

Hash algorithm used to sign the certificate. Code signing certificates support only SHA-256.

.. ca_cert_id

optional**

string

ID of the intermediate certificate authority (ICA) certificate to select as the issuing certificate. To get the ca_cert_id value for an ICA, use the Product list endpoint.

Account administrators can customize the default and allowed ICAs for each product at the container or user role level. If you do not provide a value for this parameter in requests for a public TLS/SSL certificate, we issue the certificate using the default ICA. If you provide the ca_cert_id value for an ICA that is not allowed, the request returns an error*. To see the custom ICA settings for each product, use the Product limits endpoint.

*This parameter is ignored in requests for public TLS/SSL certificates if the option for ICA selection is not enabled for your account. Learn more about the ICA certificate chain feature for your public TLS certificates.

** Required if type_hint is private.

.. organization_units

optional

array

Department in your organization the certificate is for.

Deprecated. This field is ignored for public TLS/SSL certificate requests. See our knowledge base article.

.. server_platform

optional

object

Server platform type. Required for code signing certificate orders.

Default:-1 (other)

.. .. id

required

int

Server platform ID. See Glossary – Server platforms

.. cert_validity

optional

object 

Defines the validity period of certificates issued for this order. Cannot exceed order validity period.

If not provided, or if the cert_validity date is less than 365 days from the current date, the certificate's validity period defaults to the validity period of the order or the maximum certificate validity period defined by CA/B Forum baseline requirements, whichever is shorter.

This object is not used for requests from accounts that do not have Multi-year Plans enabled.

.. .. years

optional

int 

Number of years the certificate is valid after it is issued. Can be replaced with cert_validity.days or cert_validity.custom_expiration_date.

Allowed value: 1

.. .. days

optional

int 

Number of days the certificate is valid after it is issued. Overrides cert_validity.years.

Max: 397

.. .. custom_expiration_date

optional

string

A custom expiration date for the certificate. Overrides cert_validity.days and cert_validity.years.

Format: dd MMM YYYY (for example, "09 JUN 2021")

Range: Must be within 397 days of the date you request the certificate.

renewed_thumbprint

optional*

string

If order is a renewal, enter the SHA-1 thumbprint of the previous order's primary certificate. For more information, see How to check a certificate's thumbprint.

*Renewal orders must include either a renewed_thumbprint or renewal_of_order_id value.

order_validity

required

object 

Defines the validity period of the order. For public TLS/SSL certificates, order validity determines the length of a Multi-year Plan.

.. years 

required*

int 

Number of years the order is valid.

*Can be replaced by order_validity.days or order_validity.custom_expiration_date.

Range: 1-3

.. days 

optional

int 

Number of days the order is valid. Overrides order_validity.years.

Max: 1095

.. custom_expiration_date 

optional

string 

Custom expiration date for the order. Overrides order_validity.days and order_validity.years.

Format: dd MMM YYYY (for example, "09 JUN 2025")

Range: Must be within three years of the date you request the order.

validity_years 

optional

int 

Number of years the order is valid.

Deprecated. Use the order_validity object to set the validity period of the order. Use the cert_validity object to set the validity period of the certificate.

Range: 1-3

validity_days 

optional

int 

Number of days the order is valid. Overrides validity_years.

Deprecated. Use the order_validity object to set the validity period of the order. Use the cert_validity object to set the validity period of the certificate.

Max: 1095

custom_expiration_date 

optional

string 

Custom expiration date for the order. Overrides validity_days and validity_years.

Deprecated. Use the order_validity object to set the validity period of the order. Use the cert_validity object to set the validity period of the certificate.

Format: yyyy-MM-dd

Range: Must be within three years of the date you request the order.

comments

optional

string

apply_cr_discount

optional

bool

When true, applies any competitive replacement discounts that are available for the domains on the order. To calculate competitive replacement discounts before you place an order, use the List replacement benefits endpoint.

Default: false

serial_number

optional

string

Serial number of the non-DigiCert certificate for which you expect to receive a competitive replacement discount when you place the order. If not provided, we use the information from your order request to look for a match among certificates on the CT log servers, and we apply a discount based on the best match we can find.

product

optional

object

Details about the product.

.. type_hint

optional

string

Specify the product type being passed.

Allowed values:ov, ev, grid, private

auto_renew

optional

int

Specify if the order should automatically renew.

Allowed values:0 (disabled) or 1 (enabled)

Default: 0

auto_reissue

optional

int

Auto-reissue setting for the order. When auto-reissue is enabled for a Multi-year Plan, DigiCert automatically creates a reissue request for the most recently issued certificate when that certificate is within 30 days of expiring. Auto-reissue repeats until the order expires. To learn more about reissuing certificates in a Multi-year Plan, see Multi-year Plans.

Allowed values:0 (disabled) or 1 (enabled)

Default:0 (disabled)

Note: We ignore the auto_reissue request parameter if:

  • The product does not support Multi-year Plans.

  • Multi-year Plans are disabled for the account.

disable_renewal_notifications

optional

bool

Specify if renewal notification emails should be disabled.

Default: false

additional_emails

optional

array

Additional email addresses to receive certificate notification emails (e.g., certificate issuance, duplicate certificate, certificate renewals, etc.).

renewal_of_order_id

optional*

int

If order is a renewal, enter the previous order's ID.

*Renewal orders must include either a renewed_thumbprint or renewal_of_order_id value.

dcv_method

optional

string

DCV method to use when verifying domain control. See Glossary – DCV methods.

skip_approval

optional

bool

Specify if the order should skip the approval step and be immediately submitted for validation and issued when complete.

Default: false

disable_ct

optional

bool

Specify if CT logging for the certificate should be disabled. Order-specific CT logging must be enabled or this will be ignored. See Allow users to keep certificates out of CT logs.

Default: false

organization_contact

optional

object

Organization contact for the order.

Include this object at the root of the request body to create the order with a different organization contact than the one assigned to the organization on the request. If omitted, the order uses the same organization contact assigned to the organization.

Note: The order-level organization_contact is only used on the order. It does not replace the organization contact assigned to the organization on the request.

.. first_name

required

string

Contact first name.

.. last_name

required

string

Contact last name.

.. email

required

string

Contact email address.

.. job_title

optional

string

Contact job title.

.. telephone

optional

string

Contact telephone number.

.. telephone_extension

optional

string

Telephone extension.

technical_contact

optional

object

Technical contact for the order.

Include this object at the root of the request body to create the order with a different technical contact than the one assigned to the organization on the request. If omitted, the order uses the same technical contact assigned to the organization.

Note: The order-level technical_contact is only used on the order. It does not replace the technical contact assigned to the organization on the request.

.. first_name

required

string

Contact first name.

.. last_name

required

string

Contact last name.

.. email

required

string

Contact email address.

.. job_title

optional

string

Contact job title.

.. telephone

optional

string

Contact telephone number.

.. telephone_extension

optional

string

Telephone extension.

organization

required

object

Object with information about the organization to associate with the request. You can associate the request with an existing organization, or you can create a new organization when you submit the order request.

To associate the request with an existing organization, pass the ID of the organization as the value of organization.id in the body of your request. To create a new organization, include the details of the organization in the organization object. For more information about the structure and required parameters of the organization object, see the Create organization documentation.

Note: When you submit an order with organization details instead of providing an organization ID, we check the organizations that already exist in your account to avoid creating a duplicate.

  • If we find one matching organization, we automatically associate the order with that organization instead of creating a new one.

  • If we find two or more matching organizations, we automatically associate the order with the oldest matching organization in your account instead of creating a new one.

To override this behavior and force the request to create a new organization, set the organization.skip_duplicate_org_check parameter to true in the body of your request.

Important: When you want to associate an order with an existing organization, we recommend always using the ID of the organization instead of the organization's details in the body of your request. To get the ID values for organizations in your account, use the List organizations endpoint. Additionally, we recommend deactivating unused organizations to ensure they are never accidentally assigned to a new order request. To deactivate an organization, use the Deactivate organization endpoint.

.. id

required*

int

The ID of an existing organization to associate with the order. To get the ID of organizations in your account, use the List organizations endpoint.

*Not required if you are creating a new organization with your request.

.. contacts

conditional

array of objects

.. skip_duplicate_org_check

optional

bool

Use true to skip the check for duplicate organizations in your account. When you skip this check, you force the request to create a new organization, regardless of whether the details you provide in the request match the details of an organization that already exists in your account.

Default: false

container

optional

object

If needed, specify the container the order should be placed under.

.. id

required

int

Container ID.

alternative_order_id

optional

string

A custom alphanumeric ID to assign the order. To see the alternative_order_id assigned to an order, use the Order info endpoint.

Alternative order IDs do not replace the unique order ID that DigiCert assigns each order request. You cannot use alternative order IDs to search for or identify orders in API calls that require an order_id parameter in the URL path or request body.

If the Require unique alternative order IDs option is enabled in your account settings, you cannot submit order requests with an alternative order ID that is already assigned to an order in your account. Use this feature to enable nonce order requests, or to prevent your integration from creating duplicate orders in cases where you do not receive a response from the API. Account administrators can toggle this option from the CertCentral console. From the Settings > Preferences page, open the Advanced Settings menu, and look for the Alternative order ID option.

This parameter is always optional, even if the Require unique alternative order IDs option is enabled in your account. If a request does not use this parameter, no alternative_order_id value is assigned to the order.

Maximum length: 64 characters

Note: The Require unique alternative order IDs option may not appear in the advanced settings menu for all CertCentral accounts. To enable this option for your account, contact your account manager or our Support team.

enable_guest_access

optional

int

Whether to enable guest access for the order. This parameter is not allowed if guest access is disabled in your account settings.

Allowed values:1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)

Default: The default configuration for new orders is determined by your account settings. Account administrators can change these settings from the Guest Access page in the CertCentral console.

certificate_dcv_scope

optional

string

Response parameters