Creating the API Role

You will need access to the Admin section of Magento in order to set this up. Here are the screens you will use to create the role,

Go to System → Web Services → SOAP/XML-RPC - Roles

If there is not already an API Role set up, you can create one by clicking Add New Role.

After clicking Add New Role, you will need to enter a “Role Name”:

After setting a Role Name, you will have to assign Role Resources.  You can access this screen by clicking Role Resources which is under Role Information on the left side of the screen:

Resource Access will be set to “All” for typical installations. You have the option of limiting API access to only essential data types.