# Getting Started
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/commercial-event-notifications/documentation/getting_started/index.md

To get started with the Commercial Event Notifications API in a sandbox environment, create a project in Mastercard Developers to obtain credentials to access the API,
and engage with your Mastercard representative to begin the process of onboarding to the service.

If you do not have a contact at Mastercard, click "Get Help" on the [Support](https://developer.mastercard.com/commercial-event-notifications/documentation/support/index.md) page to request that someone contact you to discuss the onboarding process.

Once onboarding is complete, you can connect to the API.

## Step 1: Obtain Keys {#step-1-obtain-keys}

Obtain a signing key in a PKCS#12 Keystore file and a consumer key, which is a unique key assigned for your project.

To obtain keys:

1. In the [My Projects](https://developer.mastercard.com/dashboard) page, click **Create New Project**.
2. Select Commercial Event Notifications from the list.
3. Add a descriptive name. If required, select the **Invite Team Members** check box to add your team members to the project.
4. Click **Download PKCS#12 Keystore** to download the sandbox signing key. Save this key to a safe location and then click **Continue**.
5. Click **Confirm and Continue** to view your consumer key on the dashboard.

## Step 2: Onboard to the Commercial Event Notifications Service {#step-2-onboard-to-the-commercial-event-notifications-service}

Contact your Mastercard representative so that Mastercard can onboard you to the Commercial Event Notifications service.

If you do not have a contact at Mastercard, click "Get Help" on the [Support](https://developer.mastercard.com/commercial-event-notifications/documentation/support/index.md) page to request that someone contact you to discuss the onboarding process.

You will need to provide the following information for the onboarding to proceed:

* Your Smart Data and ICCP or Business Payment Controls details.
* The consumer key that you obtained from Mastercard Developers.
* The URL to which push notifications should be sent.
* Details of the TLS (SSL) certificate that your server will use when accepting connections from Mastercard. This is a standard TLS server certificate, which you must procure, and is not related to the credentials you obtain from Mastercard Developers.

Once you have obtained your credentials, and gathered the above information, provide it to your Mastercard representative to allow onboarding to proceed.
Allow 3 weeks for Mastercard to complete the onboarding process and notify you.

## Step 3: Deploy a Server to Process Push Notifications {#step-3-deploy-a-server-to-process-push-notifications}

The Event Notifications service pushes notifications to you using HTTP POST messages over a secure Mutual TLS connection.
To receive these notifications:

* Deploy a server at the URL that you registered with us.
* Your server must be able to accept TLS connections from Mastercard.
* During connection negotiation, your server must supply a TLS certificate signed by a Certificate Authority that is registered with Mastercard's API Gateway.
* Also during connection negotiation, you should check the TLS client certificate on the incoming connection to validate that the connection is from Mastercard.

## Step 4: Develop your Application and Connect to the API {#step-4-develop-your-application-and-connect-to-the-api}

Develop your application as described in the [Use Cases](https://developer.mastercard.com/commercial-event-notifications/documentation/use_cases/index.md) section
or by using our Java [reference application](https://developer.mastercard.com/commercial-event-notifications/documentation/reference_application_tutorial/index.md).
The Commercial Event Notifications reference application is a fully functional application written in Java
that contains sample API calls and implements an end-to-end flow to create and manage your subscriptions.
It also contains a sample server to process the notifications you will receive.

Once you have a confirmation from your Mastercard representative, you can proceed to connect to the API's sandbox environment and test your application.
Once you have completed the development of your application and fully tested its integration to the Commercial Event Notifications API in the sandbox,
you can click `Request Production Access` in your Mastercard Developers project to begin the process of moving your application to production.