From all the things i have found in the forums and the api documentation it appears i need to log into the system each time i need to get a api access token. Is this the case? i am attempting to write a fully automated import system.
You only need to do this once. You will receive an access token and a refresh token which you can use to perpetually refresh the token.
https://developer.infusionsoft.com/getting-started-oauth-keys/