Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : March/April 2004

Integrate Dialog Content with Dialog API

The Dialog Application Programming Interface (API) is a an XML-based Web Service that enables Dialog content to be integrated into heterogeneous information environments, including corporate portals, extranets, open Web sites, software applications, and more. Web Services are widely used in the information marketplace because they allow applications from different sources to interact with each other without custom coding. This is possible because communication via a Web Service like the Dialog API is dependent upon passing messages in XML. The advantage here is that the Dialog API is not tied to any operating system or programming language, thus allowing Java to talk to Perl and Windows^® applications to communicate with Unix applications and so forth. These services are already widely used to integrate information from a variety of different systems, and according to IDC, the overall market for Web Services, including software, services, and sales, will reach $34 billion by 2007 (see: Information Highways, January-February 2003). The Dialog API will enable Dialog content to be integrated using the most current technology.

The key features and benefits of this service are as follows:

• Developers can create applications using their environment and tool of choice: The Dialog API is based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), an XML-based communication standard. This protocol is widely used in IT infrastructures.
  
  
• Access to the entire Dialog content collection: Unlike other Dialog customization tools, applications created using the Dialog API can utilize the entire Dialog content set, enabling the creation of comprehensive information solutions.
  
  
• Access to the Dialog search engine: The Dialog API interfaces with the powerful Dialog search engine. Applications can be created for novice users and expert searchers alike.
  
  
• Access to the Dialog Alerting system: Applications created using the Dialog API will be able to utilize the Dialog Unified Alerts system, enabling integrated Alerts from multiple files, duplicate record removal and flexible scheduling capabilities.
  
  
• Dialog Content Delivered in XML: Content in all Dialog files is available in XML format. Because documents are delivered in XML, they are easily integrated into applications providing users with a number of document format options (i.e., PDF, RTF, HTML, etc.).

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