eFORMz API: URL Formats

When an API interacts with another system, the touchpoints of this communication are considered endpoints. For APIs, an endpoint can include a URL of a server or service. There are two primary endpoints available to eFORMz customers. These are the ‘director’ and ‘output’ endpoints. Both of them can take parameters either through the URL or in the data. The portion of the URL with authentication is encrypted for transmission. URL translation ensures that no sensitive data is exposed.

The eFORMz API have four URL formats available. The choice of format should be the security, convenience and familiarity of the URL structure. 

1. Long form  

2. Service Configuration in the POST 

3. Service Configuration on the host. 

4. Shortcut 

Shortcut

The “Shortcut” form is the most secure URL format. The client application has no access to the underlying structure of the service or projects. The availability of services available to the endpoint is determined by the administrators of the server called.

The shortcuts are created using the standard eFORMz Translation Table format. The translation table is named WebServerURLTranslations.xml. The dictionary is named “redirect”. The “base” URLs must start with “aFORMz/” or “AppServer/”, which implicitly translate into “/servlet/com.minisoft.AppServer.aFORMzServer” and “/servlet/com.minisoft.AppServer.AppServer”.

The value in “redirect” is the parameters added. If the incoming URL has parameters, they will be added to the end. Only one string should be after “aFORMz/” or “AppServer/”, with no other slashes. Retrieving web files by servlet apps will break if you have more than 1 string.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<Translations>
  <Dictionary Name="redirect">
    <Entry Key="aFORMz/SSTest"><![CDATA[APP=projects/Transend+Work/SSTest_Transend.xml&AF-DEBUG]]></Entry>
  </Dictionary>
</Translations>

A sample WebServerURLTranslations.xml is available here: WebServerURLTranslations