About the Actuate Information Delivery API
The Actuate Information Delivery API (IDAPI) is a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message schema that supports integrating and administering BIRT iHub using Extensible Markup Language (XML). Using the Actuate Information Delivery API, developers create applications that perform such tasks as uploading and downloading files, generating a document and scheduling document generation, sending an e-mail notification when a job completes, and accessing external libraries.
SOAP is the underlying layer that provides a messaging framework for web services. The IDAPI schema defines the message elements for a well‑formed request to BIRT iHub and the format of the response.
The Actuate Information Delivery API has the following features:
*Platform- and language-independent access to Actuate web services
Using SOAP messaging, Actuate’s web services integrate into applications developed in Java, Visual Basic, C++, C#, and other programming languages. The SOAP serialization and deserialization framework translates XML messages to the language of the calling application.
Deployment of these applications can be across multiple platforms, including UNIX, Windows, or Linux, and integrate with web technologies such as J2EE and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
*Comprehensive volume administration
The volume is the central repository for the design files, folders, and other items that BIRT iHub stores and manages. The Actuate Information Delivery API, can manage the items in a volume from a single machine, and can send success or failure notices for immediate and scheduled jobs using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), or UNIX sendmail. The notifications can include an attachment or embedded file.
*Open infrastructure
The Actuate Information Delivery API supports BIRT iHub’s open-server infrastructure. This infrastructure generates, distributes, and manages Actuate and third-party designs and integrates the designs into a volume. The API also automates extracting parameters from a third-party executable file when integrating the file into a volume.
*Localization support
By setting the Locale parameter in the header of a SOAP request, localization generates data in a language other than the BIRT iHub default language. The data display uses the currency format, date format, and other conventions for specific locales.