e-Builder offers a way to seamlessly extract raw data from the system through the use of an oData API (Application Programming Interface). Although exports are available in different areas of e-Builder Enterprise, the API allows you to garner more information with less navigation, and data remains accessible in real time. This data is often necessary to create custom reports, reconcile financial data in incumbent systems, and essentially can be used in an infinite number of ways to meet your business needs. As data is being extracted from e-Builder Enterprise, permission settings are honored with every API call to ensure team members are only accessing information they have access rights to.
Why Use the API
The API can be used to integrate data that resides in e-Builder with other software and databases to create customized solutions. For example:
- Produce executive dashboards with combined data from e-Builder and other internal systems
- Reconcile data in your financial systems with the data in e-Builder
- Leverage e-Builder data to make a case for custom solutions
- Create custom reports with combined e-Builder data
Understanding oData API
e-Builder's integrated web service APIs ensure seamless integration with other systems and facilitate real-time data exchanges. Our API is based on the Open Data Protocol (oData); an open protocol for sharing data and is also an industry-standard XML data exchange format. oData is a REST (Representational State Transfer) protocol; therefore a simple web browser can view the data exposed through an oData service.
Our API is an interface into e-Builder that allows other applications to make programmatic requests and access the objects and data without using the e-Builder user interface. This gives you the ability to connect or integrate multiple data sets and processes together to create a more customized solution. The flowchart below describes this exchange. oData supports an array of frameworks, applications and plug-ins that allow you to make API calls from e-Builder Enterprise. These third-party tools are referred to by oData as Consumers. To obtain a full list of supported consumers, please visit http://www.odata.org/ecosystem/- Consumers tab.
