Sona API documentation

The Application Programming Interface (API) for the Experiment Management System is a tool for advanced users to communicate directly with the system via a program or script they have written. Typically, this would be used to query specific information from the database for processing outside the system, or to do batch processing of updates.

The benefit of the API is that this can be done without human interaction. Without the API, the process of getting data from the system would involve logging into the system and going to the relevant page, downloading the data in CSV format, and parsing that. The login process is difficult to automate, so this approach does not work well for repetitive or scheduled tasks.

With the API, you can write your own script to connect directly to the system and query this information. One usage scenario would be if you want to display on a monitor in the main offices a list of all studies running that day. Using the API, you can write a program to query this information and then send it for display on the monitor. Another scenario would be if you want to have a daily or weekly batch process to query timeslot usage and update usage limits based on that information.

Intended Audience¶

It is important to understand that the API is intended for advanced users only, and requires a certain amount of programming knowledge. If terms like XML, SOAP, and HTTP are unfamiliar to you, then the API is not for you. If the API is too complicated, your best option would be to ask your IT department to write the code for you. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide any training in technical concepts.

About This Documentation¶

This documentation covers the Application Programming Interface (API) for the Experiment Management System. API features will be released outside of the normal version schedule for our main software, so this document will be updated on a routine basis as new API functions are added.

Obtaining Technical Support¶

We can provide technical support to advise on the best API functions to use to solve your problem, and also to troubleshoot a problem in the API itself. We are not equipped to debug your code or solve programming problems.

Release Schedule¶

As releasing new API features does not change the end-user interface or functionality, then we plan to release new API features on a more frequent basis. Because of this, the API will not have a version number. This documentation will be updated on a regular basis to reflect any updates in the API.

Improvements and Suggestions¶

Because adding new features to the API does not impact the end-user interface, we are very open to adding new features to the API, especially if they provide a generic function that all customers can benefit from. Please feel free to contact us with any suggestions or questions.