ACI Servers
Many IDOL components are ACI servers, which use a common Web API framework that allows you to send HTTP requests (known as actions), and return XML responses.
You can use the OpenText IDOL SDKs to allow you to develop custom applications with the ACI APIs.
Actions
When you communicate with ACI servers, there are two main types of action:
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ACI actions. ACI actions request information or perform operations on your data and return results. Different IDOL components accept different ACI actions. For example, the
Query
action requests results from the IDOL Content component, while theUserRead
action requests user information from the IDOL Community component.By default, ACI actions return a response in XML, but you can optionally output in JSON or a plaintext format.
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Service actions. Service actions request information or perform an action on the ACI server itself. For example, you can use service actions to get the status of the server (running or stopped), return information about the configuration, and stop the server.
Some service actions return a plain text response (such as the Stop action), but many return XML responses.
For indexer components (Content and DIH), there is an additional type of action:
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Index actions. Index actions maintain the IDOL data index. You use them to index data, delete data, and maintain your index.
Each different type of action uses a different port. For example, most ACI servers have an ACI port and a service port, and some also have an index port.
ACI API
The ACI API is the common API framework for all ACI servers. OpenText provides IDOL SDKs in C, Java, and .NET to allow you to create your own applications that use IDOL components and functionality. For more information, refer to the ACI API Programming Guide.
Licenses
You can license ACI servers by using a License Server, or you can use OEM licensing.
In standard Enterprise licensing, you have a central License Server, which must be on a server with a fixed MAC address. The License Server manages and distributes licenses to all your components.
In OEM licensing, the component has a local license, which has encryption requirements to ensure that only your application can use the components. For more information, refer to the IDOL OEM Licensing Technical Note.
The method you use depends on the your licensing model, which in turn depends on how you use IDOL. If you install IDOL components directly, you use a License Server. If you embed IDOL in your product, you use an OEM license.