Using the API (Application Programming Interface), Expert Estimation has the capability to run customised queries and extract various forms of statistical information from multiple projects at once.
Note: The API is designed for an external application to access data from the database. It is not intended as a way to externally modify the Expert Estimation data.
Enabling the API
By default, the API service is disabled and must be enabled through the Expert Estimation Server’s configuration file. This requires the service to be stopped.
Note: Before stopping the Expert Estimation Server, please ensure there are no users currently connected to the server performing work.
- Open the Local Services window of the machine that has the Server component of Expert Estimation installed. To open the Local Services window, open the Run command (Windows key + R) and type services.msc, then click OK.
- In the Services list find the service listed as “Expert Estimation Server”, right-click and select Stop.
- Open a text editor, such as Notepad, ensuring you use the Run as administrator option.
- Browse to C:\ProgramData\Pronamics\Expert Estimation\Server\<Server Version Directory>
Alternatively, it is possible to use %EESERVER% in the address bar, to quickly browse to the Server folder.
Note: Substitute <ServerName> with the version of the Expert Estimation Server currently installed. For example, if the Server installed is version 1.1.7445.0, the correct path would be “C:\ProgramData\Pronamics\Expert Estimation\Server\Server.1.1.7445.0”.
- Find and open the file, Pronamics.ExpertEstimation.Server.exe.config.
- Find the key named Nancy.APIEnabled in the config file.
- Change the value from “false” to “true”. As below:
- Save and close the text editor.
- In the Local Services window from Step 1, find the service listed as “Expert Estimation Server”, right-click and select Start.
The Expert Estimation Server API will now be enabled and can be accessed via the API Documentation portal or third party tools.
The system variable %EESERVER% will only function when Expert Estimation was installed from the Pronamics Product Selector.
Accessing the API
The Expert Estimation API documentation portal can now be accessed through a web browser such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. To access the Expert Estimation API Documentation:
- Open the web browser of your choice.
- When the browser opens, navigate to http://<ServerName>:1234/SwaggerUI/.
Note: Substitute <ServerName> for the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) or IP Address of the server or computer upon which the Expert Estimation Server is installed.
If you are accessing the server locally, this would be http://localhost:1234/SwaggerUI however if you are accessing a remote server with the Domain Name “GenesisServer” then you would enter http://GenesisServer:1234/SwaggerUI
This will bring you to the Expert Estimation API Documentation portal where the available parameters are outlined and queries can be run.
Using the API
The Expert Estimation API Documentation landing page allows for queries to be run through the API to the server database. To gather information from a particular project the Project ID will need to be referenced. This ID can be obtained by:
- Expanding the Project section, by selecting the drop-down arrow on the right-hand side of the collapsed section.
- Select the GET button from the /projects field. This will list the available parameters that can be set.
- Click the Try it out button to enable editing of the parameter fields.
- In the relevant fields, enter in project information that you wish to gather. Each field has a description of the information the filter can use. Multiple filters can be used simultaneously.
- Once the project information has been entered, select the format for the information to be returned by clicking on the Response content type field and selecting the format. The API will return the query in either XML or JSON format.
- When the format of the information to be returned has been set, select the Execute button.
- The corresponding results from the API will be displayed under the Responses section structured in the selected format, as seen in the above image.
When a response is returned, the API Documentation creates a web endpoint URL, under the Curl subsection. This URL can be referenced by an external application to collect the results generated and present them in a structure defined by the external application.