Integrate with HotDocs Cloud Services
At its core, HotDocs Cloud Services is a suite of web services and related web applications designed to allow your host application to leverage HotDocs' industry-leading document generation abilities without the need to install and maintain HotDocs software in your server room. Cloud Services is always running and always available. The web services and features exposed as part of Cloud Services fall into these categories:
Web Services APIs
Host applications integrate with Cloud Services using two primary API patterns: Direct and Embedded. The Direct API allows low-level, direct access to HotDocs functionality for things like generating browser-based interviews (for placement directly within your own web pages), assembling documents, requesting metadata about templates, etc.. It can be used to create full-featured and powerful integrations, but it requires you to understand a good deal about how browser interviews work and interact with your host application. The Direct API is accessible via either SOAP or REST web service calls.
The Embedded API simplifies the process of displaying interviews, managing assembly queues and assembling documents in a host application. The API works by "embedding" a HotDocs browser interview in an IFrame within your host application's web page; it allows you to get started quickly and add deeper integration as you go. The Embedded API is exposed via REST web services.
Both APIs can be used on their own, or in combination for added flexibility. For ASP.NET applications, both APIs are also wrapped in an easy-to-use client library (see below).
Browser Interview Integration
Regardless of the web services interface used on the server side to integrate your host application with Cloud Services, a great deal of customization is also possible involving the information-gathering interviews that run in the end user's web browser. The look and feel of these interviews can be customized to match your host application. A powerful JavaScript API is also available to enable diverse and powerful runtime integrations with HotDocs interviews. This can be used to customize the specific features available to your end users, to keep your web application apprised of the user's progress through an interview, to facilitate interruptions (where the user needs to leave an interview in progress and return later to resume), and even to retrieve and set individual data points within the interview or take other steps in response to user action as may be desirable for dynamic integrations.
Administrative Portal
When you subscribe to HotDocs Cloud Services, you will receive login information for the Cloud Services Administrative Portal. This web application gives you access to configuration options for the Direct and Embedded web services. You can also download usage logs summarizing your use of the service.
Cloud Services Client Library
HotDocs Cloud Services includes a .NET "client library" that facilitates easy consumption of the web services and features from host applications written in .NET-based languages (primarily C# and VB.NET). This documentation covers usage both using the client library and (to a lesser extent) directly. In circumstances where use of the .NET client library is not possible, we have attempted to document the information necessary to fully access all features of Cloud Services directly via HTTP. However, you may find some experimentation is necessary to get things working. The .NET client library's source code is also available, if needed, to help illuminate how Cloud Services works at a lower level.
The following pages and sections provide detail about how to access and take advantage of each of these APIs and features.