Introduction to the API

A programmer has several choices about how to programmatically solve problems with Lyris ListManager. One technology may be appropriate for one type of customization, where another technology may work better for a different customization. Here are some of the choices:

SOAP-Based API

ListManager allows administrators to access and manipulate the database tables using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). SOAP provides a way to communicate between applications running on different operating systems, with different technologies and programming languages. SOAP is a key element of Microsoft's .NET architecture for future Internet application development. SOAP provides a higher-level interface to database information so that no knowledge of database query protocols is required.

ListManager's API can be invoked from any language with SOAP support, including:

.NET

Perl

Java

Php

Tcl

Examples of ListManager's functions in different languages are available in your ListManager's soap directory:

http://yourlistmanagerurl/soap

More information about the SOAP-based API is available at http://www.lyris.com/lm_api/8.5.

For information on the Web based API, please see Utilities: Other: Programming API.

Mail Commands

Many powerful commands are available as email commands. Members can be subscribed, unsubscribed, and their setting altered through email commands. Data about the membership and other reports can all be requested via email. If your need can be filled with these simple commands you may want to create emails to ListManager rather than using one of the more complicated programming options.

Direct Database Access

All the tables in Lyris ListManager are accessible through the SQL language. Data may be inserted, deleted, or modified in these tables directly. For some tasks, such as member creation, it may be easiest to use the programming language and environment you are comfortable with to access the database server using SQL to insert members. However, if you are uncertain about the use of the data or the relationship of the data to program functionality it is probably best to avoid making any direct database modifications.

Lyris Command Protocol (LCP)

The LCP interface has been removed and is no longer available. Application programmers should use direct SQL, TclPort, or email commands.

TclPort

The TclPort interface allows Tcl scripts to be run on the ListManager server. This interface allows great flexibility since the script is dynamically interpreted at execution time. It is also quite fast, even though it is flexible, and allows Lyris developers to code performance-critical sections in C++ and efficiently call them from Tcl. The ListManager web interface communicates with the ListManager server entirely using TclPort, and every function that the web interface uses is available to application programmers.