Looking to expand your OnBase functionality using the API? Let’s get into the options you have regarding special API licensing considerations.
Overview of API Licensing
Overview of API Licensing
Licensing is going to differ depending on what context you want to use the API in. For example:
- There is the automation context in which the API runs inside of an existing OnBase session.
- And there is the integration context in which an external application generates an OnBase session through the API.
Let’s explore these contexts further:
Automation
Automation is accessible only via the Unity API, whereas integration is available through both the Unity and REST APIs. The licensing that you will need may vary depending on this.
You may currently be using Hyland’s simplified licensing scheme, a relatively new licensing model in which several different product licenses are all bundled together. There are three different levels or tiers of these bundles with each successive tier including all of the products that are included in the tier below it. All of the APIs are included in both the standard and premier tiers.
On the other hand, if you are not using the simplified licensing scheme and are still on the old style product licenses where every product is licensed individually, then there are different requirements for licensing.
The automation context has its own license, being the Unity automation API. In this case, you only require that product license in order to use Unity scripts within an existing client session.
Integration
The integration context, depending on which API you use, will have a couple of different licenses. You’ll need either the Unity integration toolkit license or the REST API integration toolkit license, depending on which API you are using. In this context, you call in from an external application and generate an OnBase session. So, this type will also require a client license to be consumed.
The same concurrent client and named user client licensing that are used by the clients are also available to the API. Now, the question of which of these will be appropriate for your situation will depend on the use case in question.
Concurrent client licenses are held for a minimum of five minutes once consumed. So, this license type does not lend itself well to situations where you would repeatedly connect and disconnect short sessions.
The named user client is released immediately upon disconnect, but it is restricted to two concurrent sessions. So, this license type does not lend itself well to a parallel processing situation.
Unique to the integrations is another type of licensing, and that’s query meter. This is intended for use where you don’t know how many users are going to be connecting. So instead of being tied to a user, this works under a set number of queries per hour. And once one of those available queries is consumed, it is freed up again for reuse after an hour has passed. Using this license type, there are a couple of options being the Core Query API, which is sold in blocks of five hundred queries per hour. So, you would need to have an idea of how many queries you actually expect to make in an hour and purchase enough blocks to cover that amount.
Another option is Enterprise Core API licensing, which is essentially unlimited queries per hour.
And there we have it, that covers licensing at a high level. The API is a very powerful tool that you could use to expand OnBase functionality provided you have somebody with the skills to take advantage of it.
Hyland does make additional documentation available online at sdk.onbase.com to anybody who has a community account. If you have any additional questions, it’s worth checking out.

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