Protocol
The Praxeon API follows the ReST pattern. Requests are made by sending HTTP requests (mostly GET and POST) to well-defined URLs. By default, responses are returned as XML. JSON output can be requested by appending .json to the end of the URL path. The Search API supports the OpenSearch protocol, with search results in XML, JSON, or Atom format.
Each successful invocation returns a top-level Response element ('response' in JSON). If an error is encountered, the top-level element is Error ('error'), which contains an error code and a description of the error. Requests which do not correctly follow the API specification will return an HTTP 404 (not found) error.
Each method is of one of two types : entity-based or collection-based. In entity-based methods, the last part of the URI before the query parameters will be an identifier or identifiers. Methods that operate on a resource can usually accept multiple identifiers. The identifiers should be joined with a comma separator. If there are commas in the identifiers themselves, they should be encoded as %2C.
Best Practices
Usage Guides
API Functions
API Data Types
Content Connectors
The Praxeon API has built-in content connectors to the following:
PubMed, updated nightly
ClinicalTrials.gov, updated nightly
FDA DailyMed drug database
- The Merck Manual and The Merck Manual - Home Edition
New content sources can be incorporated by:
- Developing a custom connector
- Adapting the content to the Atom format