Envisio open REST API

Envisio's open API infrastructure allows you to seamlessly connect Envisio with any other system offering an API, to take your planning and performance to the next level. 

Our current documentation listing all available REST API calls can always be found here: https://api.app.envisio.com/api-docs/index.html. 

The list above will always be the most current resource of available calls. If you have need for a call that is not currently available, please submit a support case to let us know. 

If you have an example use case that you'd like to try out or if you'd like to discuss integrating your Envisio instance with another system, please submit a support case and one of our integration specialists will be in touch!

How does it work?

Think of the last time you enjoyed a meal in a restaurant. 

You - the customer - review a menu of available dishes and place your order with a waiter. The waiter then takes your order to the kitchen, where the meal you requested is prepared. Once ready, the waiter collects the meal from the kitchen and returns it to you at your table, where you consume it. 

This is a popular analogy for API functionality.

• The customer is the originating developer or piece of code making the request to an application.
• The kitchen is the application or platform that will receive the request and do something with it.
• The menu is the list of available API calls that the receiving platform can handle.
• The waiter is the API call, transferring the requests and data back and forth.

Image from: https://www.manutan.com/blog/en/glossary/api-definition-and-application-in-procurement

What is needed?

In order to configure an API connection between two systems, you will need:

• An IT or technical resource capable of writing API calls (code) to trigger requests to Envisio and who is familiar with your data systems and infrastructure
• Your open API key from Envisio (provided by support, please submit a case and we'll send it over)
• The menu of available API calls: https://api.app.envisio.com/api-docs/index.html
• Envisio + another system you want to connect it to: 
  • If pulling data from Envisio into another platform, you'll need a system capable of receiving data via API calls. Most modern platforms today can do this, but please confirm with your IT or technical resource to be sure.
  • If passing data from another system into Envisio Analytics, you'll need to create a receiving data source with API integration enabled and have your data in an aggregated format

How might I use it?

The most common use case at this time is to use the Envisio API to push data from other systems into Envisio data sources, allowing you to create visualizations of said data and link the visualizations to plan elements. This streamlines and automates the process of ongoing manual data entry into Envisio data sources, meaning you can rest easy knowing your data is flowing between systems and automatically updating without any human error from copy/pasting values. 

For example, if you have a system or data warehouse that holds all of your emergency response data, you could create an API call to record updated numbers each month in an Envisio data source. This way, at the end of each month your API can do all the work to query the originating system, capture the appropriate data, and append it to an Envisio data source. Envisio will then automatically update the corresponding visual, and as long as that visual is linked to a plan element or displayed on a dashboard, the public now has fresh data to review, and no one had to do any extra work - the computers have done it all!

Another example is exporting data from Envisio Plans. For example, you may wish to maintain a list of active Envisio plans on your internal wiki or intranet site, or a list of current actions being worked on. Your technical resource could write an API call to "GET" a list of these elements from Envisio, and then use the collected data to display internally on another system.

If you have data you'd be interested in integrating between Envisio and your existing (or future!) systems, please submit a support case and we'll have one of our integration specialists reach out!