Tridion 2013 SP1 comes with an added bonus for anyone looking to integrate another system with Audience Manager: a new web service which allows you to import and export Contacts and Keywords through the uploading and downloading of CSV files.
It essentially functions the same as importing and exporting through the API or Content Manager Explorer, except through a WCF web service which can be called from another machine and from code written in languages other than .NET (such as Java).Â
We have also added an additional filtering option for Contacts (ModifiedSince), which allows you to only get Contacts that have been modified since a given date and time. The idea being that you can limit the export to just the Contacts that have changed since the last time you did an export. In this way, synchronization with another system – such as a specialized CRM system – should be even easier than before. This filtering option is not limited to exporting, though: you can use it whenever you get a list of Contacts.
By default, the web service is installed into the Tridion webservices folder (and thus the /webservices virtual directory in IIS) and uses a basicHttp binding with Windows authentication. However, you are free to change the bindings and the transport/authentication mechanisms to suit your situation. For example, you could use netTcp or wsHttp bindings, basic authentication and SSL.Â
In its first version, the web service exposes only methods related to import/export of Contacts and Keywords – but we will be looking to expand the available functionality to cover more of the API in the future.
Good stuff – I have been waiting for an oData webservice for AM on the front end – is this in the pipeline (or is it there already and I missed it)?
It’s not there yet, but I agree it would make a good addition. So I’ve just added an enhancement request for it and we’ll consider it for a future version.