Elaine provides multiple integration interfaces for different operating models: RESTful APIs, the function-oriented HTTP API, the Form API, and SIEIS for secure file exchange. The best choice depends on latency, volume, interaction pattern, and operational ownership.
Interface decision matrix
| Interface | Best fit | Processing model | Volume and latency profile | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RESTful APIs | Modern system-to-system integration, transactional operations, and selected resource-oriented workflows | Synchronous request and response, with asynchronous processing where the operation requires it | Low-latency individual operations through high-throughput API workloads | The calling system needs immediate technical feedback and a modern integration contract. |
| HTTP API | Broad access to Elaine functions, existing integrations, single calls, and bundled function calls | Synchronous single or bulk requests; some functions use optimized bulk processing | Fine-grained real-time calls through larger bundled workloads | You need a specific Elaine function or want to reduce request overhead by bundling calls. |
| Form API | Registration, subscription, unsubscription, and other web-form submissions | Submission-oriented processing from a website into Elaine | Interactive web requests with immediate visitor flow | A website should submit form data to Elaine without implementing a broader data integration. |
| SIEIS | Large contact imports, campaign data, content data, and scheduled exports | Asynchronous file exchange over SFTP | Large batches and recurring high-volume exchange | Data can be bundled into files and throughput, restartability, and operational control matter more than per-record response time. |
Choose by workload
- One business event or message now: use a RESTful or HTTP-based transactional interface.
- Many similar operations in a short period: use supported API bulk processing or an asynchronous submission pattern.
- A visitor submits a web form: use the Form API when its submission model covers the required workflow.
- Hundreds of thousands or millions of records in a planned exchange: use SIEIS or a purpose-built high-throughput API flow.
- A source system emits business events without waiting for the complete downstream process: use event-based integration.
- An external campaign or backend platform should control complete engagement workflows: combine APIs, events, transactional messaging, and batch exchange in a headless operating model.
Scale from real time to large batches
Elaine integration patterns cover individual low-latency transactions as well as large batch operations. With the appropriate interface, payload design, concurrency, and contracted capacity, deployments can process up to millions of records or messages per hour.
Capacity note: Achievable latency and throughput depend on the selected operation, payload size, personalization and rendering complexity, concurrency, environment configuration, and agreed service capacity. Confirm performance targets during solution design and load testing.
Optional site-to-site VPN
Transport encryption is required independently of network topology. Where an additional private network boundary is needed, selected Elaine interfaces can optionally be connected through a persistent site-to-site VPN. VPN availability depends on the service and operating model; not every public-facing endpoint is routed through a VPN.