If you are a regular reader, you might have noticed that the second half of 2017 was filled with all kinds of API updates. But what are they for, how do they work, and why do we have them? Here is a much-needed guide to our APIs!

The Repository API

MANTA made this API to allow customers to have a metadata management solution that is tailored to fit their needs. It is often tricky to find a solution with the exact functions you are looking for. This can be solved by requesting a custom-made tool from a professional developer or a consultancy company, but these tools will always lack MANTA’s critical metadata-reading capabilities. Or, you can get MANTA’s API!

The Repository API works with metadata that have already been processed by MANTA. It allows customers to take the data from MANTA’s native repository (reusing all of MANTA’s capabilities, like filtering) and inject them into any piece of software.

For example, let’s say your company is interested in only one table or column and has a program for watching this particular data. It can have an employee check MANTA on a daily basis and report the changes – or it can connect MANTA to a reporting tool through the Repository API and let it scan the area automatically, saving the company hours of time and a fair amount of money.

The Service API

The Service API was created for partners that want to use MANTA’s SQL scanning capabilities together with their own solutions. MANTA can be connected to their software and help them understand the parts of logic written in SQL (SQL overrides, Informatica Powercenter, Cognos, etc.) in the system they are analyzing.

If the partner’s solution isn’t able to analyze some of the custom SQL code in the data warehouse being analyzed, it can lead to incomplete data lineage because those parts are just playing hide-and-go-seek with them.

By integrating with MANTA or connecting the Service API to their own connectors (i.e., ETL scanners, reporting platforms), partners can borrow MANTA’s super-power and use it whenever they need to! The opportunities with the Service API in large-scale projects are limitless.

The Summary?

MANTA can help you get end-to-end data lineage no matter what metadata management or data governance solution you have. We want partners and customers to be able to trust their own data and for that to be achievable for everyone. And we believe these APIs can do just that.

Need some Lineage yourself? manta@getmanta.com is the address. Shoot us an e-mail and we’ll set up a demo no matter what metadata management or data governance solution you have.