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      DevCQ: Component Search API

      Overview:

      What is it?

      The CQ component search API allows 3rd party software applications to search for a component from many suppliers through a single API interface. It uses the API credentials of the customer to get account specific pricing.

      A customer can use the component search API without using QuoteCQ (except the configuration page where they enter the supplier API details and generate their own API credentials).

      Target Customer

      A good customer will have technical capabilities to build API integrations or a budget to hire a development team to build it on their behalf. There should be a good business use case for how the API will be used.

      ex: "I wish I could see all the supplier stock and pricing right in my ERP view"

      Pricing

      We have the ability to sell this without selling QuoteCQ. A customer can sign up for Tier 1 of the component search API, paying $300/month, without a QuoteCQ subscription. There are no onboarding fees and no log term contracts.

      QuoteCQ customers can get the component search API for free as part of the Enterprise Tier Open API feature.

      We can also sell this as an add-on to a lower subscription.

      The Value

      1. CQ Handles the authentication to each of the API's

      A software developer that wants to work with 10 suppliers would have to follow each of their own authentication protocols

      API equivalent of having to remember each account's login page, username and password vs. having a master password for all accounts

       

      2. CQ handles the rate limits and other technical controls around querying various suppliers' data

      Each supplier has their own rate limits and methods of searching components.

      CQ's component Search API makes this "automagical" for the developer. They send over as many parts in whatever quantity and we take care of managing the rate limits, calls, etc.

      3. CQ formats the data into a standardized way so that you can consume it more easily

      Each supplier provides the search results in their own format and calls fields whatever they decide.

      CQ's component search API consolidates the nomenclature from each of the suppliers into a standard structure regardless of the supplier.

      How is it Different?

      Alternatives are Octopart, Sourcengine, TrustedParts, SiliconExpert, IHS Markit, FindChips (not sure if they sell this)

      Negatives:

      • CalcuQuote's component search API comes in at a slightly higher starting price than competitors

      • We take a bit longer to respond to an API Query (seconds instead of milliseconds)

      • Some (Octopart) competitor's have more technical part data in their API's

      • Some (siliconExpert, IHS) have technical data and component risk data (life cycle status, rohs, reach, global inventory, etc)

      Positives:

      • We are the ONLY ones that offer customer specific / contract pricing in our API's

      • We are the ONLY ones that can claim that our data is directly from the latest point of time that the supplier provides. We don't cache anything and we go to the supplier's data source each time you query the data

      How it Works:

      Part 1: Authentication

      Step 1:

      Configuration (generally this would only be done once) = equivalent of creating a user account.

      You'd log into QuoteCQ and create a Client ID (which is like the user name), Client Secret (kind of like the password), Authorization Token (links the Client ID to human user)

      Step 2:

      Using the authorization token, you'd be able to create an Access and Refresh Token. The access token is your actual way of using the API. The access token expires after a certain time (60 Minutes).

      The refresh token brings you a fresh access token each time the access token expires. The refresh token takes longer to expire (maybe a month).

      Another way of thinking of this:

      The access token is like logging into the application. The access token expires the same way your bank account will ask "Do you want to stay logged in?" And if you click yes within X time (refresh token) then it will keep you logged in. If you don't click yes you'll have to put in your username and password again (go back to step 1).

      Part 2: Search

      Initiate Pricing API: using this API, the client application would send information to CalcuQuote (part numbers, quantities, reference data such as internal part number, which suppliers to query, etc.). The customer can send 1 or many part numbers in a single call

      CalcuQuote would accept this data from the client application and upon accepting it would give the client application a token. Think of this as similar to if you go to a butcher/baker/restaurant. You go in and they take your order and give you a number while they begin preparing your food. You show them your number and they give you your food.

      Get Saved Pricing API: using this API, the client sends the token form the previous API call and CalcuQuote returns all of the component search data to them that they have found so far. If they are done, the process is over.

      In some cases, during the initiate pricing API step, the client might have sent MANY part numbers. In those cases, the client application would keep coming back and picking up what data was made available in the meantime.

      If you call the Get Saved Pricing API prior to it being 100% complete, you'll need to save the results to your database as the results will not pull a 2nd time when making the GetSavedPricing for the same request id. The reason for this is to allow you to make multiple GetSavedPricing calls for different request ids without waiting for each call to reach 100% completion.