Intelligent housing repair software made simple.

Relax – your Keyfax Integration is secure with a RESTful API

At Omfax Systems, we are committed to delivering diagnostic software to help housing associations, managed accommodation providers and councils. Our software helps them to resolve repair or tenancy-related enquires faster and more accurately. First time, every time.

Our diagnostics suite, Keyfax, has offered a powerful set of SOAP based services for many years. The SOAP API helped developers to integrate Keyfax intelligent scripting into their tenant portals and housing management systems (HMS).

Today, we are excited to share the next evolution of this API. With the release of Keyfax 4.3.3 we are delighted to introduce the beta release of the new Keyfax REST based Web API.

Using the new Keyfax REST API, integrators can easily launch a Keyfax session from any web or native application. Once launched, Keyfax will guide tenants, or call centre advisors, through a simple repair or enquiry diagnostics process. Once diagnosis is completed, Keyfax hands back to the host HMS or portal.  The host then queries Keyfax to obtain the diagnosis and, optionally, perform additional analysis or processing.

The new Keyfax REST API will open up a world of possibilities for our integration partners. It makes it easier than ever to build modern integrations that connect Keyfax to the applications our customers use.

We look forward to working with our integration partners and seeing what they build.

The Keyfax REST API – Developer friendly

The Keyfax REST API is a new set of secure, stateless HTTP services that adhere to widely accepted OpenAPI 2.0 standards. It follows REST based conventions and general Web API best practices.

All operations performed via the Keyfax REST based Web API use regular GET, POST, PATCH and DELETE verbs. Request and response bodies are represented as either JSON or XML, depending on preference. All responses use standard HTTP status codes to indicate the result of the request. For developers, the new Keyfax REST based Web API also includes a new Swagger UI explorer, when running Keyfax locally. This allows developers to quickly learn, explore and experiment, with the various Keyfax REST API end points.

To complement the new REST API, Keyfax now also introduces two new software development kits, or SDK’s. These SDK’s make it easy to use the Keyfax REST API. Additionally, they help developers integrate Keyfax quickly and easily, with minimal code. The REST API SDK’s provide a higher-level abstraction around the API, abstracting away common concerns, such as verifying requests. Keyfax includes both a .NET and JavaScript SDK, ideal for both native and web-based integrations.

The typical server side flow for using the Keyfax REST API is shown here:

Solid foundations

The current public beta of the Keyfax REST API unlocks an initial set of capabilities, setting the foundation for future additions. Teams at various integration partners are already exploring the new API. Following their investigations and testing, they will build integrations to the newest versions of their HMS offerings, several of which appear to be cloud-based.

During this initial public beta phase, we will be working closely with our integration partners. We all want to ensure that the new Keyfax REST API is fit-for-purpose and optimised for simplicity.

The ‘cherry on top’ for the new Keyfax REST based Web API, is the additional built-in security. Server-side requests are now verified by signing the request using a private key. For client-side requests, Keyfax can now also issue an ephemeral JSON Web Token or JWT, to verify the integrity of requests. Whilst we have introduced additional verification capabilities, TLS should continue to be used to encrypt communication with the API.

Always evolving

We believe the ease of Keyfax integration into existing workflows used by councils and housing associations is critical and has obvious benefits:

• For call centre advisors this can greatly ease adoption and reduce training costs.
• For tenants this provides seamless support between Keyfax and tenant portals.

By our continued development of the Keyfax REST API, our integration partners now have more options than ever to simply integrate Keyfax. So now, any modern tools or services can be integrated with Keyfax; from Housing Management Systems to CRM systems.

Learn more

For a detailed Getting Started guide, code examples and technical information, please consult the Keyfax REST API documentation…

The Keyfax 1.0 Web API – A Host Integration Guide

Using the Keyfax Web API .NET & JavaScript SDKs

Need assistance?

Is your organisation adopting digital to transform inbound tenant support? If so, we would love to hear from you, and share our decades of expertise. If you’d like to speak to one of our experts to learn how Keyfax can help transform your tenant support strategy, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.