Named Entity Recognition 25.4
Named Entity Recognition User and Programming Guide

# Standalone API Usage

The Named Entity Recognition Software Development Kit (SDK) C API allows C developers to interact directly with the Named Entity Recognition engine.

The recommended way to create an engine is by using an engine factory. Your application's first call to the Named Entity Recognition API should be to create a factory with `EdkFactoryCreateWithLicenseKey`, which requires you to supply a valid license key.

There are several ways of creating an engine. You can create an empty engine, by calling `EdkFactoryMakeEngine`. Alternatively you can create a pre-configured engine, by calling `EdkFactoryMakeEngineFromConfigFile` (to use a configuration file on disk) or `EdkFactoryMakeEngineFromConfigBuffer` (to use a configuration that exists in memory).

If you create an engine from a configuration file, no further configuration is necessary, because it will reflect the settings given in that file. Otherwise, you should configure the engine to set its matching behavior. One or more grammar files must be loaded into the engine. At least one entity exposed by the loaded grammars must be specified, to tell the engine what patterns to search for in the input text.

When no more engines are required, the factory can be disposed of using `EdkFactoryDestroy`. This releases the memory used internally by the factory. Engines remain valid even after the factory that created them has been destroyed.

The input data is processed in a Named Entity Recognition session. Multiple sessions can be created for a Named Entity Recognition engine. All sessions associated with an engine process data using the configuration for that engine, including the selected grammars and entities. You cannot change the engine settings after creating a session. Each session maintains its own state, so the sessions can be run concurrently in a multi-threaded application.

Once created, a session can process multiple documents. Data must be UTF-8 encoded. It can either be pulled (streamed) or pushed (added). A function is called to get the next available match. This can be called repeatedly to cycle through all the matches. The text and properties associated with each match can be retrieved using accessor function calls.

A session can continue for as long as necessary. It must, however, be destroyed before the engine it is associated with is destroyed. The call to destroy the engine should be your application's last call to the Named Entity Recognition API.

This section describes the basic structure of a stand-alone application using the API. For an example of this process, see the source code in the example files (see Example Programs).

Typically, your application takes the following actions:

1. Include `edk.h`.

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       #include "edk.h"

2. Create an engine factory.

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       // Embed the license key into the application
       const char *licensekey = "...";
       EdkFactoryHandle factory = NULL;
       EdkError error = EdkFactoryCreateWithLicenseKey(&factory, licensekey);

       // Check the return value of any API call for success or error
       if (EdkSuccess != error)
       {
           printf("Error while creating: %d.\n", error);
           return -1;
       }

3. Instantiate the engine and obtain an engine handle. You can call `EdkFactoryMakeEngineFromConfigFile` to create an engine from an appropriate configuration file.

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       EdkEngineHandle engine = NULL;
       error = EdkFactoryMakeEngineFromConfigFile(factory, &engine, "engine.cfg");

   Alternatively, you can create the engine without a configuration, by calling `EdkFactoryMakeEngine`. In this case, you must configure the engine. For example:

   - load the grammar files to use for matching (by calling `EdkLoadResourceFile` one or more times).
   - choose the entities to use for matching (by calling `EdkAddTargetEntity`).
   - set optional parameters.
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       // Create engine without configuration
       EdkEngineHandle engine = NULL;
       error = EdkFactoryMakeEngine(factory, &engine);

       // Load grammar file
       error = EdkLoadResourceFile(engine, "test.ecr");

       // Choose entities to use
       error = EdkAddTargetEntity(engine, "myentity");

       // Set optional parameters
       error = EdkSetTokenWithPunctuation(engine, true);
       error = EdkSetMaxMatchLength(engine, 12);

4. Create a session associated with the engine, and obtain a session handle. You can create and run concurrent sessions in a multi-threaded application. Each session uses the same grammars, but maintains its own state.

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       EdkSessionHandle session = NULL;
       error = EdkSessionCreate(engine, &session);

5. Send UTF-8 encoded text to the session.

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       struct stat infoText;
       stat("test.txt", &infoText);
       off_t lenText = infoText.st_size;
       FILE* fText = fopen("test.txt", "rb");
       char* buffer = (char*)malloc(lenText+1);
       size_t sizeText = fread(buffer, 1, lenText, fText);
       error = EdkAddInputText(session, buffer, sizeText, true);

6. Call `EdkGetNextMatch` to obtain an entity match. You can call this method repeatedly to obtain all matches.

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       while(EdkSuccess == EdkGetNextMatch(session))
       {
           // For each match found, do this ...
           const char* szMatch = NULL;
           EdkGetMatchText(session, &szMatch);
           printf("Match found: %s\n", szMatch);
       }

   NOTE: If you create your engine from a configuration file that includes post-processing tasks, the post-processing tasks automatically run as part of `EdkGetNextMatch` and you do not need to run them separately.

7. To process multiple documents, repeat Step 4 to Step 6.

8. Release resources when done. You must destroy all session handles before you destroy the engine handle.

Copyright 2013-2025 Open Text
Version 25.4 | Last updated October 2025

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Product: Knowledge Discovery Named Entity Recognition 25.4

Topic Title: Standalone API Usage