Gliffy Opens Its API

San Francisco, CA, (PRWEB) July 30, 2009

Gliffy, maker of the world’s most popular browser-based diagramming and flowchart tool, today opened its application programming interface (API) to outside developers. By making its API publicly available, Gliffy takes advantage of a growing movement by companies across a wide range of industries who are unlocking their APIs to extend the reach of their applications and data.

The company said developers have already created two applications based on the Gliffy API: a plugin that allows bloggers on the WordPress platform to easily add diagrams and flowcharts to their posts, and a backup script that enables users to backup their Gliffy documents to local machines.

“We pioneered this market nearly four years ago,” said Chris Kohlhart, founder and CEO, Gliffy. “We’ve done it again by resetting the criteria needed to compete not only against our leading online platform, but against legacy, platform-restricted competitors like Visio and OmniGraffle.”

Gliffy’s API and language-specific client libraries (Java, PHP) make integration as easy as adding a few lines of code. The API also includes OAuth support for third party applications. The company has built a growing developer community, vibrant forums and a public issue tracker to provide developers with the tools they need to quickly add and support powerful diagramming and flowchart features into new products and services. Developers can go to http://www.gliffy.com/developer/ to learn about the API and request access to API keys.

Combined with a new user interface, the API release is the latest in a number of moves the company has made recently to extend its lead as the online alternative to traditional platform-dependent and costly drawing tools.

Gliffy was the first company to provide a low-cost, simple and collaborative flowchart and diagramming alternative to a market that, until Gliffy, had few competitive options. Gliffy’s cloud-based application makes information visible and easier to understand. Over the past two years, the company has amassed a passionate customer base that reflects a cross-section of users from academia, enterprise, software development, and business.

About Gliffy

Gliffy is the industry leader in online, shareable flowcharts and diagrams. Gliffy’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface combines the power of traditional desktop software with the lightweight, low learning curve and flexible features of today’s most popular browser-based applications. More than 750 companies and more than one million people use the company’s cloud-based software to communicate more effectively and at drastically lower costs than traditional CD-based programs, making it the world’s most popular online flowchart and diagramming tool. Gliffy’s customers include some of the biggest names in technology, banking, government and academia, including thousands of Confluence users at IBM, Bank of America, Mapquest, Merck and Ford.

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Gliffy Opens Its API