Accela Civic Platform and Accela API

The Civic Platform allows clients such as mobile and web applications to access Civic Platform data and extend its solutions via Acclea Construct and the Accela API. Clients can directly call the Accela API via HTTP requests or use Accela SDK's to interact with the Accela API in their native environment.

On the Civic Platform, the Accela API authenticates user identity via CivicID using an OAuth2 process, which is used to generate API access tokens. The Civic Platform manages secure API traffic between the Accela API and the server through the Accela Gateway. The Gateway receives requests from Accela API calls and asynchronously sends the requests to the appropriate agency and Civic Platform instance, whether it is Accela-hosted or customer-hosted (on-premise). The Gateway sends Civic Platform data back to Accela API via HTTPS, and back to the client in an HTTP response body.

The following diagram illustrates the interactions and communication paths between clients and the Accela API and across the Civic Platform:

User portals enable citizens, developers, and administrators to manage their activities with the Civic Platform:

  • The CivicID portal gives citizens the ability to manage their CivicID account and view Automation data related to their account.
  • The Developer Portal allows civic app developers to register new apps and to administer existing apps that use the Accela API.
  • The Admin Portal is used for Construct administration and management of developers and agency apps registered on the Developer Portal.