This documentation is for 3.5.x versions of the Cocoon Data Platform.

Please refer to our important notice for information that relates to this documentation.

Overview of the Cocoon Data Platform and its API

Cocoon Data provides a complete solution and platform for securely protecting and sharing encrypted files and folders which can be stored and accessed anywhere (within an organisation, outside the domain and from mobile devices).

Cocoon Data's technologies provide this solution through the Cocoon Data Platform (upon which SafeShare is built), whose Access Service centrally manages cryptographic keys (used to encrypt/decrypt content) and access controls (which define who can access/decrypt content and when).

The Cocoon Data Platform also consists of a separate Content Service, which handles the upload/download of encrypted content to and from an S3-compatible storage provider, as well as server-side cryptography in situations where a zero-footprint (e.g. web browser-based) solution is required for sharing content.

This separation between the roles of the Cocoon Data Platform's Access and Content Services helps ensure that encrypted content is only able to be decrypted by the people it's intended for.

Users of Cocoon Data technologies can share their secured content with others through Cocoon Data's SafeShare applications. However, the Cocoon Data Platform also provides an Application Programming Interface (API) ^* to provide integrators with the ability to develop their own applications or solutions that leverage Cocoon Data's powerful data-centric security features.

The Developer's Guide provides integrators with instructions on how to get set up and begin using the Cocoon Data Platform's API.

The API Reference Guide, which integrates with the Developer's Guide, describes each API endpoint exposed through the Cocoon Data Platform and the various user roles and conditions that each endpoint supports.

^* Notes:

The the Cocoon Data Platform's API (also known as the Cocoon Data API):

provides a range of endpoints, each of which is analogous to one or more object methods (in object-oriented programming), offering programmers the means to develop applications that interact with the Cocoon Data Platform
and

is accessed through a secured Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) connection.

For more information about administering the Cocoon Data Platform (which can also be performed through the Cocoon Data API), see the SafeShare Administrator's Guide.