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Integrate with Turnitin

Architecture

The TCA service is hosted on an Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. The infrastructure is spread globally across multiple databases. The European database is located in Frankfurt, German, the US database is located in California, and the Asia Pacific database is located in Sydney, Australia. Each ‘Tenant’ (Institution or Partner) will be hosted within the database closest to its proximity. 

The infrastructure is Multi-Tenant and each Tenant has it's own API URL. For example,

  • https://institutionA.turnitin.com/api
  • https://institutionB.turnitin.com/api

Submitted documents stay within the AWS region they were first submitted to and are private to the Tenant that submitted them.

API Differences

TCA is a RESTful API that uses JSON notation.  It facilitates the ability to submit a file, generate and view a report via the following API steps:

  1. Create a submission, (pass meta-data) to obtain a Submission ID
  2. Upload a file to the submission
  3. Wait for submission processing to complete (using webhooks)
  4. Request a Similarity Report
  5. Wait for similarity report processing to complete (using webhooks)
  6. Request Report Viewer URL to display Similarity Report

TCA provides more granular control over the Ephorus API in that it separates submission of the file from report generation. 

Functionality Differences

Viewing a Report

The Ephorus API returns an XML payload of the Similarity Report and provides an XSLT transform file to convert the XML to HTML for display in a browser window.

The TCA does not return a JSON payload of the report. You must request a 'Viewer Launch URL' and then open a new browser tab/window to display the report in the Turnitin Cloud Viewer. The Cloud Viewer provides the ability to download the report as a PDF if required. The viewer URL returned from the API is valid for 60 seconds and has a session timeout of one hour

Repository Options

Ephorus searches against your own submissions, the Internet, and any Consortia you are part of. The TCA has the same functionality but can also facilitate searching against a comprehensive Publications database and the Turnitin Global Student Paper database. This extra option is controlled through licensing.