ctakes web rest

The ctakes-web-rest module builds a standalone product, Apache cTaKES Web REST.

ctakes-web-rest is not compiled or built when the main Apache cTAKES code is built with maven.
ctakes-web-rest is not contained within the main Apache cTAKES binary distributable zipped files.

You must build the Apache cTAKES Web REST product alone. Doing so will create its own self-contained Web Application Resource (aka Web ARchive) (WAR) file.
The WAR file contains a large segment of the main Apache cTAKES binary distributable.

If you are running maven by the command line then you must run in the ctakes-web-rest directory or direct maven to the ctakes-web-rest pom.
If you are running maven in an IDE, then you must add ctakes-web-rest as its own maven project and execute maven commands on that project.
Building the main ctakes project will not build ctakes-web-rest.

This configuration exists because:

• building ctakes-web-rest with the main ctakes maven project adds to the build time.
• building ctakes-web-rest with the main ctakes maven project adds to the disk footprint of the build. i.e. it has its own huge target/ directory.
• including ctakes-web-rest in the main Apache cTAKES binary distributable essentially puts two copies of cTAKES in the distributable.
• building ctakes-web-rest with the main ctakes maven project will NOT put any changed code or resources in the war. Unless you mvn install. Making ctakes-web-rest a separate build reinforces the separation.

This module performs natural language processing of input payload using REST API endpoint and extracts out clicnical information in JSON format.

Installation

1. Build this ctakes-web-rest module.
2. Modify src\main\resources\org\apache\ctakes\dictionary\lookup\fast\customDictionary.xml to refer to the respective database where dictionary is loaded or use UMLS database.
3. Build ctakes-web-rest module and deploy ctakes-web-rest.war available under target/ folder in Apache Tomcat.
4. Access the following URL to perform text analysis using cTAKES web application: http://<host-name>:<port>/ctakes-web-rest/index.jsp
5. Access the following REST API endpoint to perform text analysis using default pipeline: http://<host-name>:<port>/ctakes-web-rest/service/analyze?pipeline=Default
6. Access the following REST API endpoint to perform text analysis using full pipeline: http://<host-name>:<port>/ctakes-web-rest/service/analyze?pipeline=Full