Introduction to Cortex

Cortex is a hypermedia REST API for e-commerce. What makes Cortex unique is that it uses hypermedia links to associate related resources together rather than relying on resource URLs like most other e-commerce APIs. Much like website links, our hypermedia links allow you to explore the API and discover what resources are needed to build e-commerce features in your application.

Using links, we’ve designed a set of hypermedia controls that enable you to capture selections and data from the shopper. For more information on these controls, see forms, selectors, and needinfo.

Cortex is built following the REST architectural style and uses standard HTTP conventions like HTTP methods to perform actions on resources and HTTP response codes to indicate errors. JSON is returned to describe resource states. Cortex is programming language agnostic and can be used with any programming language that implements an HTTP client.

Cortex is designed to work with a variety of authentication systems and comes bundled with a reference OAuth2 implementation for test purposes.

Studio

Cortex Studio is an API exploration tool that visually renders Cortex hypermedia controls, allowing you to easily explore the API by clicking through links. Cortex Studio comes bundled with Cortex and is available to try at https://cortex.elasticpath.com/studio/.

Cortex Java SDK

Cortex Java SDK (Software Development Kit) is built for Elastic Path Commerce for Adobe Marketing Cloud. The SDK integrates Cortex with Adobe Experience Manager, allowing Elastic Path Commerce Engine to provide the core eCommerce services that power AEM.