In essence, the Spotfire API is a collection of objects, methods, and properties that can be manipulated to do just about anything in a script that you would otherwise do through the graphical user interface. One notable exception is the creation and manipulation of text area property controls. You can create document properties and change their values through the API, but you cannot build or otherwise interact with the controls that are embedded in the text area.

It's also important to stress that the API contains a lot of material that even an advanced script writer will never need. This chapter will distill the API down to the essentials a typical script writer needs. The API is divided into primary namespaces, and the ones we will cover in this chapter are as follows: