Bloomberg Server API

Question

I have a basic question about the "Bloomberg Server API" that doesn't seem to be answered in their documentation, at least to the degree that I am confident about it.

I have programmed with the Bloomberg API and used their market data and reference data services, but I wish to develop an application that doesn't have to live on the Bloomberg terminal. Does "Bloomberg Server API" allow you to do this? It seems like, from the documentation, that the Server API refers to you additionally handling authentication protocols/schema, but I can't tell if it allows you to develop an application server away from the terminal.

Answer 1

It's possible, in fact, to develop server side applications that run on a server, and pull data from Bloomberg at any time, even while no user is logged in to the terminal, however, data can only be displayed to Bloomberg users. Your app must authenticate the user before displaying any data. Authentication requires user to be logged in to the terminal from that device at the time. Once authenticated, the user doesn't have to remain logged in, i.e. data can be displayed while user is not logged in. However, as soon as user logs in to the terminal from another PC, the app should stop displaying any new data on the original PC.