# Standalone API Usage

This section describes the basic structure of a stand-alone application using the API. See the source referenced in Java API Examples. Typically, your application takes the following actions:

1. Instantiate an `EDKEngine` object.

   TIP: Micro Focus recommends that you program against the `TextExtractionEngine` interface to instantiate `EDKEngine`.

   You can create the engine without a configuration, or you can create an engine from an appropriate configuration file. If you use a configuration file, you can skip steps 2 and 3.

2. Set the license key.
3. Configure the engine, load the grammars, and select entities.

4. Instantiate an `EDKSession` object and associate it with the engine.

   TIP: Micro Focus recommends that you program against the `TextExtractionSession` interface to instantiate `EDKSession`.

5. Send UTF-8 encoded text to the session or pass the session a stream it can read.

6. Execute a `for each` loop to obtain an `EDKMatch` object for each match in a session.

   NOTE: If you create your `EDKEngine` from a configuration file that includes post-processing tasks, the post-processing tasks automatically run as part of `EDKMatch` and you do not need to run them separately.

7. Get the properties of the match.
8. Release resources when done.

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