Determining if an item is tank, heal or DPS
 

I am trying to determine if a trinket is specific for a tank/DPS/heal role, as many trinkets many times are. Outside of stats like stamina for tanks is there a way to tell? Maybe parse the tooltip (I have seen some code that does this) and even then it is hard what words are we looking for...

Trying to tell if an item is intended for tanks or healers or ranged, melee or spell casters or for some combination...

Once you have gone past the basics, eg main stats, then you have to decipher the free form text description. And this is hard because it is free form.

Or you can have a "database" of items and simply match the item's name against a required role. But I do not know if such a database exists, I will have to record items manually...

But I have just remembered when you had to roll for loot, the game knows what items are intended for, when you choose "loot specialisation" of course. How does the game do it, is there an internal database, and is there an API for this?

Doesn't loot roll window allow you to roll Need on items that are for your class, regardless of your current spec?
Though I guess it does make the difference between tank/healer and dps, for classes that don't have a tank and/or healing spec.

Also there's the encounter journal that differentiates between tank/healer/dps for showing you which loot you are eligible for. Could be worth keeping that one in mind, too.