Talk:IDigBio API: Difference between revisions

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[[Category:API]]
[[Category:Documentation]]


== iDigBio API Overview ==
Please feel free to make notes here if you find something is missing from the API documentation.


This document serves as the official documentation for the iDigBio Application Programming Interface (API).
Thanks!  - Dan Stoner


The iDigBio API serves as an abstraction layer for retrieving data from the iDigBio back-end data systems.
----
 
The iDigBio API is a RESTful pattern HTTP API that primarily delivers data in JSON format. Currently, the public API supports GET requests for data read operations only.
 
== Quick Start ==
 
Experienced programmers may wish to jump straight to the [[iDigBio API v1 Specification]] and [[iDigBio API Examples]].
 
 
 
API URLs (endpoints) have several parameters in them, and typically follow the form of
<pre style="color:red">
<base url>/<version>/<type>/<id>
</pre>
 
For example:
<pre>
Using the following parameters for an API request
 
base url = http://api.idigbio.org
version = v1
type = records
id = 00000230-01bc-4a4f-8389-204f39da9530
 
would produce a URL of the following form
 
"http://api.idigbio.org/v1/records/00000230-01bc-4a4f-8389-204f39da9530"
</pre>
 
== Endpoint Basics ==
 
 
Calling just the base URL will return a list of API version endpoints. For example, an HTTP GET request to "http://api.idigbio.org" will return the following JSON data:
 
<pre>
{
  "v1" : "http://api.idigbio.org/v1/",
  "check" : "http://api.idigbio.org/check",
  "v0" : "http://api.idigbio.org/v0/"
}
</pre>
 
== Endpoint Properties ==
 
 
The iDigBio API tries to follow the REST paradigm's HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State) model, which basically means that within each API endpoint we provide a list of relevant links to further API actions. This list typically is stored in "idigbio:links"
 
Other system level property names include
 
For Entity Endpoints:
*[[wikipedia:HTTP_ETag|etag]] - the opaque identifier assigned to a specific version of a resource found at a URL
*dateModified - The date the entity was modified
*version - The entity's version number
*type - The entity's type
*uuid - The entity's uuid
*siblings - Any siblings the entity may have as a dictionary of uuids
*recordIds - A list of lookup keys for the entity
*data - The entity's encapsulated data element
 
For Collection Endpoints:
*items - the list of items in the collection
*itemCount - the number of total items in the collection
 
 
== Entity Data ==
 
 
The data element for each entity can include any number of key-value pairs containing properties of the entity, including potentially values that are themselves lists or dictionaries. Typical key namespaces that might appear in each type are (in order of decreasing usefulness):
 
*Records: typically contains darwin core elements ( http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm ) describing a physical specimen, may also contain custom elements or elements defined by other standards.
*Mediarecords: typically contains Audubon Core elements ( http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative) ) describing a media capture event, may also contain custom elements or elements defined by other standards.
*Publishers: A top level entity for the data ingestion process, each publisher contains metadata about a publishing location such as an IPT installation or Symbiota portal.
*Recordsets: An entity largely derived from the publisher metadata. These serve as the join point between multiple data files for single collection, and all records and mediarecords in iDigBio are expected to be associated with a recordset that links them to a source.
*All other entities exposed via the api are either internal only concepts with no fixed definition, or are unused.
 
== Available API endpoints ==
 
All endpoints follow the form of
"http://api.idigbio.org/{api_version}{endpoint}"
 
{|class="wikitable"
! align="left"| Endpoint
! Method
! API Versions Available
! Description
|-
| '/mediarecords'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a collection of media record IDs
|-
| '/mediarecords/{ID}'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a media record with the specific entity ID
|-
| '/mediarecords/{ID}/media'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns an image associated with the specific entity ID
|-
| '/records'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a collection of record IDs
|-
| '/records/{ID}'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a record with the specific entity ID
|-
| '/records/{ID}/media'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns an image associated with the specific entity ID
|-
| '/publishers'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a collection of publisher IDs
|-
| '/publishers/{ID}'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a publisher with specific entity ID
|-
| '/recordsets'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a collection of recordset IDs
|-
| '/recordsets/{ID}'
| GET
| v0, v1
| returns a recordset with specific entity ID
|}
 
== Optional API Parameters ==
 
{|class="wikitable"
! align="left"| Parameter
! Endpoint type
! Values
! Description
! Example
|-
| limit
| Collections
| [1-]
| Controls the number of records returned by a collection url. Large numbers may cause requests to time out, but are significantly more efficient when attempting to query large numbers of records.
| http://api.idigbio.org/v1/mediarecords?limit=100
|-
| offset
| Collections
| [0-]
| Controls how many records to skip forward when paging through the API. Large offsets are extremely inefficient, so combinations of small limits and large offsets may cause requests to fail.
| http://api.idigbio.org/v1/mediarecords?limit=100&offset=100
|-
| version
| Entities
| [0-current version], -1 for latest version
| Return a specific version of a record from the data store. Can be used to query historical data for iDigBio records.
| http://api.idigbio.org/v1/records/c93ebbee-64b5-4452-9e80-93bbfb11b815?version=0
|-
| quality
| Entities
| ["thumbnail", "web"],
| Specifiy the quality of the image returned from the API (valid values are "thumbnail" and "web" which return images of width 260 and 600 pixels respectively). Omitting quality will return the full-size high quality image.
| http://api.idigbio.org/v1/mediarecords/55dd6860-213d-4478-8bfa-b5486afcffda/media?quality=thumbnail  http://api.idigbio.org/v1/mediarecords/55dd6860-213d-4478-8bfa-b5486afcffda/media?quality=web
|}
 
== Searching iDigBio ==
 
=== Search Portal and Bulk Record Downloads ===
 
The recommended method for searching iDigBio is to use the Portal search, not the API. The portal also provides bulk download capabilities for aquiring larger sets of data.  See: https://www.idigbio.org/portal
 
=== Elasticsearch Overview ===
 
The iDigBio API does not currently (yet!) provide query/search capabilities.  However, the back-end Elasticsearch interface is public-facing and available for use by advanced users and programmers. This is the same interface that is used by the iDigBio Portal search.
 
'''Note: Direct queries to the iDigBio Elasticsearch service should be considered an Advanced operation.'''
 
According to the [http://www.elasticsearch.org/overview/elasticsearch/ Elasticsearch project site], Elasticsearch is a "flexible and powerful open source, distributed, real-time search and analytics engine."  Elasticsearch provides a RESTful web services interfaces and returns data in JSON format.
 
More detailed information on iDigBio Elasticsearch capabilities is available in [[iDigBio API v1 Specification#Search]].
 
See [[iDigBio API Examples]] for Elasticsearch examples that are specific to iDigBio.

Revision as of 16:12, 19 May 2014

Moved draft content to real page and will continue edits there.

Please feel free to make notes here if you find something is missing from the API documentation.

Thanks! - Dan Stoner

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