The Dec. 2 Caffeine Break was a discussion of APIs available on campus.
The API Roundup Spreadsheet
In the short term, we’re collecting information about available APIs here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u0DaHPj8leS6NBY32Jj2QxK0SE_IVe6MWJhsQuqZRsA/edit#gid=0
(This is set to allow people with @illinois.edu Google Drive accounts to edit it.)
The Caffeine Break Discussion
The audio discussion is available here: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/Caffeine+Break+-+API+Roundup+-+Friday%2C+December+02%2C+2016/1_x4413t0q/45860831
Notes and future thoughts:
More fields that would be useful to capture in an expanded API Roundup info collection:
– What format is info available in through the API? (XML, JSON, etc)
– What network access do you need?
– What kind of authentication / authorization is necessary?
– How to call the API – Where to find the documentation on how to post / put / delete / get and what responses to expect
– Dev and Prod instances – “Another thing that would be useful (for API instances): explicit dev and prod servers (so you hit a dev server without worrying about production implications)”
What folks are interested in:
Interested in news aggregator API – Nate B, Andrew R both interested
Experts.illinois – is there an API? – asking Mark Zuloff at the Library
(More) Webtools API wanted – there is output via XML but not yet input? – Jim and Lance would be good folks to ask about future directions
Does anyone know who runs this?
Bryan J – online.illinois.edu JSON version of Course Explorer XML
example: https://online.illinois.edu/DataService/CourseCatalog/api/course-section?crn=36356&termcode=120175
Good doc examples:
“uWaterloo has some EXCELLENT documentation for their APIs in one place: https://github.com/uwaterloo/api-documentation
Here’s an example of a call: https://github.com/uWaterloo/api-documentation/blob/master/v2/foodservices/menu.md” – A single API for our campus is ambitious, but the idea of their doc is fantastic
–Andy G
Future caffeine breaks:
Custom code that goes against central services – Andrew R and Nate B are willing to share opinions – scheduled for Jan. 20, 2017
Storing that custom code in a central repository