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diff --git a/lib/views/help/api.html.erb b/lib/views/help/api.html.erb new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f27c2e --- /dev/null +++ b/lib/views/help/api.html.erb @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +<% @title = "Application Programming Interface - API" %> + +<%= render :partial => 'sidebar' %> + +<div id="left_column_flip"> +<h1><%=@title %></h1> + +<h2> Introduction </h2> + +<p>This page explains how programmers can make other websites and software +interact with <%= site_name %> via an "API". +</p> + +<p><%= site_name %> does not have a full API yet, but we are gradually adding +lots of things that are similar in use to an API as they are requested. +</p> + +<hr> + +<h2> 1. Linking to new requests </h2> + +<p>To encourage your users to make requests to a particular public authority, use URLs of the form: +<%= link_to new_request_to_body_url(:url_name => "liverpool_city_council") , new_request_to_body_url(:url_name => "liverpool_city_council") %>. +These are the parameters you can add to those URLs, either in the URL or from a form. + +<ul> + <li> <strong>title</strong> - default summary of the new request.</li> + <li> <strong>default_letter</strong> - default text of the body of the letter. The salutation (Dear...) and signoff (Yours...) are wrapped round this. </li> + <li> <strong>body</strong> - as an alternative to default_letter, this sets the default entire text of the request, so you can customise the salutation and signoff. </li> + <li> <strong>tags</strong> - space separated list of tags, so you can find and link up any requests made later, e.g. <em>openlylocal spending_id:12345</em>. The : indicates it is a machine tag. The values of machine tags may also include colons, useful for URIs. +</ul> + +<hr> + +<h2> 2. RSS (actually, Atom) feeds </h2> + +<p>There are Atom feeds on most pages which list FOI requests, which you can +use to get updates and links in XML format. Find the URL of the Atom feed in +one of these ways: +<ul> + <li>Look for the <img src="/images/feed-16.png" alt=""> RSS feed links.</li> + <li>Examine the <tt><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml"></tt> tag in the head of the HTML. </li> + <li>Add <tt>/feed</tt> to the start of another URL. +</ul> + +<p>In particular, even complicated search queries have Atom feeds. +You can do all sorts of things with them, such as query by authority, by file +type, by date range, or by status. See the <a href="/search">advanced search +tips</a> for details. + +<hr> + +<h2> 3. JSON structured data </h2> + +<p>Quite a few pages have JSON versions, which let you download information about +objects in a structured form. Find them by: +<ul> + <li>Adding <tt>.json</tt> to the end of the URL. </li> + <li>Look for the <tt><link rel="alternate" type="application/json"></tt> tag in the head of the HTML. </li> +</ul> +</p> + +<p>Requests, users and authorities all have JSON versions containing basic +information about them. Every Atom feed has a JSON equivalent, containing +information about the list of events in the feed. +</p> + +<hr> +<h2> 4. Spreadsheet of all authorities </h2> + +<p> +A spreadsheet file listing every body in <%= site_name %> is available: +<%= link_to "all-authorities.csv", all_public_bodies_csv_url() %> +</p> + +<hr> + +<p>Please <a href="/help/contact">contact us</a> if you need an API feature that isn't there yet. It's +very much a work in progress, and we do add things when people ask us to.</p> + +<div id="hash_link_padding"></div> + +</div> |