Table of Contents
Web Services
This page describes the web services and data provided by the main Transition Network website and the Sharing Engine. They include
- Directory Services: Return directories of ContentTypes? that can be used to prime or update remote caches and clients.
- News Services: Return news stories for a given location, radius and type.
All these services presently use simple HTTP GET requests and use segments with the URL requested to pass parameters - indeed, they are designed to be as simple as possible as use-cases and plans unfold.
Initiative Directory Service
Returns a list of initiatives with their basic data and geographical coordinate information. See below for an example
ALL initiatives
- Returns: All initiatives in in the directory - see below for format and example output.
- Usage: To be used sparingly to prime remote cache of initiative data. Use 7 or 30 day update versions for refreshes. This view is cached for 6 hours to reduce performance impacts on the main site.
- Service URL: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/transition-services/directories/initiatives/all
- Parameters: None, only three variations of this view exist - 'all' and updated within 7 or 30 days versions. The last segment of the URL changes for accordingly.
Initiatives updated within 30 days
As above except:
- Usage: To be used whenever a client needs to refresh their cache, unless the time since last update less than 7 days in which case use the version below, or more that 30 days in which case get ALL again. View cached for 6 hours.
- Service URL: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/transition-services/directories/initiatives/updated-month
Initiatives updated within 7 days
As above except:
- Usage: To be used whenever a client needs to refresh their cache, unless the time since last update is more that 7 days in which case use month variant. View cached for 1 hour.
- Service URL: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/transition-services/directories/initiatives/updated-week
Returned fields & sample output
Fields: See ContentTypes? for a full description of the fields
- nid - node id
- url - directory page on Transition Network.org
- title
- updated - timestamp in W3C DTF
- initiative_community_types - multi-select option values
- initiative_type - single-select option value
- initiative_status - single-select option value
- initiative_members_count_estimated - formatted number
- websites - usually one, potentially several URLs representing the initiative
- contact_primary_name - formatted string
- contact_primary_uid - user ID to be used to pull up contact pages on TN.org (thus maintaining privacy)
- location_city, location_province_name, location_country_name - strings for the address
- location_latitude, location_longitude - decimal coordinates representing geocoded position of imitative
Example output:
{ "initiatives" : [ { "initiative" : { "nid" : "23", "url" : "https://www.transitionnetwork.org/initiatives/totnes", "title" : "Totnes", "updated" : "2011-01-21T06:54:20+0000", "initiative_community_types" : { "1" : "Town", "2" : "Rural" }, "initiative_type" : "Local Initiative", "initiative_status" : "Official", "initiative_members_count_estimated" : "3,300", "websites" : "http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org", "contact_primary_name" : "Lou Brown", "contact_primary_uid" : "3516", "location_city" : "Totnes", "location_province_name" : "Devon", "location_country_name" : "United Kingdom", "location_latitude" : "50.431213", "location_longitude" : "-3.685455" } }, [... repeats ...] ] }
Project Directory Service
Broadly similar to the Initiative Directory Service, except returning Project data. See ContentTypes? for a proper description of this.
ALL Projects
- Returns: All projects in in the directory - see below for format and example output.
- Usage: To be used sparingly to prime remote cache of project data. Use 7 or 30 day update versions for refreshes. This view is cached for 6 hours to reduce performance impacts on the main site.
- Service URL: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/transition-services/directories/projects/all
- Parameters: None, only three variations of this view exist - 'all' and updated within 7 or 30 days versions. The last segment of the URL changes for accordingly.
Projects updated within 30 days
As above except:
- Usage: To be used whenever a client needs to refresh their cache, unless the time since last update less than 7 days in which case use the version below, or more that 30 days in which case get ALL again. View cached for 6 hours.
- Service URL: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/transition-services/directories/projects/updated-month
Projects updated within 7 days
As above except:
- Usage: To be used whenever a client needs to refresh their cache, unless the time since last update is more that 7 days in which case use month variant. View cached for 1 hour.
- Service URL: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/transition-services/directories/projects/updated-week
Returned fields & sample output
Fields: See ContentTypes? for a full description of the fields
- nid - node id
- url - directory page on Transition Network.org
- title
- updated - timestamp in W3C DTF
- project_start_date - date formatted for display (DD MMM YYYY)
- project_people_involved - formatted number
- websites - usually one, potentially several URLs representing the initiative
- contact_primary_name - formatted string
- contact_primary_uid - user ID to be used to pull up contact pages on TN.org (thus maintaining privacy)
- location_city, location_province_name, location_country_name - strings for the address
- location_latitude, location_longitude - decimal coordinates representing geocoded position of imitative
Example output:
{ "projects" : [ { "project" : { "nid" : "14779", "url" : "https://www.transitionnetwork.org/projects/newport-fruit-vegie-swap", "title" : "Newport Fruit & Vegie Swap", "updated" : "2011-01-24T12:41:14+0000", "project_start_date" : "14 Aug 2010", "project_people_involved" : "4", "websites" : "http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newport-fruit-and-vegie-swap/144892595545635?v=wal...", "contact_primary_name" : "Kate Leslie", "contact_primary_uid" : "3129", "location_city" : "Newport", "location_province_name" : "Victoria", "location_country_name" : "Australia", "location_latitude" : "-37.841581", "location_longitude" : "144.874088" } } [... repeats ...] ] }