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.

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 ...]
  ]
}