Open API – Technical Detail

DataBase

Id

Name City

1 Remko Caprio New York City

2 Albert Einstein New York City

SELECT city FROM

database.tableWhere name =

$nameData

access Layer

Server application servlet

Servlet(HttpRequest req, HttpResponse res){ String name = req.getName; String city = serverApp.getCityFor(name); res.setcity = city; return res;}

SQLAPI , e.g. in this case GetCity API

URL Requeste.g. http://api.users.com/getcity?name=Remko%20Caprio

Responsee.g. in XML format<response> <name>Remko Caprio</name> <city>New York City</city></response>

database.table

WORLD WIDE WEB

SciVerse AppGetCityForResearcher

RequestHandler

GetCityForStrangeFigure

GetC

ityForDog

serverApp.getCityFor(name);

Open API – Technical Detail

API = Application Programming InterfaceAn API lets an application make a request to retrieve specific data, e.g.In the previous slide: GetCity API. Often an API lets the developer filterthe data request, e.g. http://api.users.com/getcity?name=remko%20caprio

Why OPEN API? Functionally it means nothing more than that it is Open to use for any one. Technically, it refers to a set of protocols that are used. The REST protocol describes the rules an applicationneeds to comply to in order to retrieve open data. These rules haveto do with authorization and authentication of requests.

An application developer must register their application at the provider of the open data, who has made their data available via anopen API. The developer then gets an API Key that allows the providerto uniquely identify the application that was registered to use a specific open API, e.g. the GetCity API on the previous slide. This authorizationprocess is described in a protocol called OAuth.For authentication of a session, to prevent malicious hacking, another requirement could be to use so called security tokens or authToken.

WORLD WIDE WEB LINKS OPEN DATA