Code Samples

This page will include samples of code against the iDigBio Search API.

Overview

GET requests

A query submitted as a GET request must be URL-encoded.

For example, a request in the iDigBio query format (JSON) for a particular scientific name:

{
  "rq": {
    "scientificname": "puma concolor"
  }
}

without whitespace, still valid JSON, becomes:

{"rq":{"scientificname":"puma concolor"}}

becomes the following when url-encoded:

rq=%7B%22scientificname%22%3A+%22puma+concolor%22%7D

The query requested via HTTP GET with a curl command, adding a limit of 5:

curl -s 'http://beta-search.idigbio.org/v2/search/records/?rq=%7B%22scientificname%22%3A+%22puma+concolor%22%7D&limit=5'

If we pipe the result to 'json_pp' to "prettify" and 'head' to reduce the number of output lines to 25:

$ curl -s 'http://beta-search.idigbio.org/v2/search/records/?rq=%7B%22scientificname%22%3A+%22puma+concolor%22%7D&limit=5' | json_pp | head -n 25

We get something like the following:

{
   "items" : [
      {
         "data" : {
            "dwc:eventDate" : "1968-04-11",
            "dwc:recordedBy" : "Harris, Arthur H. (Van Goebel)",
            "dwc:occurrenceStatus" : "present",
            "dwc:catalogNumber" : "5-298",
            "dwc:maximumElevationInMeters" : "1280",
            "dwc:locationRemarks" : "See site 22 for Dry Cave references.",
            "dwc:institutionID" : "http://grbio.org/cool/gq95-3z97",
            "dwc:country" : "United States",
            "dwc:stateProvince" : "New Mexico",
            "dwc:month" : "4",
            "dcterms:type" : "PhysicalObject",
            "dcterms:accessRights" : "http://vertnet.org/resources/norms.html",
            "dcterms:modified" : "2015-02-20",
            "dwc:genus" : "Puma",
            "dwc:day" : "11",
            "dwc:identifiedBy" : "Harris, Arthur H.",
            "dwc:minimumElevationInMeters" : "1280",
            "dwc:higherGeography" : "| USA | NM | EDDY |  |  |  |",
            "dwc:locality" : "Sabertooth Camel Maze, Dry Cave; Pecos River",
            "dwc:individualCount" : "1",
            "dwc:institutionCode" : "UTEP",

POST requests

A query submitted as a POST request must be supplied as JSON in the content body and specify the "Content-Type: application/json" request header.

Python

# sample code goes here

See also [Python Client for the iDigBio Search API] (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/idigbio)

R

# sample code goes here

See also [ridigbio R Package for Search API] (https://github.com/idigbio/ridigbio)