Using the COPTR data feed

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Accessing the COPTR data[edit]

Question:

  • I'd like to take the data in COPTR and create a funky 3D spinny view that helps people navigate the data and find what they are looking for. Can I do this, and can I host it somewhere else?

Answer:

  • Yes, that would be excellent! The COPTR content is made available under a CC-BY-SA license but we ask that if possible you point your users back to this site if they have corrections or new tools to add.

Ways to access the COPTR data[edit]

We offer two main channels for accessing the data - the MediaWiki API, and XML dumps of the MediaWiki content.

The COPTR API[edit]

As COPTR is based on MediaWiki, you can access the COPTR content via the MediaWiki API. The Official MediaWiki API Documentation is a pretty good starting point, and the endpoint itself is fairly self-documenting. You can also use the API sandbox to experiment with the API. However, to help get you started, here are a couple of examples.

Machine-Readable Recent Changes[edit]

If you want access to information on what has changed recently, just like the RecentChanges page, but in a machine-readable form, you can construct a URL like this:

https://coptr.digipres.org/api.php?action=query&list=recentchanges&format=json&rclimit=500&rctype=new&rcprop=title%7Cids%7Csizes%7Cflags%7Cuser%7Ctimestamp

Breaking down those query parameters, we have:

Parameter Value Meaning
action query Perform a query action, rather than e.g. adding or editing a page.
list recentchanges Perform a query on the 'recent changes' list (one of many lists available).
format json Return the results in JSON format.
rclimit 500 Return up to 500 results at once (500 is the maximum per request, but there are other parameters for paging).
rctype new Return only 'new page' events.
rcprop title|ids|sizes|flags|user|timestamp For each event, return these fields (see the API docs for more detail).

So, for example, if you would rather receive XML, you can just modify the format parameter.

Category Members[edit]

There is also a Category Members list you can query. For example:

Semantic API modules[edit]

COPTR runs the Semantic MediaWiki extension, which provides semantic API modules that can be used to query the COPTR data. For instance, the following URL uses the ask module to query for all tools that have function Rendering and content type Container, and retrieves the tools' purpose:

https://coptr.digipres.org/api.php?action=ask&query=[[Category:Tools]][[Function::Rendering]][[Content::Container]]|%3FPurpose

The following properties (some of which may be empty for some tools) can be queried

Property Meaning
Purpose A brief description of the tool's purpose
License Information about the tool's license
Cost Information about the cost of the tool
Platforms A description of the platform(s) that the tool runs on
Input format The input format(s) that the tool supports
Output format The output format(s) that the tool supports
Function The function(s) of the tool
Content The tool's content type(s)

The Input and Output formats also have queryable properties

Property Meaning
Wikidata ID The identifier of the file format in Wikidata
File formats wiki ID The identifier of the file format in the File formats wiki

You can use the Semantic search interface to construct and test a query that can subsequently be used with the ask API module. For more information about the query syntax and more advanced query constructs - such as property chaining and inverse queries - please refer to the Semantic MediaWiki documentation on selecting pages and displaying information.

The COPTR Database Backup Dumps[edit]

We also make daily XML dumps available, for backup and re-use purposes. You can find them in the backup-dumps folder,