Editing User:Rcdeboer/COPTR data feed

= Accessing the COPTR data =

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 =

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

== The COPTR API ==
As COPTR is based on MediaWiki, you can access the COPTR content via the MediaWiki API. The [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page Official MediaWiki API Documentation] is a pretty good starting point, and [http://coptr.digipres.org/api.php the endpoint itself is ''fairly'' self-documenting]. However, to help get you started, here are a couple of examples.

=== Machine-Readable Recent Changes ===

If you want access to information on what has changed recently, just like the [[Special:RecentChanges|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:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto;"
! Parameter
! Value
! Meaning
|-
|action
|query
| Perform a query [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page#The_action action], rather than e.g. adding or editing a page.
|-
|list
|recentchanges
| Perform a query on the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Recentchanges 'recent changes' list] (one of [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Lists many lists available]).
|-
|format
|json
| Return the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Data_formats 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<nowiki>|</nowiki>ids<nowiki>|</nowiki>sizes<nowiki>|</nowiki>flags<nowiki>|</nowiki>user<nowiki>|</nowiki>timestamp
| For each event, return these fields (see the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Recentchanges API docs] for more detail).
|}

So, for example, if you would rather receive XML, you can just modify [http://coptr.digipres.org/api.php?action=query&list=recentchanges&format=xml&rclimit=500&rctype=new&rcprop=title%7Cids%7Csizes%7Cflags%7Cuser%7Ctimestamp the format parameter].

=== Category Members ===
There is also a [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Categorymembers Category Members] list you can query. For example:

* [http://coptr.digipres.org/api.php?action=query&list=categorymembers&cmtitle=Category:Function&cmtype=subcat&cmlimit=500&format=xml This query lists all the subcategories belonging to the Function category].
* [http://coptr.digipres.org/api.php?action=query&list=categorymembers&cmtitle=Category:Fixity&cmtype=page&cmlimit=500&format=xml This query lists the Page IDs and Title of all the pages belonging to the Fixity category].

=== Semantic API modules ===
COPTR runs the [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org Semantic MediaWiki] extension, which provides [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:API 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={{urlencode:[[Category:Tools]][[Function::Rendering]][[Content::Container]]}}|%3FPurpose <nowiki>https://coptr.digipres.org/api.php?action=ask&query=[[Category:Tools]][[Function::Rendering]][[Content::Container]]|%3FPurpose</nowiki>]

The following properties (some of which may be empty for some tools) can be queried
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto;"
! Property
! Meaning
|-
| [[Property:Purpose|Purpose]]
| A brief description of the tool's purpose
|-
| [[Property:License|License]]
| Information about the tool's license
|-
| [[Property:Cost|Cost]]
| Information about the cost of the tool
|-
| [[Property:Platforms|Platforms]]
| A description of the platform(s) that the tool runs on
|-
| [[Property:Input format|Input format]]
| The input format(s) that the tool supports
|-
| [[Property:Output format|Output format]]
| The output format(s) that the tool supports
|-
| [[Property:Function|Function]]
| The function(s) of the tool
|-
| [[Property:Content|Content]]
| The tool's content type(s)
|}

The Input and Output formats also have queryable properties
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto;"
! Property
! Meaning
|-
| [[Property:Wikidata ID|Wikidata ID]]
| The identifier of the file format in [https://www.wikidata.org Wikidata]
|-
| [[Property:File formats wiki ID|File formats wiki ID]]
| The identifier of the file format in the [[formats:Main Page|File formats wiki]]
|}

You can use the [[Special:Ask|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 [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Selecting_pages selecting pages] and [https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Displaying_information displaying information].

== The COPTR Database Backup Dumps ==
We also make daily XML dumps available, for backup and re-use purposes. You can find them in the [http://coptr.digipres.org/backup-dumps/ backup-dumps] folder,