API

This is the official API for the Ontology Curation Tool. It allows you to programmatically retrieve and interact with Ontology data.

To let us gather feedback you can leave a comment using the form on the right.

API Data Types

Data can be requested in JSON.
API calls follow the CRUD semantics: create, retrieve, update and delete.

Search Terms

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/search?q={query}
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of objects matching the search query - each object being a term
• Example:

Retrieve all Ontologies

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-ontologies
• Method: GET
• Returns: JSON Hierarchy of the Ontologies under each category
• Example:

Retrieve Ontology ID by its Name

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-ontology-id?ontology_name={ontology_name}
• Method: GET
• Returns: ID of the ontology, to be used with /get-ontology-roots/{id}
• Example:

Retrieve Categories

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-categories
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of strings - string being the name of the category that you pass to the /ontologies API call
• Example:

Retrieve Ontologies By Category

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/ontologies?category={category}
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of objects; each one representing an ontology
• Example:

Retrieve Terms in RDF

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/rdf/{termId}
• Method: GET
• Returns: XML related RDF
• Example:

Retrieve Root Terms of an Ontology

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-ontology-roots/{ontologyId}
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of objects; each one representing a term
• Example:

Retrieve Child Terms of parent Term

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-children/{parentId}
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of terms
• Example:

Retrieve Parents of Term

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-term-parents/{termId}
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of the paths from the parent to child
• Example:

Retrieve Properties/Attributes of a Term

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-attributes/{termId}
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of objects representing the terms property
• Example:

Retrieve Comments of a Term

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/get-comments?termId={termId}
• Method: GET
• Returns: Array of objects representing a comment
• Example:

Login - Retrieve a user's auth token (used for adding and editing ontologies)

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/login
• Method: POST. {username}, {password}
• Returns: HTTP response with a user cookie in the header that contains a token. You'll need to pass this cookie to subsequent requests that require authentication

Retrieve Logged-in User information

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/login
• Method: GET. Pass user cookie in request
• Returns: Object of the currently logged in user

Create Ontology

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/add-ontology
• Method: POST. Pass user cookie in request. {json} a JSON string representing a list of objects; each object being a term. {ontology_name}, {ontology_id}, {ontology_summary}
• Returns: HTTP error if something went wrong

Delete Ontology

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/delete-ontology
• Method: POST. {ontologyID}
• Returns: HTTP error if something went wrong

Retrieve IB Fieldbook Default List

• URL: http://www.cropontology.org/ibfieldbook
• Method: GET
• Returns: An object - each key being the ontology name and the value being the array of ids