Hypermedia & Civic Hacking

A Love Story

Shelby Switzer

@switzerly

shelbyswitzer.com

Local Government Data

Local Government API

Show-Me-The-Food

• identify food deserts
• add canvassing tool
• visualize findings
• change the world

API-in-a-Box

Containerized hypermedia APIs for open data

Document:

{
	"business" : {
		"name" : "Hairy Convenience",
		"lat" : "33.760094",
		"lng" : "-84.386037",
		"bustype" : "convenience"
	}
}

Mapping:

{
	"business" : {
		"properties" : {
			"name" : { "type" : "string" },
			"lat" : { "type" : "string" },
			"lng" : { "type" : "string" },
			"bustype" : { "type" : "string" },
                        "FILE_SOURCE": { "type": "string"},
		}
	}
}

• easy (and free) way to store and maintain data
• little or no changes to raw data
• has a flexible, robust API
• does not need to be hosted
• simple setup locally or on any server

API-in-a-Box

1. throw data into github repo
2. pull/build docker image
3.  
4.  

API-in-a-Box

$ docker-compose up -e ORIGIN_REPO="switzersc/food-data"

$ curl http://dockerip:4567/resources?dedupe=bustype

{
    "collection" :
        "href" : "http://dockerip:4567/resources/",
        "items" : [ 
            {
                "href" : "http://dockerip:4567/resources/8903493",
                "data" : [
                  {"name" : "name", "value" : "Bob's Convenience Store"},
                  {"name" : "lat", "value" : "33.760094"},
                  {"name" : "lng", "value" : "-84.386037"},
                  {"name" : "bustype", "value" : "convenience"},
                  {"name" : "FILE_SOURCE", "value" : "GA_EBT.csv"}
                ]
              }
        ],
        "queries" : [
            {"rel":"search", "href":"http://dockerip:4567/resources/search", "prompt":"Search",
                "data" : [
                    {"name" : "name", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "lat", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "lng", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "bustype", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "FILE_SOURCE", "value": ""},
                    {"name" : "dedupe", "value" : ""}
                ]
            }
        ]
}

Hypermedia: Collection+JSON

{
    "collection" :
        "href" : "http://dockerip:4567/resources/",
        "items" : [ 
            {
                "href" : "http://dockerip:4567/resources/8903493",
                "data" : [
                  {"name" : "name", "value" : "Linda May"},
                  {"name" : "salary", "value" : "$113,367.00"},
                  {"name" : "agency", "value" : "Citizenship and Immigration"},
                  {"name" : "grade", "value" : "14"},
                  {"name" : "FILE_SOURCE", "value" : "federal_salaries.csv"}
                ]
              }
        ],
        "queries" : [
            {"rel":"search", "href":"http://dockerip:4567/resources/search", "prompt":"Search",
                "data" : [
                    {"name" : "name", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "salary", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "agency", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "grade", "value" : ""},
                    {"name" : "FILE_SOURCE", "value": ""},
                    {"name" : "dedupe", "value" : ""}
                ]
            }
        ]
}

"REST's uniform interface constraint, the principle that all these parts are interchangeable, is antithetical to the way tech companies do business today."

- Leonard Richardson

Civic Hacking

Hypermedia

Get involved!

Merci!

Shelby Switzer

@switzerly

shelbyswitzer.com

• https://github.com/switzersc/api-in-a-box
• https://hub.docker.com/r/switzersc/api-in-a-box/
• http://www.codeforamerica.org/brigade/
• http://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/index.html
• http://amundsen.com/media-types/collection/
• https://www.data.gov/developers/apis

Resources