September 2014 - API-users

GBIF API deploy, 12th June
by Markus Döring 20 Nov '14

20 Nov '14

Dear GBIF API users, A new API will be deployed later today. Please expect a short downtime in the central European afternoon, we try to keep it minimal. This is a minor updated and all URLs in the new version will remain the same, keeping v0.9. New features included are improved data processing, multimedia support for occurrences and new occurrence search filters based on media type and processing issues. Please also see http://gbif.blogspot.de/2014/05/multimedia-in-gbif.html If you notice problems or need help with the API feel invited to post questions in this list. with thanks, GBIF dev team -- Markus Döring Software Developer Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) mdoering(a)gbif.org http://www.gbif.org

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Why is the downloads interface different than other occurrence endpoints?
by Scott Chamberlain 29 Sep '14

29 Sep '14

Hi! I'm curious why the occurrence/download/ endpoint has a different interface than the other occurrence endpoints (occurrence/search). I ask because I work on the R client rgbif, and it would be nice to provide the same exact interface to users whether they are getting JSON data or spinning up a download. However, the query interfaces are quite different. This isn't a big deal, as I can make both occurrence/download and occurrence/search endpoints as similar as possible for users despite them being different internally. Thanks! Scott Chamberlain

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Search for occurrence by identifier
by Roderic D. M. Page 16 Sep '14

16 Sep '14

Am I correct in thinking that it's not currently possible to search for an occurrence by identifier or the occurrenceID fields? For example, if I want to search the recently added Geographically tagged INSDC sequences dataset http://www.gbif.org/dataset/ad43e954-dd79-4986-ae34-9ccdbd8bf568 using the accession number I would need to search on either of these fields. Regards Rod Sent from Acompli

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Using api to get number of download events
by Gallien 15 Sep '14

15 Sep '14

Hi guys, Is it possible to retrieve datasets activity like the number of download events with the API ? (as provided in GBIF portal under "Activity" tab). If not, is there another way to get this piece of information from your site ? Thanks, Gallien Labeyrie

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explanation for unlikely interpretations?
by Ken-ichi 09 Sep '14

09 Sep '14

When viewing many (most?) of the iNat records on GBIF, I see a yellow box at the top of the page listing some "Interpretation Issues." Some of them I understand, like derived country, since iNat doesn't report the country, just the coordinates, but the following are more opaque: * Recorded date unlikely * Modified date unlikely * Identified date unlikely Here's an example: http://www.gbif.org/occurrence/923925309. As far as I know, all three dates are accurate for that record. Why does GBIF think they're "unlikely"? I suppose this is only tangentially related to the API, so if I should be directing this elsewhere please let me know. -ken-ichi

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