Provider API – Phylopic

We call the Phylopic APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. in two different ways:

1. http://phylopic.org/api/a/image/list/modified/YYYY-MM-DD
2. http://phylopic.org/api/a/image/ITEM_UUID?options=credit+licenseURL+pngFiles+submitted+submitter+taxa+canonicalName+string+firstName+lastName

We extract a list of UUIDs from the response to the first request, which we then use to construct subsequent requests (of the form shown second above filling in an extracted UUID for ITEM_UUID).

The response to a UUID-specified request is a JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. with the following form:

{
  "result": {
    "uid": "311594cf-1cba-441f-951f-4803784a2356",
    "taxa": [
      {
        "canonicalName": {
          "uid": "43647af6-f07e-49b8-92ff-6a1268de70e7",
          "string": "Acanthophis rugosus"
        }
      }
    ],
    "submitted": "2019-11-27 20:00:18",
    "credit": "CNZdenek",
    "pngFiles": [
      {
        "url": "/assets/images/submissions/311594cf-1cba-441f-951f-4803784a2356.64.png",
        "width": 64,
        "height": 39
      },
      {
        "url": "/assets/images/submissions/311594cf-1cba-441f-951f-4803784a2356.128.png",
        "width": 128,
        "height": 78
      },
      {
        "url": "/assets/images/submissions/311594cf-1cba-441f-951f-4803784a2356.256.png",
        "width": 256,
        "height": 156
      },
      {
        "url": "/assets/images/submissions/311594cf-1cba-441f-951f-4803784a2356.512.png",
        "width": 512,
        "height": 312
      },
      {
        "url": "/assets/images/submissions/311594cf-1cba-441f-951f-4803784a2356.1024.png",
        "width": 1024,
        "height": 624
      },
      {
        "url": "/assets/images/submissions/311594cf-1cba-441f-951f-4803784a2356.original.png",
        "width": 3798,
        "height": 2316
      }
    ],
    "licenseURL": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/",
    "submitter": {
      "lastName": "Zdenek",
      "uid": "5aeb06d9-fc67-4a99-8579-7cac28701825",
      "firstName": "Christina"
    }
  },
  "success": true
}

Below is a table showing the mapping from metadata returned by the API to columns in the image table in PostgreSQL. Fields from the above json are preceded by ‘$’ to mark them.

         Column          |    Comes From
-------------------------|-------------------------------
 foreign_identifier      | $result.pngFiles[i].url (prefer the largest available)
 foreign_landing_url     | 'http://phylopic.org/image/' + $result.uid
 url                     | $result.pngFiles[i].url (prefer the largest available)
 thumbnail               | $result.pngFiles[i2].url (only take width 256)
 width                   | $result.pngFiles[i].width (same as url)
 height                  | $result.pngFiles[i].height (same as url)
 license                 | extracted from $result.licenseURL
 license_version         | extracted from $result.licenseURL
 creator                 | $result.submitter.firstName + ' ' + $result.submitter.lastName
 title                   | $result.taxa[0].canonicalName.string
 meta_data               | See below

meta_data field

The meta_data field is a JSON of the following form:

{
  "taxa": [
    $result.taxa[0].canonicalName.string,
    $result.taxa[1].canonicalName.string,
    ...,
  ],
  "pub_date": $result.submitted,
  "credit_line": $result.credit
}

Last updated: August 10, 2021