EveryCRT:Data API: Difference between revisions

The '''EveryCRT Data API''' is a documented way to fetch the structured data of [[Main Page|EveryCRT]] programmatically — for example, to build a third-party app that mirrors, indexes, or analyzes the wiki.

No authentication is required. All data is publicly readable.

== Sync pattern ==

The manifest is a JSON document listing every canonical entity-type category, with live page counts and ready-to-use enumeration URLs. It updates automatically as the catalog grows; new entity types added in the future will appear here without API clients needing code changes (assuming they iterate over <code>entity_types</code> rather than hardcoding).

'''Programmatic fetch (recommended):'''

The response wraps the manifest in <code>expandtemplates.wikitext</code> as a string; parse that string as JSON:

   + '?action=expandtemplates'

   + '&text=%7B%7B%23invoke%3ADataAPIManifest%7Cjson%7D%7D'

console.log(manifest.entity_types);

== Listing entities ==

Use Semantic MediaWiki's <code>action=ask</code> endpoint to enumerate pages of a given entity type. The manifest's <code>list_url</code> for each entity type does exactly this — returning every page with its <code>Modification date</code>, which is what you want for indexing and for driving incremental sync:

The query supports any SMW ask syntax — additional printouts, filters, ordering, etc.

'''Example — all Sony CRT models with screen size and release year:'''

For interactive query development, use [[Special:Ask]].

For a single page, the <code>action=browsebysubject</code> endpoint returns ''every'' SMW fact known about it — including subobjects (CRT inputs, outputs, voltage ranges, etc.):

This is the right endpoint for "give me everything you know about this entity" — no need to enumerate properties up front. New properties added to the wiki are automatically included in the response.

For incremental sync, poll <code>action=query&list=recentchanges</code> filtered by a timestamp. The standard MediaWiki [[Special:RecentChanges]] view is the human-readable equivalent:

A typical sync loop:

# Save your "last sync" timestamp (UTC ISO 8601) after each successful pass.

# For each unique <code>title</code> in the response, re-fetch via <code>browsebysubject</code> (or remove from your index if it was a deletion — see <code>rctype=log</code> and <code>rcshow</code> options for handling deletes and moves).

# Save the new "last sync" timestamp.

To filter to specific namespaces, add <code>&rcnamespace=0|3000</code> (main + Document, for example). Namespace IDs are listed via:

== RDF export ==

If your app is doing something cool with EveryCRT data, drop a note on the community channels — we'd love to see it.

== See also ==

* [[Special:Ask]] — interactive SMW query builder

* [[Special:Browse]] — interactive per-page fact browser

* [[Module:DataAPIManifest]] — Lua source of the manifest

* [[EveryCRT:Maintenance]] — wiki health and category audits

[[Category:EveryCRT administration]]