Tutorial - how to use an API Data Mince - our open data starter Footfall data in Plymouth parks

Getting help

So, what do you do now?

Okay, to keep pushing the shopping analogy - maybe the shop doesn't have a 'Milk' shelf. Perhaps it has a 'Dairy' aisle. Maybe it's not a corner shop at all, but rather a petrol station with a fridge marked 'Essentials' where the milk is kept along with the sausage rolls and the energy drinks. Maybe you actually need almond milk, or soya, and those are kept in a completely different section called 'Alternatives to dairy'. Until you get there it's difficult to know.

my-corner-shop API documentation
-----------------------------------
Departments
- readymeals
- frozenfood
- fruitandveg
- bakery
- dairy
- - products
- - - cheese
- - - yoghurt
- - - milk
...

That's what the API documentation is supposed to do - it acts as a guide to the layout of the store, so to speak, and what products you might expect to find on which shelves.

According to this, the department we need is called 'dairy' and once we get there we want to look in 'products', then find the actual product name we're looking for. So we need to specify both the 'department' and the 'product' in our API call.

Putting all that together, our request is going to look something like this:

https://my-corner-shop.com/dairy?product=milk&size=1&type=semiskimmed