dataSources

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dataSources Configuration

The dataSources section of main.js is where you enter APIs where you will get data and related records for an address.

The parameters for any data source include:

parameter	description or example
id	an id for the data source
type	one of the 4 data source types
url	the url endpoint
options	an object for adding details for the ajax call

You may also have to put in a "success" function at this level (depending on the type of data source you are entering).

parameter	description or example
success	a function to return the data

What you put in the options depends on which type of data source you are using. These are detailed in the separate pages below.

There are different kinds of dataSource retrievals:

• http-get
• http-get-nearby
• esri
• esri-nearby

For instance, Office of Property Assessment (OPA) data for the City of Philadelphia can be accessed through the API with the URL 'https://data.phila.gov/resource/w7rb-qrn8.json'. To make an 'ajax' call to this URL, you can create a dataSource (which you could call 'opa'), and give it a 'type' of 'http-get' (the generic type for a general 'ajax' call), and a 'url' of the URL above.

Further details about options for each type of dataSource retrieval are documented in the individual pages linked above.

Example:

dataSources: {
  // each source has a unique key, e.g. `opa`
  opa: {
    // the type of call to make
    type: 'http-get',
    // the base url of the api
    url: 'https://data.phila.gov/resource/w7rb-qrn8.json',
    // all options
    options: {
      // query string parameters to be added to the url
      params: {
        // each param is mapped to a function that gets passed the current
        // address feature. use attributes from this feature to form data queries.
        // in this case, a param of `?parcel_number=<opa_account_num>` will be
        // appended to the url.
        parcel_number: function (feature) { return feature.properties.opa_account_num; }
        },
      // a callback that unpacks the desired record(s) from the api. this
      // data will be kept in state and made available in the topic panel.
      success: function (data) {
        return data[0];
      }
    }
  }
},