This is an overview of methods to query the DigitaltMuseum (DiMu) API. The following guide has been created with a specific aim to facilitate querying Nasjonalmuseet's collection in DiMu, but the same methods can be used to query any other collection or across all collections in DiMu. Field use and detail level may vary in the different collections/museums.
DigitaltMuseum contains more than 3,860,000 heritage objects from Norway (1,85 mill. objects from 174 museums) and Sweden (2 mill. objects from 51 museums) (27.09.2016). Nasjonalmuseet currently has 36,000 objects available in DigitaltMuseum. Nasjonalmuseet's metadata are licensed Creative Commons Zero CC0. Re-use is encouraged.
DigitaltMuseum and API to the metadata is provided by KulturIT. A general API documentation (in Norwegian only) is at https://api.dimu.org/doc/public_api.html. The documentation below is based on KulturIT's documentation and on Nasjonalmuseet's experience of using the API to create web applications using our own data in DiMu. Disclaimer
The API base url is https://api.dimu.org/
An xml overview of museums or collections per country can be found like this:
/api/owners?country=no&api.key=demo
/api/owners?country=se&api.key=demo
The term owner here corresponds to a museum or collection. Each owner has an element identifier which is used to limit an API search. The owner structure is flat, but owners that are children of other owners in the hiearchy have a parent element. Calls to the API should always be limited to one or more owners unless you specifically need to query the entire index.
Nasjonalmuseet's owner code is NMK, however object metadata is kept under each individual collection: NMK-A (Architecture), NMK-B (Art) and NMK-D (Design). Nasjonalmuseet's exhibitions are organised under the NMK owner code.
For queries to the DiMu Solr index most common parameters can be used, including paging, sorting and to a certain extent faceting.
There are several searchable fields in the solr index. Some are stored and not tokenized, and some fields are tokenized but not stored, but still searchable. Typical examples of stored fields are the ingress fields. The content of these fields are displayed in the response. There are other stored fields that are not part of ingress that can be be used.
{
artifact.ingress.title: "Stemma. Quattrocento [Maleri]",
artifact.ingress.producer: "Slaattelid, Mari",
artifact.uuid: "5A4FCFDD-CB15-4DB1-971F-4FF5D15E68F6",
artifact.pictureCount: 1,
artifact.defaultPictureIndex: 15618,
artifact.childCount: 2,
artifact.defaultMediaIdentifier: "012wWWHgNJLA",
artifact.hasPictures: true,
artifact.uniqueId: "021045839502",
artifact.ingress.production.toYear: 1999,
artifact.ingress.producerRole: "Kunstner",
artifact.publishedDate: "2015-04-18T06:18:23.538Z",
artifact.ingress.license: [
"AC 1"
],
identifier.id: "MS-04266-1999",
artifact.hasChildren: true,
identifier.owner: "NMK-B",
artifact.type: "Fineart",
artifact.ingress.production.fromYear: 1999,
artifact.ingress.subjects: [
"Bildende kunst"
],
artifact.updatedDate: "2015-09-22T07:49:19.08Z"
}The response will be in xml by default. Add the parameter wt=json for a JSON response.
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| identifier.id | Museum or collection's own identifier / inventory no., e.g. NMK.2005.0257 |
| identifier.owner | Museum or collection code, e.g. NMK-B |
| artifact.uniqueId | DiMu-specific unique id for object, e.g. 021045835852 |
| artifact.folderUids | Folder ID of object, i.e. find all objects in a folder |
| artifact.name | Name, alternative name, etc |
| artifact.type | Type of object, e.g. 'Exhibition' |
| artifact.classification | Classification. Nasjonalmuseet uses Outline where relevant. |
| artifact.pictureCount | No. of images for this object |
| artifact.hasPictures | true or false |
| artifact.defaultMediaIdentifier | Id for default picture on DiMu media server (DMS) |
| Id for default picture (obsolete) | |
| artifact.publishedDate | Date published to DiMu |
| artifact.updatedDate | Last updated |
| artifact.ingress.title or artifact.title | Object title |
| artifact.ingress.producer or artifact.producer | Producer |
| artifact.ingress.producerRole | Role code for producer: Artist, designer, architect etc |
| artifact.ingress.additionalProducers | Any additional producers |
| artifact.ingress.production.fromYear or artifact.event.fromYear | Production year start |
| artifact.ingress.production.toYear or artifact.event.toYear | Production year end |
| artifact.ingress.production.place or artifact.event.place | Production place |
| artifact.eventDescription | Event description |
| artifact.ingress.classification | Classification |
| artifact.ingress.subjects | Subjects |
| artifact.depictedPerson | Depicted person |
| artifact.depictedPlace | Depicted place |
| artifact.material | Material |
| artifact.technique | Technique |
| artifact.license | Object license (not picture license), truncated search. 'cc-by' will return 'cc-by-nc-nd' as well |
| artifact.ingress.license | Object license (not picture license), exact match search. 'cc-by' will not return 'cc-by-nc-nd' |
| allContent | Free text search field (default) |
Searching in fields is done by adding field:query as a value to the fq parameter. Multiple searches can be joined by AND or OR separators or by stacking multiple fq parameters. Multiple fq parameters count as an AND search.
https://api.dimu.org/api/solr/select?q=*&fq=identifier.owner:NMK*&wt=json&api.key=demo
The above query will return all Nasjonalmuseet's objects in the DiMu API. Mandatory parameters for a query are the q parameter and an api key. (For hackathons in 2016, the hack4o key can be used.)
Objects related to a place [Oslo]:
Object name [Maleri (painting)]:
Object name [Ukiyo-e]:
With a specified number of rows returned per request. 100 rows is maximum. The response can be paged with the start parameter.
Object type [Exhibition]:
With a specified number of rows returned per request. 100 rows is maximum. The response can be paged with the start parameter.
Objects by a specific artist/producer [Harriet Backer]:
Facet by producer, ordered alphabetically (default):
Facet by producer, ordered by frequency / number of objects in collection:
The Solr response has limitations in certain fields. For instance, it will only return one title for an object although multiple titles may exist, for instance titles in other languages. Also, the Solr response will only list one producer per object even if more exist, and it will not list any attribute associated with the production event. E.g. if a production event carries the attribute antatt sikker (presumed certain), it will not be present in the Solr response..The full object view (in JSON) of individual objects can be requested by using the object’s artifact.uuid from the Solr response:
https://api.dimu.org/artifact/uuid/3DF10C96-B33B-45C1-92BF-D9211CE574C8
The full view will return more fields than the Solr response, in particular it will have a more elaborate description of the production event. Se here for an overview of the full object representation.
All photo files from Nasjonalmuseet's collection are licensed CC-BY. The copyright of individual objects, in particular artworks, can carry a copyright that prevents free re-use. Any copyright for an individual object will be represented in the metadata. See here for how to retrieve pictures from the DiMu media servers.