The Application Programming Interface (API) can be used to access and edit databases and their data.

A user account is needed (except for reading public data) and the authentication is based on an API key set for the user account.

• Go to your user account page.
• If your API is has not been set, click Edit.
• Check the box API key and do Save.

In the code below, the third-party package requests is used.

Example Python script with comments.

import json
import requests                              #### Third-party package.

URL = 'https://dbshare.scilifelab.se/api'    #### Replace with your site.
APIKEY = '4e7a...'                           #### Replace with your value.

response = requests.get(URL, headers={'x-apikey': APIKEY})
print(response.status_code)                  #### 200
print(json.dumps(response.json(), indent=2)) #### Indent for nicer output

#### The JSON for the API root contains information of the full set of
#### operations available in the form of template URLs with descriptions of
#### the variables and methods.


#### Create a database called 'newdb'.

url = URL + '/db/newdb'
response = requests.put(url, headers={'x-apikey': APIKEY})
print(response.status_code)                  # 200
print(json.dumps(response.json(), indent=2)) # Show db information


#### Create a table called 't1' in the 'newdb' database.

SCHEMA = {
  'name': 't1',
  'columns': [{'name': 'i', 'type': 'INTEGER', 'primarykey': True},
              {'name': 't', 'type': 'TEXT', 'notnull': False}]
}

url = URL + '/table/newdb/t1'
response = requests.put(url, headers={'x-apikey': APIKEY}, json=SCHEMA)
print(response.status_code)                  # 200
print(json.dumps(response.json(), indent=2)) # Show table information


#### Insert data; add two rows to the table.

DATA = {'data': [{'i': 1, 't': 'Some text'},
             {'i': 2, 't': 'More text'}]
}

url = URL + '/table/newdb/t1/insert'
response = requests.post(url, headers={'x-apikey': APIKEY}, json=DATA)
print(response.status_code)                  #### 200
result = response.json()
print(json.dumps(result, indent=2))          #### Show table information

url = result['rows']['href']                 #### Url for the JSON rows data
                                             #### NOTE: does not contain 'api'!
response = requests.get(url,  headers={'x-apikey': APIKEY})
print(response.status_code)                  #### 200
print(json.dumps(result, indent=2))          #### Show table rows data


#### Try invalid data: primary key already used.

DATA = {'data': [{'i': 1, 't': 'Wrong record'}]}
url = URL + '/table/newdb/t1/insert'
response = requests.post(url, headers={'x-apikey': APIKEY}, json=DATA)
print(response.status_code)                  # 400 !
result = response.json()
print(json.dumps(result, indent=2))          # Show error information