Traits API does no longer return traits

[frmichel]

Hi guys,

For quite a while, I've noticed that there is no more trait information returned by the traits API. For instance if you lookup http://eol.org/api/traits/314276, the JSON array that provides traits is always empty:

    "traits": [
    ]

Could this be fixed please?
Is there another API I should look at now?

Thx,
Franck.

[jhammock]

Thanks for reporting, @frmichel ! We think most of the pages should be working again, but if you find some that aren't, we can target them if you report them here.

Thanks for your patience; this particular service was never fully baked. We do hope to stand up the first few trait services for EOL v3 in a month or so; they should also be more configurable.

[frmichel]

Thx @jhammock, that works now.
Do you guys intend to support this service in the long term or will it be decommissioned some time?
I'm actually using it for a demo I will present in August, at the TDWG conference. Would be great if it could still be up by that time ;)

Franck.

[frmichel]

Oops actually the service was back on line, but it is not working again right now. Same behaviour: the traits array is empty.

Could you please check it?

[jhammock]

Curses. I'm so sorry, @frmichel ! It was something else that failed this time. Frankly, we were planning to have a period of overlap supporting this and the new services, but at this point I think we'll all be better off not relying on the old service. Can I persuade you to adopt the new API? We'll be recruiting alpha users in a few days. It's a different query language (Cypher) but we can provide help with query construction and it will be a much more flexible service.

[frmichel]

@jhammock: Hi Jen, thx for your reply.

Actually I've noticed that the API fails for some species like http://eol.org/api/traits/314276 (no traits anymore although there used to be), while it works for others like http://eol.org/api/traits/328541.

I understand your concern about maintaining the current API. I'd be happy to move to the new one and test it, although right now is not the best timing for me: I have set up a demo for the TDWG conference, that relies on the old API version. I'm afraid migrating to the new Cypher interface will probably require some work. I'd prefer to stick to the old one for now, at least until the demo is done (end of August). Do you think this is possible on your side?

Anyway, I'd be happy to test the new API. Should I register somewhere for this? Note that I'm already registered on EoL: http://eol.org/users/106823

Regards,
Franck.

[jhammock]

I understand about the demo and I expect we can keep the JSON-LD up, such as it is, though we probably won't be able to track down what is interrupting service for some taxa.

I'll connect you with our API developer about the new service; we'll need to set you up with user authorization; it'll be great to have a live 3rd party to try it on!

[frmichel]

Hi Jen,

I expect we can keep the JSON-LD up, such as it is, though we probably won't be able to track down what is interrupting service for some taxa.

Ok that's great, I'm fine with this solution.

I'll connect you with our API developer about the new service; we'll need to set you up with user authorization; it'll be great to have a live 3rd party to try it on!

Ok great!

Thx,
Franck.