Directory Web Service

Delivering contact information about CSUN entities

Introduction

The Directory web service provides contact information about CSUN entities. The web service provides a gateway to access the information via a REST-ful API. The information is retrieved by creating a specific URI and giving values to filter the data. The data is provided by CSUN Central IT. The information that is returned is a JSON object that contains contact information about a particular person, center, college, department, etc; the format of the JSON object is as follows:

		
{
  "status": "200",
  "success": "true",
  "type": "department",
  "department": {
    "department_id": "academic_departments:189",
    "college_id": "academic_groups:52",
    "entity_type": "Academic Department",
    "name": "Computer Science",
    "description": "Welcome to the fascinating world of Computer Science, boys and girls.",
    "record_status": "Active",
    "contacts": [
      {
        "contact_id": 6247,
        "entities_id": "academic_departments:189",
        "parent_entities_id": "academic_groups:52",
        "role_position": "department",
        "precedence": 0,
        "is_displayed": 1,
        "title": "Computer Science",
        "email": "compsci@csun.edu",
        "telephone": "8186773398",
        "facsimile_telephone": "8186777208",
        "website": "http://www.csun.edu/engineering-computer-science/computer-science",
        "location": "Jacaranda Hall",
        "office": "JD 4503",
        "mail_drop": "91330-8281"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Getting Started

  1. GENERATE THE URI: Find the usage that fits your need. Browse through subcollections, instances and query types to help you craft your URI.
  2. PROVIDE THE DATA: Use the URI to query your data. See the Usage Example section.
  3. SHOW THE RESULTS

Collections

Examples

Retrieves information of a single entity (phasing out soon) Retrieves information of Departments Retrieves information of Colleges Retrieves information about Committees Retrieves information about Centers Retrieves information about Institutes Retrieves Faculty Listings

Subcollections

Examples

Retrieves information of a single entity

Usage Example

						
// this example assumes jQuery integration for ease of use
// and a <div> element with the ID of "directory-results"

// query the information for computer science
var url = 'https://api.metalab.csun.edu/directory/api/departments/189';
$(document).ready(function() {

	// perform a shorthand AJAX call to grab the information
	$.get(url, function(data) {

		// get the department information
		var department = data.department;
		$(department).each(function(index, info) {

			// append each course to the content of the element
			$('#directory-results').append('<p>' + info.name + ' ' + info.description + '</p>');

		});
		
	});

});
						
					

						
// query all the information for Computer Science
$url = "https://api.metalab.csun.edu/directory/api/departments/189";

//add extra necessary options
$arrContextOptions=array(
    "ssl"=>array(
        "verify_peer"=>false,
        "verify_peer_name"=>false,
    ),
);

$data = file_get_contents($url, false, stream_context_create($arrContextOptions));

// encode into an array
$data = json_decode($data, true);

// print the results
print_r($data['department']['name']);
						
					

						
#python
import urllib2
import json

#query all the information for Computer Science
url = u'https://api.metalab.csun.edu/directory/api/departments/189'

#try to read the data	
try:
   u = urllib2.urlopen(url)
   data = u.read()
except Exception as e:
	data = {}

#decode into an array
data = json.loads(data)

#setup a blank array
directory_list = []

#loop through results and add department name
#and description subject to direcotyr_list
for info in data['department']:
	directory_list.append(info['name'] + ' ' + info['description'])

print directory_list
						
					

						
require 'net/http'
require 'json'

#query all the information for Computer Science
source = 'https://api.metalab.csun.edu/directory/api/departments/189'

#call data
response = Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(source))

#get body of the response
data = response.body

#put the parsed data
puts JSON.parse(data)