Revision as of 13:28, 24 October 2020

Introduction

Version 1 of the Open Food Facts API has been developed organically since 2012, often according to specific needs (in particular the OFF app), and it has been modeled on the structure of the MongoDB database (which itself has evolved organically) and on the Web site (e.g. reusing or mimicking existing CGI forms).

As a result, version 1 of the API is not as standard / simple / easy / powerful / intuitive / documented etc. as it could be.

This page is to discuss the design of a better version 2 of the API.

Desired properties wishlist

What standards should the new API follow, what overally properties should it have etc.?

You can add what you want, and we can discuss it.

A documentation that matches the implementation
Non-breaking changes
A direct mapping to the MongoDB format
Consistent types for all fields - see https://github.com/openfoodfacts/openfoodfacts-server/issues/4389
...

APIs

Product read API

call

result json

field names

For the naming of the fields of the results json the following principles are used:

Typing - the to expected type of the values is encoded in the field names, by a string at the end:
- _tags - expect a String array;
- _n - expect an Integer;
- _t - expect a time in seconds since ?, encoded as Integer;
- _f - expect a float;
- none - the default will b a String

platform specific naming issues

Swift: it should be as easy as possible to decode a json with the standard Swift-libraries.
- no "-", which are not allowed in Swift variable names;

comments

The json seems to have two user groups: OFF itself and end users (apps). Can the json be split in two section that correspond to these groups as well? Not sure whether this is a good approach.
The json can be more structured, so that it is more readible for a viewer, but also from an parsing interpreting point of view. I.e. everything that corresponds to packaging goes together.
Improved field-names, which clearly reflect the origin or processing of the data. This should reduce the number of questions around field s and their interpretation.

Product write API

Images read API

Images write API

Robotoff read API

There is now a minimal documentation (link). The documentation needs some more explanation.

call

result json

The result json contains fields that seem more useful to the internal workings of Robotoff than the enduser. Can these be split/structured in the json as well?

Robotoff write API

This api allows to write reponses to insight questions provided by the Robotoff read API.

Search API

See Open Food Facts Search API Version 2

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 === result json ===
+==== field names ====
+For the naming of the fields of the results json the following principles are used:
+* Typing - the to expected type of the values is encoded in the field names, by a string at the end:
+** _tags - expect a String array;
+** _n - expect an Integer;
+** _t - expect a time in seconds since ?, encoded as Integer;
+** _f - expect a float;
+** none - the default will b a String
+==== platform specific naming issues ====
+* Swift: it should be as easy as possible to decode a json with the standard Swift-libraries.
+** no "-", which are not allowed in Swift variable names;
+==== comments ====
 * The json seems to have two user groups: OFF itself and end users (apps). Can the json be split in two section that correspond to these groups as well? Not sure whether this is a good approach.
 * The json can be more structured, so that it is more readible for a viewer, but also from an parsing interpreting point of view. I.e. everything that corresponds to packaging goes together.