Application Programming Interface
Petities.nl can be approached through the Application Programming Interface (API) by third parties.
Eventually all data which is not privacy senstive can be read and to some extent written to the database.
When petitions are presented as the main feature of the application or the petities.nl brand is prominent, there should be no advertising in that same application. Advertisements are not an issue in an application or website which is mainly about something else (the subject of a certain petition for example) with petitions as an added bonus feature.
It is no problem to ask money for or in an application which connects to the API. Donations to petities.nl are always much appreciated and especially when users pay or donate because of a petitioning feature.
Below a design (in Dutch) with certain roles the API could and should serve. Currently not fully implemented. Contact webmaster@petities.nl if you intend to use the API.
| Nr. | User | Environment | Example | GET | POST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | petitioners | campaign websites, social networks | plasticsoup.org | x | x |
| 2 | governments | raadsinformatiesystemen, government website | SIM groep, MSI, Notubiz, Gemeenteoplossingen, CompanyWebcast? | x | x |
| 3 | application developers | mobile apps, third party sites | Tippiq | x | |
| 4 | media | news websites | ANP | x | |
| 5 | journalists | investigative news reports | Sargasso, VVOJ | x | |
| 6 | European partners | connected Europe wide petitions, European Citizens' Initiatives | OpenPetition, Petitie.be | x | x |
| 7 | researchers | statistische software, issue mapping | Rathenau Instituut, Universiteit Twente, Universiteit Tilburg, HowAboutYou | x |
Inhoud
petitioners
These use cases are to be made possible for a petitioner/campaigner:
- show a widget on a third party campaign website where the petition can be signed (BASIC FEATURE)
- show a counter with the number of signatures for the petition so far (BASIC FEATURE)
- inject the name, city and e-mailaddress as a signature by following a customised, personalised link from an e-mail newsletter (BASIC FEATURE)
- embed a selection of petitions to promote/discuss on your personal blog (NICE FEATURE, variation on 1st)
- create a graphic with signatures per hour or per day within a chosen time frame, e.g. 'the past days', 'when we came on tv', 'the days after the launch', 'in the different seasons last year', 'around lunch time on weekdays'(NICE TO HAVE, variation on 2nd)
- (bonus: show an up-to-date timeline with date of start, hand over of and expected answer to the petition) (BONUS, date of start not recorded)
| number | condition | command | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | petitions.id, petitions.status=live | POST petitions.id, new_signatures.person_name, new_signatures.person_email, new_signatures.person_city, new_signatures.visibility | a signature |
| 2 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.name, locale=nl | name of a petition, can change |
| 3 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petitions.slug | the part of the URL with dashes, unique for a petition (can change) |
| 4 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petitions.subdomain | fixed unique subdomain added during moderation |
| 5 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.description, locale=nl | short introtext above a petition (can change) |
| 6 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.initiators, locale=nl | fixed description of signatories, 1st part of the petition |
| 7 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.statement, locale=nl | fixed observation of facts in 2nd part of petition |
| 8 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.request, locale=nl | fixed demand of the petition, 3rd and last part of the petition |
| 9 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petitions.date_projected | date of hand over, changes more often as hand over approaches, also an expiration date of the petition |
| 10 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, organisation_id | recipient of petition, for example local counsil or parliament |
| 11 | GET organisations.id, organisation_name | name of the organisation (for example bv. id=658 is parliament) | |
| 12 | GET organisations.id, organisation_kind | district, water_county, counsil, plusregion, government, parliament, european_union, collective | |
| 13 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, petitioner_organisation | organisation of the petitioner, optional. |
| 14 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, maps_query area | where the petition is situated, if applicable |
| 15 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, signatures_count | how many signatures |
| 16 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, number_of_signatures_on_paper | how many signatures the petitioner claims to have collected through other means (on paper) |
| 17 | NOT NULL | GET petitions.id, answer_due_date | when an answer can be expected after the handover, receiving organisation will change it often |
governments
In addition to the use cases for the petitioner, these are to be made possible for local governments
- show petitions in an app or website specific for some locality/recipient (BASIC FEATURE)
- embed petitions for the citizenry of a locality on a website
- link existing formal documents as related to the petition
- show citizen engagement with statistics (number of signatures, subscriptions to updates)
- show deadlines for petitions (hand over, answer, public hearing, committee meetings, etc.)
- post news updates connected to petitions
| number | condition | command | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.name, locale=nl | name of a petition, can change |
| 6 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.initiators, locale=nl | fixed description of signatories, 1st part of the petition |
| 7 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.statement, locale=nl | fixed observation of facts in 2nd part of petition |
| 8 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.request, locale=nl | fixed demand of the petition, 3rd and last part of the petition |
| 9 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, petitions.date_projected | date of hand over, changes more often as hand over approaches, also an expiration date of the petition |
| 10 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, organisation_id | recipient of petition, for example local counsil or parliament |
| 13 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, petitioner_organisation | organisation of the petitioner, optional. |
| 14 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, maps_query area | where the petition is situated, if applicable |
| 15 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, signatures_count | how many signatures |
| 16 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, number_of_signatures_on_paper | how many signatures the petitioner claims to have collected through other means (on paper) |
| 17 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, answer_due_date | when an answer can be expected after the handover, receiving organisation will change it often |
| 18 | organisation.id in API key | GET petitions.id, status | to categorise petitions as concept, live or awaiting answer etc. |
| 19 | organisation.id in API key | POST newsitems.title, newsitems.text, newsitems.petition_id, newsitems.officeid | a news item about the petition, for example announce a hand over |
| 20 | organisation.id in API key, time>now | POST petitions.id, petitions.date_projected | the final word on the hand over date comes from the recipient who controls the agenda, not in the past |
application developers
Third party developers with a need for a certain new query should contact us and bring in the budget to adapt the application programming interface. Examples of potential new queries in the future:
- a generated petition coming using a template based on big data coming from certain aggregated complaints
- submitting a url of a webpage with an essay that an certain number of readers recommend to reformulate as a petition, for example a newspaper article or blog posting, immediately inserting the readers as new_signatories
- a location based augmented reality app showing petitions, current and old, based on GPS-data
- keeping track of who you invited to sign a petition and who of your friends signed publicly
media
Similar to the previous category of user, but with the distinction that these website are interested to offer relevant free content repackaged to the end-user. The goals is to sell the content with advertising or to further their activistic goals. For example a local blog (geography) or a animal rights community (thematic).
These users will probably be best served with a RSS-feed of petitions with a certain geographic identified (recipient of petition for example) or thematic keyword (tag). A widget that can easily embed in an existing website will serve even more. This is similar to a feature for the Application_Programming_Interface#petitioners but with a different appearance. They show all the petitions relevant to a certain query, without a form to sign, but with the name and the number of signatures.
journalists
The user with the role 'journalist' has specific, professional needs and does not mind requesting some login-id. If the journalist has been awarded a certain level of trust, then also personal information of the petitioner (not visible on the website) can be shown, although not before a petition goes live and not after the petition is closed.
The journalist has specific interests, depending on their employer, but these are not fixed. They change employer or topic, but they should be able to adjust their profile accordingly or support multiple profiles. Both nautical themes and local politics for a certain coastal municipality for example.
Configuring RSS-feeds or a web-profile does not fit their workflow. Sending alerts to their mailbox does. This is significantly different from the other users because this requires a simple profile- and subscriptions management webpage.
Investigative journalists might have more complicated (historical) queries to the database. For them the profile 'researcher' is more fit.
European partners
Petities die op petities.nl beginnen moeten ook gedeeld kunnen worden met andere petitiesites in Europa. Europetition zorgt voor de vertaling. Petities op andere sites moeten ook zichtbaar zijn op petities.nl met naam, tekst en het totale aantal ondertekenaars elders. Ondertekeningen hier worden weer doorgegeven aan Europetition (maar niet de ondertekenaars, alleen het aantal).
researchers
Are interested in quantative and qualitative historical trends and patterns. Unlike journalists they are not interested in the individual petitioners and signatories. The privacy of users should be sufficiently masked.
These users do not mind to identify themselves and, unlike journalists, we can ask technical skills.
They do not write to the database.
- GET met (petition) id + updated_at de laatste bewerking van de petitionaris in de petitie, hoe actief een petitionaris is
- GET met (petition) id + status geeft voor een bepaalde petitie de status weer, of een petitie al ondertekenbaar is bijvoorbeeld
- GET met status <concept,live,draft,rejected> geeft de lijst met petities weer voor een bepaalde status
| number | condition | command | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.name, locale=nl | name of a petition, can change |
| 3 | API key | GET petitions.id, petitions.slug | the part of the URL with dashes, unique for a petition (can change) |
| 4 | API key | GET petitions.id, petitions.subdomain | fixed unique subdomain added during moderation |
| 5 | API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.description, locale=nl | short introtext above a petition (can change) |
| 6 | API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.initiators, locale=nl | fixed description of signatories, 1st part of the petition |
| 7 | API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.statement, locale=nl | fixed observation of facts in 2nd part of petition |
| 8 | API key | GET petitions.id, petition_translations.request, locale=nl | fixed demand of the petition, 3rd and last part of the petition |
| 9 | API key | GET petitions.id, petitions.date_projected | date of hand over, changes more often as hand over approaches, also an expiration date of the petition |
| 10 | API key | GET petitions.id, organisation_id | recipient of petition, for example local counsil or parliament |
| 11 | API key | GET organisations.id, organisation_name | name of the organisation (for example bv. id=658 is parliament) |
| 12 | API key | GET organisations.id, organisation_kind | district, water_county, counsil, plusregion, government, parliament, european_union, collective |
| 13 | API key | GET petitions.id, petitioner_organisation | organisation of the petitioner, optional. |
| 14 | API key | GET petitions.id, maps_query area | where the petition is situated, if applicable |
| 15 | API key | GET petitions.id, signatures_count | how many signatures |
| 16 | API key | GET petitions.id, number_of_signatures_on_paper | how many signatures the petitioner claims to have collected through other means (on paper) |
| 17 | API key | GET petitions.id, answer_due_date | when an answer can be expected after the handover, receiving organisation will change it often |
| 18 | API key | GET petitions.id, status | to categorise petitions as concept, live or awaiting answer etc. |
| 19 | API key | GET petitions.id, signatures_count, +time since first signature | to analyse the history of a certain petition or draw a graphic |
| 20 | API key | GET petitions, status, +date +tag +recipient +time | to analyse the status of petitions historically or draw a graphic |
