And speaking of APIs, I just noticed a post on govdoc-l that the St Louis Fed is now providing APIs for FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) and ALFRED (ArchivaL Federal Reserve Economic Data). Here’s more information on their API. I hope our programming friends will check out FRED and ALFRED as there’s a TON of data there, some going back to 1927!
From the St Louis Fed programmer:
“The FRED API accommodates any programming language that can parse XML and communicate with our servers using HTTP. The FRED API is based on the REST web service architecture. REST leverages familiar web technologies. Like a website, the FRED API uses HTTP to receive requests and send responses. Also like a website, the FRED API uses URLs to specify requests. This web service differs from a normal website by sending XML instead of HTML. HTML is a visual medium that’s not always strictly formatted and flexible enough for arbitrary data structures. XML allows custom tags and relationships among tags.”
This is *exactly* how govt agencies should building their Web/data services. Thanks St Louis Fed!!
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