Wikibase REST API

Making it easier to program with Wikidata’s data

Silvan Heintze & Lydia Pintscher - Wikimedia Deutschland

Why a new API for Wikibase?

We want more people to build applications on top of Wikidata’s data.

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(Also other Wikibase instances!)

But it’s hard!

Wikibase REST API to the rescue!

• Provide a more industry- standard and versioned way to access and manipulate data in Wikibase
• Provide an API that is more tailored to the Wikibase data model
• Solve a number of issues in the current API that are easier to solve with REST

Meet the new Wikibase REST API!

What you can do already with the new API

• Retrieve Item data, filter fields in response (e.g., type, labels, descriptions, aliases, statements, sitelinks)
• Retrieve all statements on an Item
• Retrieve data in a single statement or statement group
• Create or remove a statement on an Item
• Replace an existing statement on an Item

Comparison to Action API

Item Data

• Uses statements instead of claims

Labels, Descriptions, Aliases

• Use flat structure

Statement data

• The mainsnak field is removed
• A top level property field is introduced, holding both the id and data-type
• A top level value field is added, consisting of two fields: content and type
• The fields mainsnak.hash and datavalue.type are removed
• All fields are always included in the response, even when empty

Metadata

• pageid, ns, and title fields are omitted
• revision ID and last modified date are included in HTTP response headers
• success state is represented in HTTP response code (2xx vs 4xx)

Demo

What’s next?

Where do we go from here?

• Get feedback on the current version and plan how to proceed with for example support for other entity types
• Not (yet): deprecate the Action API

Get in touch!

User:Lydia Pintscher (WMDE)

User:Silvan Heintze (WMDE)

• Overview
• Documentation
• Feedback