Using the STARS API

The STARS API is a dedicated, RESTful API for accessing STARS submission data. There are a few important things to know before using the STARS API which are explained below.

Getting Access

AASHE requires that all programs using the API authenticate with an API key and username. To request an API Key please contact the STARS team at stars@aashe.org. API Access will only be provided to STARS Participants and AASHE Members at this time.

Currently all data is READ-ONLY, so all users will have the same access level. As future versions of the API develop we will provide controlled write access to pre-submission STARS data as granted by each institution. For now only GET requests are accepted.

Data Model and Structure

The three APIs: The Credits API, Institutions API, and The Submissions API use resources that model the underlying STARS data.

Credits

Resources in The Credits API mimic the Technical Manual

• CreditSet - Versions of STARS

  • Category

    • Subcategory

      • Credit

        • Documentation Field

Institutions

Institutions API only has Institution Resources, but the resource contains information about the institution including the URI of their STARS Report Resource in The Submissions API.

Submissions

Resources in The Submissions API tie directly to Credit Sets in The Credits API.

• Submission Set - A STARS Report

  • Category Submission

    • Subcategory Submission

      • Credit

        • Field

RESTful Interface

The STARS API was designed to be as flexible as possible. This is why we chose to release it as a RESTful interface. Each query of the API is simply an HTTP request (so far only GET) to a URI where you can work with STARS data, for example:

/api/0.1/credits/credisets/

will give you a list of all the versions of STARS. See The Credits API for specifics.