on the CS50 Wiki

The HarvardMaps API allows you to request data programmatically from HarvardMaps in CSV, JSON, JSONP, or serialized PHP format. The API provides a RESTful interface, which means that you can query it using simple HTTP GET requests.

Author

To report bugs or request features, contact:

David J. Malan '99
http://www.cs.harvard.edu/malan/

License

Use of this API is governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerical 3.0 Unported license, which means that you may use its data for non-commercial purposes so long as you attribute your data to this API, as by including a link to HarvardMaps in your own work. To discuss commercial purposes, contact the author.

Methods

buildings

To query the HarvardMaps API for buildings, contact the server via URLs in this format:

http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/channels?param1=value1&param2=value2&...

Supported parameters include:

If any parameters are malformed or any required parameters are omitted, an empty response will be returned along with, possibly, HTTP status code 400 Bad Request.

Note that buildings' IDs are not strictly numeric; some are alphanumeric.

Because the HarvardMaps API and the HarvardEnergy API rely on data from different sources on campus, this method's output may not be identical to the HarvardEnergy API's buildings method.

CSV

If you request buildings in CSV format (e.g., http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=952,991&output=csv), the response will be a series of comma-delimited rows, per the below:

bid,name,lat,lng
991,"Mather House",42.368270,-71.115270
952,"Matthews Hall",42.374070,-71.118150

Note that the response's first row defines the CSV file's fields. Fields' order may change over time, so do not hardcode indices into your own code. Use that first row to determine fields' indices dynamically, per this article on parsing CSV.

Beware opening the CSV file in Excel, as some buildings' IDs have leading 0s that Excel likes to remove.

JSON

If you request channels in JSON format (e.g., http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=952,991&output=json), the response wil be an array of objects, per the below:

[
   {
      "bid":"991",
      "name":"Mather House",
      "lat":"42.368270",
      "lng":"-71.115270"
   },
   {
      "bid":"952",
      "name":"Matthews Hall",
      "lat":"42.374070",
      "lng":"-71.118150"
   }
]

JSONP

If you request channels in JSONP format (e.g., http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=952,991&output=jsonp&callback=parseResponse), the response will be a padded array of objects, per the below:

parseResponse([{"bid":"991","name":"Mather House","lat":"42.368270","lng":"-71.115270"},{"bid":"952","name":"Matthews Hall","lat":"42.374070","lng":"-71.118150"}])

PHP

If you request channels in serialized PHP format (e.g., http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=952,991&output=php), the response will be a serialized array of associative arrays, per the below:

a:2:{i:0;a:4:{s:3:"bid";s:3:"991";s:4:"name";s:12:"Mather House";s:3:"lat";s:9:"42.368270";s:3:"lng";s:10:"-71.115270";}i:1;a:4:{s:3:"bid";s:3:"952";s:4:"name";s:13:"Matthews Hall";s:3:"lat";s:9:"42.374070";s:3:"lng";s:10:"-71.118150";}}

Once you unserialize that response, you'll have the below in memory:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [bid] => 991
            [name] => Mather House
            [lat] => 42.368270
            [lng] => -71.115270
        )
 
    [1] => Array
        (
            [bid] => 952
            [name] => Matthews Hall
            [lat] => 42.374070
            [lng] => -71.118150
        )
 
)

Examples

• Returns all buildings:
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?output=csv
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?output=json
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?output=jsonp&callback=parseResponse
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?output=php
• Returns Mather House:
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=991&output=csv
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=991&output=json
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=991&output=jsonp&callback=parseResponse
  • http://maps.cs50.net/api/1.1/buildings?bid=991&output=php

See Also

• Parsing CSV
• Parsing JSON
• Unserializing PHP

Related APIs

• HarvardCourses API
• HarvardEnergy API
• HarvardEvents API
• HarvardFood API
• HarvardNews API
• HarvardTweets API
• Shuttleboy API

External Links

• Comma-separated values
• JSON
• JSONP
• PHP: serialize
• PHP: unserialize

Changelog

• 1.0
• 1.1
  • Added support for JSONP