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https://github.com/pelagios/peripleo

***deprecated*** A search engine for the Pelagios universe, with a comprehensive JSON API.
https://github.com/pelagios/peripleo

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***deprecated*** A search engine for the Pelagios universe, with a comprehensive JSON API.

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README 

        
__UPDATE: this version of Peripleo is deprecated. To visit the new, updated version, see__



__http://peripleo.pelagios.org__



__or__



__http://github.com/pelagios/peripleo2__ (source code)



__API USERS:__ fret not! The new Peripleo version features a partially backwards-compatible API ("legacy

compatibility API"). __This means that most of the documentation below remains valid.__ Links and

documentation text have been updated to reflect this.



---



# Peripleo



Peripleo (Greek for "to sail", "to swim around") is a search & browsing engine for data in the [Pelagios network](http://commons.pelagios.org). Peripleo is work in progress.



## Background - the Pelagios Initiative



Pelagios (Greek for 'of the Sea') is a __community network__ that facilitates __linking of online resources that document the past__, based on the __places they refer to__. From the [large epigraphic database](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/ui#selected=http%3A%2F%2Fedh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de) to the [small archive of historical photographs](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/ui#selected=node1c6fco9g2x1), each of our partner datasets represents one piece of the puzzle. Pelagios combines these pieces into a coherent whole that enables connection, exchange and discovery - just as the Mediterranean Sea did for the Ancient World.



## Peripleo



An overview of Peripleo & what you can do with it is available at the [Pelagios project blog](http://pelagios-project.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/peripleo-sneak-preview.html).



## Peripleo API



The __Peripleo API__ provides machine access to our data. The 'mental model' behind Peripleo is simple! It consists of only three types of entities:



* __Items__ such as archaeological artefacts, literary texts, photographs, etc.

* __Places__ to which these items are related, e.g. places mentioned in a text or the findspot of an artefact

* __Datasets__ which are collections of items, e.g. a particular museum collection or data corpus published by an institution



Datasets as well as items can be __hierarchical__. (E.g. the Pelagios 3 dataset is sub-divided into a corpus of

Greek and Latin literary texts. Likewise, an item such as Herodotus' _The Histories_ can be subdivided into individual _Books_.)



## Response Format



The API returns responses in JSON format. ~~[CORS](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-Origin_Resource_Sharing) and

[JSONP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSONP) are both supported.~~ __UPDATE: backwards-compatible API provides CORS-only

at the moment.__ Most responses are __paginated__, i.e. you will get back only one "page" of results:



```json

{

  "total" : 112,

  "limit" : 20,

  "items" : [

    ...

  ]

}

```



You can traverse pages using an `offset` and `limit` (= page size) parameter. If `limit` is omitted, it will

default to a page size of 20. Example:



Results 1 - 20:

[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=gold](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=gold&prettyprint=true)



Results 21 - 40:

[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=gold&offset=20](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=gold&offset=20&prettyprint=true)



## Pretty Printing



Per default, the API will return a compact, unformatted JSON response. You can force a more human-readable response by

appending a `prettyprint=true` parameter. Example:



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=bronze&prettyprint=true](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=bronze&prettyprint=true)



## Searching the API



The main feature you'll probably want to use is __search__. You can search the API by __keyword__,

__place__ (gazetteer URIs), __space__ (geographic area), __time interval__, __dataset__,

__object type__ (i.e. _place_, _item_ or _dataset_) - or any combination of those. A typical search result

record looks like this:



```json

{

  "identifier" : "bb4e2f4b0bc7f4d6c065cb5167f4d3f831ccf795af0204f2647f8ec1bbcabcba",

  "title" : "Periplus of the Euxine Sea",

  "object_type" : "Item",

  "temporal_bounds" : {

    "start" : 130,

    "end" : 130

  },

  "geo_bounds" : {

    "min_lon" : 23.7195,

    "max_lon" : 44.0,

    "min_lat" : 37.5197,

    "max_lat" : 45.5

  }

}

```



The `identifier`, `title` and `object_type` labels are always present. Depending on the object, the record can also

include a short textual `description`, the bounds of the object in space and time (`geo_bounds` and `temporal_bounds`, respectively) and a lists of URLs to `depictions` (images).



In case the result represents and item (rather than a place), the record can also include a `homepage` URL for the item, and the `dataset_path`, i.e. the hierarchy of datasets the item is in. In case the result reprents a place, the record will include a list of variant `names` and, potentially, a list of `matches` - additional identifier URIs, under the same place is registered in other gazetteers.



You can retrieve more information about a record (such as all places related to an item, or information about sub-items) through __REST-style access__ (see below), using the record's `identifier` as a key.



The base URL for search is http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search, followed by any of these the filter parameters:



#### query



A keyword query. Per default, only exact matches are returned. Supports logical AND and OR operators, and trailing asterisk for prefix queries. (Note that logical operators need to be uppercase!) If you want to run a fuzzy search, which will also match similar - but not necessarily identical - terms, append a '~' to your query term. Examples:



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=gold+AND+coin](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=gold+AND+coin&prettyprint=true)



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=athen*](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=athen*&prettyprint=true)



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=bvrdigala~](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=bvrdigala~&prettyprint=true)



#### types



Restrict the results to `place`, `dataset` or `item`. Allows multiple values, as comma-separated list. Examples:



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=coin&types=place](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=coin&types=place&prettyprint=true)



#### datasets



Restrict results to one or more specific datasets. (Separate multiple dataset IDs by comma.) E.g. find everything for 'mausoleum' in the [Epigraphic Database Heidelberg](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/ui#selected=http%3A%2F%2Fedh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de):



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=mausoleum&datasets=http%3A%2F%2Fedh-www...](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=mausoleum&datasets=http%3A%2F%2Fedh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de&prettyprint==true)



#### places



Restrict to one or more places. Places are identified by a comma-separated list of gazetteer URIs. (URIs need to be

URL-escaped!). If more than one place is specified, they are logically combined to an AND query. That means the search

will return items related to __all__ of the places in the list. E.g. find everything that refers to both Rome AND Syria:



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?places=http:%2F%2Fpleiades.stoa.org%2Fplaces%2F981550,htt...](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?places=http:%2F%2Fpleiades.stoa.org%2Fplaces%2F981550,http:%2F%2Fpleiades.stoa.org%2Fplaces%2F423025&prettyprint=true)



#### bbox



Restrict to a geographic bounding box. The bounding box must be specified as a comma-separated list

of decimal (WGS-84 datum) numbers, according to the format `bbox={minLon},{maxLon},{minLat},{maxLat}`. Example:



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?bbox=23.716,23.7266,37.97,37.978](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?bbox=23.716,23.7266,37.97,37.978&prettyprint=true)



#### lat, lon, radius



Alternatively, you can restrict to a geographic area by specifying a center `lat`, `lon` coordinate for your

search, and a `radius` (in km). If you omit the radius, it will default to 10km. _Note: if you specify both a

`bbox` parameter and a coordinate, coordinate and radius will be ignored, and the bounding box will take precedence._



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=athens&type=place&lat=37.97&lon=23.72&radius=3](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=athens&type=place&prettyprint=true&lat=37.97&lon=23.72&radius=3)



#### from, to



Restrict the results to a specific time interval. Both parameters take an integer number, which is interpreted as year. (Use negative

numbers for BC years.) If you are interested in one specific year only, use the same value for `from` and `to`.

Note: items in Pelagios that are __not dated will not appear in the results__. Examples:



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=coin&from=-600&to=-500&types=item](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?query=coin&from=-600&to=-500&types=item&prettyprint=true)



[http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?from=2014&to=2014](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/search?from=2014&to=2014&prettyprint=true)



## REST-Style Access



The API provides 'REST-style' access to entity metadata via the following URL paths:



__UPDATE: not all methods were ported to the Peripleo v.2 legacy compatibility API. Please get in

touch if you require further information.__



* ~~[/peripleo/datasets](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/datasets?prettyprint=true) - list all datasets~~

* ~~[/peripleo/datasets/{id}](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/datasets/21b2d56d90bd192834aea9d8ad9d61b21a94d85f15f7cab1c458d4eebf599b73?prettyprint=true) - get the dataset with the specified ID~~

* ~~[/peripleo/datasets/{id}/items](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/datasets/21b2d56d90bd192834aea9d8ad9d61b21a94d85f15f7cab1c458d4eebf599b73/items?prettyprint=true) - list all items contained in this dataset~~

* ~~[/peripleo/datasets/{id}/places](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/datasets/21b2d56d90bd192834aea9d8ad9d61b21a94d85f15f7cab1c458d4eebf599b73/places?prettyprint=true) - list all places related to the items in this dataset *)~~

* ~~[/peripleo/datasets/{id}/time](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/datasets/21b2d56d90bd192834aea9d8ad9d61b21a94d85f15f7cab1c458d4eebf599b73/time?prettyprint=true) - get the 'temporal profile' of the dataset **)~~

* [/peripleo/items/{id}](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/items/http%3A%2F%2Ffinds.org.uk%2Fdatabase%2Fartefacts%2Frecord%2Fid%2F506533?prettyprint=true) - get the item with the specified ID

* ~~[/peripleo/items/{id}/items](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/items/8ea5bcf2e508289842118a279f60197daf0f5b34b9293aab0593ac4b3d9d1a9f/items?prettyprint=true) - list sub-items to this item~~

* ~~[/peripleo/items/{id}/places](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/items/8ea5bcf2e508289842118a279f60197daf0f5b34b9293aab0593ac4b3d9d1a9f/places?prettyprint=true) - list all places related to this item~~

* [/peripleo/places/{uri}](http://peripleo.pelagios.org/peripleo/places/http:%2F%2Fpleiades.stoa.org%2Fplaces%2F423025?prettyprint=true) - get information about the place with the (URL-escaped!) URI



~~*) Append `verbose=false` as query parameter to receive a less verbose response. This response will have additional performance benefits and load faster than

the full response. Usually, you will only need this if you retrieve many places in one request, by setting a high page size `limit`.~~



~~**) The temporal profile is an aggregation of the date information of all items contained in the dataset. It consists of a start and end year for the

dataset, and a 'histogram' that plots the number of items over the start-to-end time interval.~~



## License



The code for the Peripleo is licensed under the [GNU General Public License v3.0](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html).