A Flexible Approach to Designing Client Specific APIs:

Richard Carne and Peter Trevelyan, Met Office, Exeter, United Kingdom A Flexible Approach to Designing Client Specific APIs: The model of the “application programme interface” used to access data has moved from a closely coupled pattern to one that is more loosely connected through the use of web services. In reality this means that the data supply can be treated as a service and therefore has increased utility and can be used by a rich range of client software, ranging from desktop, browser and mobile. The loosely coupled architecture also makes the integration of various data types much easier by the use of common interfaces so allowing access to various types of e.g. maps, roads, gridded data etc. This talk will outline the strategy the Met Office is taking to make both forecast and climate data available to customers ranging from government agencies, the public, and academic institutions such as universities. The use of standards, where applicable will be discussed, particularly those sponsored by the OGC (Open Geospatial Community). There is a tension in the design of APIs between utility, simplicity, standardisation and something that is all-embracing. In order to tailor data APIs for different customers a more bespoke method is used based on the OGC's WPS (Web Processing Service). The chaining together of bespoke processes allows for one interface to be used to create sophisticated execution of business processes. Each process within the chain may access data directly or remotely, so facilitation true integration across different disciplines. The presentation will include examples of how these are designed and implemented.