WaPOR ReST API

1. Introduction

REST (Representational State Transfer) API (Application Programming Interface) is an architectural style and set of conventions used for building web services. It defines a set of guidelines and principles for designing networked applications that can be accessed and interacted with over the internet.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use FAO ReST API with Python scripting to access the WaPOR database. Before starting the tutorial, please watch the following videos:

Introduction to FAO ReST API

Explore FAO ReST API document

2. Tutorial on accessing WaPOR data using ReST API

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use FAO ReST API to access WaPOR database with Python scripts. You will run some examples of Python scripts in Jupyter Notebook. You can use Colab to launch the Jupyter Notebook online, so you don't have to install anything yet and just focus on the syntax of ReST API. Click on one of the badges below to run the notebook:

If you have Python installed on your computer, you can download the Jupyter notebook from GitHub and use it locally:

3. Conclusion

Besides Python, you can use REST API in various programming languages. REST is an architectural style that uses HTTP requests to perform operations on resources, and it is not specific to any particular programming language. Here are some other popular programming languages commonly used to implement REST APIs: JavaScript, Java, Ruby, PHP, C#, Go,... These are just a few examples, and there are many other programming languages and frameworks available that support building REST APIs. The choice of programming language depends on your project requirements, familiarity with the language, and the ecosystem surrounding it.