ArtBeat API: Tokyo
Mash up Tokyo Art Beat and base your Web application on the best Art and Design information for your city of choice.
The ArtBeat API is available free of charge for non-commercial applications which do not cause unreasonable traffic.
Your applications based on this API should follow these simple rules
- • The apps should mention that they are “Powered by Tokyo Art Beat”, with a link to www.tokyoartbeat.com
- • (if applicable) any link for “more information” on events or venues should point to www.tokyoartbeat.com
- • whenever possible, data retrieved from the API should be cached by your application for at least one hour and no more than one day
Please leave a message on our Art Beat API Google Group if:
- • you have issues with the API
- • you want to share your progress
- • it's time to announce your new application built using the API
Please contact us if:
- • you are developing, or have developed, a commercial application based on the API
- • your application is likely to cause heavy traffic on the API
Note: The ArtBeat API also includes data for New York Art Beat. Check the New York Art Beat API page for more details.
ArtBeat API XML Output
The ArtBeat API uses a consistent XML format for all the lists and methods returning a list of events.
The XML output formats lists <Events> (as root element) with children as described below:
| Element | Children | Value, Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Event | Name, Venue, Description, Image, Karma, Price, DateStart, DateEnd, PermanentEvent, Distance, Datum, Latitude, Longitude | Holds all the info for a single event |
| Venue | Name, Type | Holds all the info for an event's venue |
| Name | Name of event/venue, in the chosen/default language | |
| Type | Type of venue (Museum, etc) | |
| Media | Note: an Event can have several Media | |
| Description | escaped as CDATA | |
| Image | embed the poster / image of the event. May have a width attribute, in pixels. Note: an Event can have several Images (several sizes) | |
| Karma | Popularity of the events decided by the MyTAB users | |
| Price | price of entry. Has a "free" attribute equal to 1 if the event is free, 0 otherwise | |
| DateStart | YYYY-MM-DD | |
| DateEnd | YYYY-MM-DD | |
| PermanentEvent | 1 = permanent event; 0 = non-permanent event | |
| Distance | Distance from the searched location. Not returned in non-search lists. | in meters |
| Datum | Datum of latitude/longitude coordinates. world for the worldwide standard WGS84 geolocation datum, or tokyo for Tokyo Datum used by a number of services in Japan | |
| Latitude | decimal coordinates | |
| Longitude | decimal coordinates |
Changelog
As of August 2008, the ArtBeat API uses the version 0.1 (beta) of its XML result format. This is the first version of the format.
Sample Output
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Events>
<Event xml:lang="en" id="2008/D38F" href="http://dev.tokyoartbeat.com/event/2008/D38F">
<Name>Hugues Reip "Parallel Worlds"</Name>
<Venue href="http://dev.tokyoartbeat.com/venue/2008/D38F">
<Name>Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo</Name>
<Type>Museum</Type>
</Venue>
<Media>Installation</Media>
<Media>Other</Media>
<Description><![CDATA[Can fiction become fact? French artist Hugues Reip invites you on a “fantastic voyage” to parallel worlds.
Reip will construct worlds of the imagination by ...]]></Description>
<Image src="http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/media/event/2008/32B2-30" width="30" />
<Image src="http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/media/event/2008/32B2-80" width="80" />
<Image src="http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/media/event/2008/32B2-170" width="170" />
<Karma>11.693</Karma>
<Price free="0">Adults 짜1500, Students 짜1000</Price>
<DateStart>2008-07-26</DateStart>
<DateEnd>2008-09-28</DateEnd>
<DaysBeforeEnd>63</DaysBeforeEnd>
<PermanentEvent>0</PermanentEvent>
<Distance>5.127138362401</Distance>
<Datum>tokyo</Datum>
<Latitude>35.676344</Latitude>
<Longitude>139.810483</Longitude>
</Event>
</Events>
API: events Listing
All of TokyoArtBeat's Events lists are available in the API's XML format.
Note: Replace "en" by "ja" in the URLs to get the Japanese data.
API Method: event_searchNear
The event_searchNear method is available at the following URL:
http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/list/event_searchNear
Requests are made with the GET HTTP method, with REST-style parameters sent in the query string.
| Location Search Parameters | |
|---|---|
| Latitude (required) | coordinates in decimal (xxx.xxxxxx) format up to 6 digit precision. Anything beyond that precision is ignored |
| Longitude (required) | coordinates in decimal (xxx.xxxxxx) format up to 6 digit precision. Anything beyond that precision is ignored |
| Datum |
|
| Data Selection Parameters | |
| Schedule |
|
| SearchRange |
|
| Description |
|
| Free |
|
| Result Parameters | |
| Language |
|
| ResultDatum |
|
| MaxResults | "5", "10", "20" or "50" |
| SortOrder |
|
Note: All parameters and values are case-INsensitive to be user-friendly.
Samples Queries
- http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/list/event_searchNear?Latitude=35.671208&Longitude=139.76517
(Default output (nearest events) in Japanese) - http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/list/event_searchNear?Latitude=35.671208&Longitude=139.76517&Language=en
(Default output (nearest events) in English) - http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/list/event_searchNear?Latitude=35.671208&Longitude=139.76517&MaxResults=5&SortOrder=distance&free=1
(Nearest free events, max 5 results) - http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/list/event_searchNear?Latitude=35.671208&Longitude=139.76517&Schedule=upcoming&SortOrder=mostpopular
(Most popular upcoming events) - http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/list/event_searchNear?Latitude=35.671208&Longitude=139.76517&SortOrder=mostpopular&Free=1
(Most popular events, free only) - http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/list/event_searchNear?Latitude=35.671208&Longitude=139.76517&SortOrder=closingsoon
(Events closing soon)
AS3 Wrapper
The AS3 Artbeat API is a handy Actionscript 3.0 wrapper that any flash developer can use to access our Art Beat APIs.
More details and download from Reuben Stanton's AS3 Artbeat API site.
Sites & Applications
A few apps and websites have already surfaced that make use of the TAB API:
- Search for nearby events from your keitai: 携帯Art Map
- Tokyo Art Island (click on the map)
- 駅’si VISION
- a flyer collection site
- a simple and practical iPhone site. And another one!
- Binbo Date ("cheap dates") which locates nearby art exhibitions (especially the free ones) and bars etc as cheap date spots.
- a Windows Explorer plugin
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