Client_API_VN 2.8.1

Python API to Biolovision API and applications using it

Description

Python applications that use Biolovision/VisioNature (VN) API to:

• download data from VN sites and stores it to a Postgresql database.

• update sightings directly in VN site

Applications are available either as:

• Python modules from PyPI

• Docker images from Docker Hub

They are tested under Linux Ubuntu or Debian. Other Linux distributions could work. Windows is not tested at all and will probably not work.

See Documentation for more informations.

A thin Python layer on top of Biolovision API is provided,as described in API Documentation.

Installation - Python

These instructions present the steps required to install the Python applications.

Add the follwing debian packages:

sudo apt install python3-dev
sudo apt install python3-venv

Create a python virtual environment, activate it and update basic tools:

python3 -m venv VN_env
source VN_env/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Install from PyPI:

pip install Client-API-VN

Installation - Docker

These instructions present the steps required to install the Docker applications:

docker pull dthonon/client-api-vn
docker run --name xfer_vn \
           --mount source=xfer_vn,target=/root \
           --workdir /root \
           --tty --interactive \
           dthonon/client-api-vn bash

The following steps are the common to both Python and Docker installation.

Getting Started - transfer_vn

Initialize the sample YAML file in your HOME directory and edit with your local details. The YAML file is self documented:

transfer_vn --init .evn_your_site.yaml
editor $HOME/.evn_your_site.yaml

Create the database and tables:

transfer_vn --db_create --json_tables_create --col_tables_create .evn_your_site.yaml

You can then download data, as enabled and filtered in the YAML file. Beware that, depending on the volume of observations, this can take several hours. We recommend starting with a small taxonomic group first:

transfer_vn --full .evn_your_site.yaml

After this full download, data can be updated. For observations, only new, modified or deleted observations are downloaded. For other controlers, a full download is always performed. Each controler runs on its own schedule, defined in the YAML configuration file. To create or update, after modifying the configuration file, the schedule:

transfer_vn --schedule .evn_your_site.yaml

Once this is done, you can update the database with new observations:

transfer_vn --update .evn_your_site.yaml

Note: this script should run hourly or dayly in a cron job. It must run at least every week.

Getting Started - update_vn

Initialize the sample YAML file in your HOME directory and edit with your local details. The YAML file is self documented:

update_vn --init .evn_your_site.yaml
editor $HOME/.evn_your_site.yaml

Prerequisites

For Linux and Postgresql installation, refer to server installation

Installation requires the following python module:

pip

All other python dependencies are managed by pip install.

Command-line options - transfer_vn

The application runs as:

transfer_vn options config

where:

options  command line options described below
config   YAML file, located in $HOME directory, described in sample file

-h, --help

Prints help and exits

--version

Print version number

--verbose

Increase output verbosity

--quiet

Reduce output verbosity

--init

Initialize the YAML configuration file

--db_drop

Delete if exists database and roles

--db_create

Create database and roles

--json_tables_create

Create or recreate json tables

--col_tables_create

Create or recreate colums based tables

--full

Perform a full download

--update

Perform an incremental download

--schedule

Create or update the incremental update schedule

--status

Print downloading status (schedule, errors…)

--count

Count observations by site and taxo_group

--profile

Gather and print profiling times

Command-line options - update_vn

The application runs as:

update_vn options config input

where:

options  command line options described below
config   YAML file, located in $HOME directory, described in sample file
input    CSV file listing sightings to be updated

-h, --help

Prints help and exits

--version

Print version number

--verbose

Increase output verbosity

--quiet

Reduce output verbosity

--init

Initialize the YAML configuration file

CSV input file must contain the following columns:

• site, as defined in YAML site section

• id_universal of the sighting to modify

• path to the attribute to modify, in JSONPath syntax, unused if operation is delete_observation

• operation: - replace: add if not present or update a sighting attribute - delete_attribute: to keep the observation and remove the attribute with the given path - delete_observation, to remove completely the observation

• value: if operation is replace, new value inserted or updated

Note: each operation is logged in hidden_comment, as a JSON message. It is not possible to replace hidden_comment, as logging is appended.

For example:

site;id_universal;path;operation;value
Isère;2246086;$['data']['sightings'][0]['observers'][0]['atlas_code'];replace;4
Isère;2246086;$['data']['sightings'][0]['observers'][0]['atlas_code'];delete_attribute;
Isère;2246086;;delete_observation;