Introduction

To perform an action using the Ecolabel Index API, send a request to its endpoint specifying a method and some arguments. You will receive a formatted response.

All requests take a list of named parameters in REST format, i.e. as parameters to an HTTP GET. The API endpoint is http://www.ecolabelindex.com/services/rest/.

The REQUIRED parameter method is used to specify the action you wish to perform.

The REQUIRED parameter api_key is used to specify your API Key.

For example, to access the 'echo' method, you would access http://www.ecolabelindex.com/services/rest/?api_key=c0debad0123456789abcdefdeadbeef&method=echo&message=Hello+World

Responses are in JSON, and will be in one of two formats:

{
    "stat": "fail",
    "code": 100,
    "message": "Invalid API key"
}

or

{
    "stat": "ok",
    ... other information, determined by the method you called ...
}

Possible error messages are documented for each API call.

Extremely important notes

1. The Ecolabel Index API exposes identifiers for ecolabels, organizations, contacts, and other uniquely identifiable objects. These IDs should always be treated as opaque strings, rather than integers of any specific type. The format of the IDs can change over time, so relying on the current format may cause you problems in the future.
2. All data is in UTF-8 encoding.
3. Dates are in yyyy-mm-dd format.
4. Timestamps (a date and time) are in "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss" second. The hours are 24-hour format.

API Keys

API keys are 32-character ASCII text strings.

Ecolabel Index subscribers can visit their Account page when logged in, and generate a key under Developers.

API Description

echo

A testing method which replies all parameters back in the response.

Example request

http://www.ecolabelindex.com/services/rest/?method=echo&message=Hello+World&api_key=x

list-list

Returns a list of all lists known to the API. Lists map relatively opaque keys to user-presentable strings (e.g. "guide65" to "ISO Guide 65"). Lists are identified by a name, and are composed of an ordered list of (key, value). Lists are ordered in mostly alphabetical order, though with some exceptions on a case-by-case basis. In general, API clients should display lists in the order returned by the API.

Example request

http://www.ecolabelindex.com/services/rest/?method=list-list&api_key=x

ecolabel-index

A list of all ecolabels currently published, optionally filtered by certain criteria. Returns a list of ecolabel IDs (opaque and permanently-assigned strings).

Example request

http://www.ecolabelindex.com/services/rest/?method=ecolabel-index&api_key=x

ecolabel-detail

Returns all available details for a given ecolabel, specified in the parameter id. 

Example request

http://www.ecolabelindex.com/services/rest/?method=ecolabel-detail&id=energy-star-usa&api_key=x