{
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    "title" : "The API Briefing: A Great Start For an API – NLM’s TOXNET Web Service |Digital.gov",
    "description": "The API Briefing: A Great Start For an API – NLM’s TOXNET Web Service",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/10/01/the-api-briefing-a-great-start-for-an-api-nlms-toxnet-web-service/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"The API Briefing: A Great Start For an API – NLM’s TOXNET Web Service","summary" : "Glad to be back after a three-week absence. I was preparing for the South Eastern Conference on Public Administration held in Atlanta this year. Great conversations and I can tell you that the academic community is hungry for more government data and APIs. A great example is this week’s API Briefing: the U.S. National Library","date" : "2014-10-01T11:43:33-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"bbrantley" : "Bill Brantley"},"topics" : {
        
            "application-programming-interface" : "Application programming interface"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2014-10-01-the-api-briefing-a-great-start-for-an-api-nlms-toxnet-web-service.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2014/10/2014-10-01-the-api-briefing-a-great-start-for-an-api-nlms-toxnet-web-service.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/10/2014-10-01-the-api-briefing-a-great-start-for-an-api-nlms-toxnet-web-service.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/10/2014-10-01-the-api-briefing-a-great-start-for-an-api-nlms-toxnet-web-service.md","slug" : "the-api-briefing-a-great-start-for-an-api-nlms-toxnet-web-service","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/10/01/the-api-briefing-a-great-start-for-an-api-nlms-toxnet-web-service/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/10/250-x-188-USA-Networking-Vicente-Barcelo-Varona-Hemera-Thinkstock-100748265.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Digital photo of U S A Networking concept with binary code and website scripting overlays\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGlad to be back after a three-week absence. I was preparing for the South Eastern Conference on Public Administration held in Atlanta this year. Great conversations and I can tell you that the academic community is hungry for more government data and APIs. A great example is this week’s API Briefing: the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s TOXNET Web Service.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eTOXNET \u003c/a\u003elists 16 databases ranging from TOXNET, which maps chemical releases, to the Hazard Substances Data Bank (HSDB). You can search six of the TOXNET databases using the \u003ca href=\"http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/toxnetapi/search_chemical.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eTOXNET Web Service\u003c/a\u003e. Developers use HTTP GET or POST requests to return a \u003ca href=\"http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/toxnetapi/chemical_result.txt\" target=\"_blank\"\u003etext string\u003c/a\u003e or as an \u003ca href=\"http://toxgate.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/r?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+35\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eHTML page\u003c/a\u003e. The TOXNET Web Service is a great start as a much needed federal government information source for state environmental protection agencies, public health services, and other government and private sector organizations that need authoritative environmental toxin information.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere are some possible next steps for making TOXNET a more useful API.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFirst, return the results in several formats such as XML and JSON.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSecond, provide code samples (PHP, Python, and so on) to access the TOXNET Web Service in a RESTful way.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFinally, program the API so a developer can access all 16 TOXNET databases at once or specify single or multiple selections. The National Library of Medicine may consider using a hackathon to develop the valuable TOXNET Web Service further.\u003cem\u003eEach week in “The API Briefing,” I will showcase government APIs and the latest API news and trends. Visit this blog every week to learn how government APIs are transforming government and improving government services for the American people. If you have ideas for a topic or have questions about APIs, please contact me via\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"mailto:William.Brantley@opm.gov\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eemail\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDr. William A. Brantley\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e, PMP, is a Program Analyst, in Forecasting and Methods at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). You can find out more about his work in this space at\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://billbrantley.com/\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBillBrantley.com\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n"}
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