API version 2.0_rc2 released

[Wilmers, Catalina]

We're excited to announce that our latest API release candidate, v2.0_rc2, is now available on sandbox and production. The documentation, XSD, and examples for rc2 are at https://github.com/ORCID/ORCID-Source/tree/master/orcid-model/src/main/resources/record_2.0_rc2 The ORCID record interface has also been updated to reflect changes in the 2.0_rc2 schema, for more about the interface changes see http://orcid.org/blog/2016/07/20/announcing-your-new-improved-orcid-record

rc2 is finalized, further changes will be expressed in rc3. But as with all release candidates, rc2 is less tested than stable release candidates may contain bugs. We suggest only members capable of short release cycles (3 week or less) use release candidates. Members who are working with release candidates are encouraged to reach out to us about bugs or with questions and feature requests at sup...@orcid.org

Below is a summary of changes from rc1 to rc2. (for changes from 1.2 to rc1 see https://github.com/ORCID/ORCID-Source/blob/master/orcid-model/src/main/resources/record_2.0_rc1/README.md)

Person/orcid-bio section

• rc2 extends the per item API format to the person section, allowing post, update and delete for individual items rather than needing to update the entire section as is required with v1.2.
• Source and creation date are now captured with other-names, country, keywords, researcher-urls, and external identifiers. This information is returned in the API and on the UI
• Display index is now include with repeatable person fields allowing users to sort the order of items. Items added via the API will have a default display index of 0 and appear at the bottom of any lists. Once accessed by the researcher in the UI, all items will have their display index updated to reflect the order selected by the researcher.
  
• As with activities, only the source of a person item will be able to update it. With the updated UI, researchers will be able to change the privacy setting or delete items added via the API, but they will not be able to edit those items.
• Multiple countries can now be added to a record, in the 1.2 schema where only one country is allowed, the country with the highest display index will be returned.
  
• Person items will now be grouped, so that the same item, such as a keyword or external identifier, can be added by multiple sources and appear once in the UI.
• The non-repeatable personal fields (first-name, last-name, and biography) are only able to be edited by the researcher, they cannot be written to using the API

External identifiers

• All identifiers will now use the same schema element, external-identifier, this affects how identifiers are recorded in the works, funding and peer-review sections
• The new external-identifier elements include external-id-url where the full URL the identifier links to can be recorded.

  <external-identifier>
        <common:external-id-type/>
        <common:external-id-value/>
        <common:external-id-url/>         
  </external-identifier>

Last modified dates
With rc2 we have added a last-modified-date to every section of the record, in addition to the last-modified-date on individual items.

We welcome your feedback and questions about v2.0_rc2.

Best,

-Catalina