Program IDs, Connections, and Number of Entrepreneurs

[sam]

Hi again everybody,

I did some more playing around with the SE-API and just had a few
questions:

1) The documentation for the Social Entrepreneur API lists:
"sites – comma separated list of award program IDs to return results
for. " as a parameter.

Is there a way I could retrieve the list of program IDs through the
API? If not, is this list maintained anywhere for reference?

2) Oddly enough, as I run more and more queries, I'm noticing that I
am not receiving any worthwhile results along in the connections
field. Either the array is empty or it contains 2 elements, whose
values are all null. What is the difference between the two results?
Do any of the profiles currently contain connections that are not
null?

3) To get the current number of profiles in the API/database, I'm
executing : http://search.socialentrepreneurapi.org/entrepreneurs.json?just_stats=1&q=

Is this the preferred method of retrieving the total size? (i.e. Are
these numbers accurate and can I rely on them?)

Thanks in advance for any help I can get!

-Sam Choi

[sam]

I just noticed a third possible value for connections: an array of
size 2, with each element being a Joe Smith from the UK.
Several people are connected to him, but he has no other information
than citizenship, country, and name.

-Sam Choi

On Nov 19, 12:31 pm, sam <sam.jun.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi again everybody,
>
> I did some more playing around with the SE-API and just had a few
> questions:
>
> 1) The documentation for the Social Entrepreneur API lists:
> "sites – comma separated list of award program IDs to return results
> for. " as a parameter.
>
> Is there a way I could retrieve the list of program IDs through the
> API? If not, is this list maintained anywhere for reference?
>
> 2) Oddly enough, as I run more and more queries, I'm noticing that I
> am not receiving any worthwhile results along in the connections
> field. Either the array is empty or it contains 2 elements, whose
> values are all null. What is the difference between the two results?
> Do any of the profiles currently contain connections that are not
> null?
>
> 3) To get the current number of profiles in the API/database, I'm

> executing :http://search.socialentrepreneurapi.org/entrepreneurs.json?just_stats...

[Jason Mott]

> 1) The documentation for the Social Entrepreneur API lists:

> "sites � comma separated list of award program IDs to return results

> for. " as a parameter.
>
> Is there a way I could retrieve the list of program IDs through the
> API? If not, is this list maintained anywhere for reference?

This is currently behind password protection, so we'll have to let Peter
chime in on whether or not I can lift that restriction.

>
> 2) Oddly enough, as I run more and more queries, I'm noticing that I
> am not receiving any worthwhile results along in the connections
> field. Either the array is empty or it contains 2 elements, whose
> values are all null. What is the difference between the two results?
> Do any of the profiles currently contain connections that are not
> null?

Searching by connections is not currently turned on. We had an issue
with Sphinx that limited the amount of search-able fields and
temporarily turned it off. I should be able to to that back on when
category searching goes up.

> 3) To get the current number of profiles in the API/database, I'm
> executing : http://search.socialentrepreneurapi.org/entrepreneurs.json?just_stats=1&q=
>
> Is this the preferred method of retrieving the total size? (i.e. Are
> these numbers accurate and can I rely on them?)

Yes, that's how you do it, and the numbers are always real time.

Jason Mott
Worker-Owner
Software Engineer

Ronin Tech Collective, Inc.
167 Main St. Suite 103
Brattleboro, VT 05301
888.200.5074 x369
http://www.ronincollective.com

[Jason Mott]

The connections fields are not wisely used by the data providers. There
are only 19 unique connections in the database with 380 unique
entrepreneurs connected to them. This tells me there is probably a high
number of "dummy data" in there.

sam wrote:
> I just noticed a third possible value for connections: an array of
> size 2, with each element being a Joe Smith from the UK.
> Several people are connected to him, but he has no other information
> than citizenship, country, and name.
>
> -Sam Choi
>
> On Nov 19, 12:31 pm, sam <sam.jun.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi again everybody,
>>
>> I did some more playing around with the SE-API and just had a few
>> questions:
>>
>> 1) The documentation for the Social Entrepreneur API lists:

>> "sites � comma separated list of award program IDs to return results

>> for. " as a parameter.
>>
>> Is there a way I could retrieve the list of program IDs through the
>> API? If not, is this list maintained anywhere for reference?
>>
>> 2) Oddly enough, as I run more and more queries, I'm noticing that I
>> am not receiving any worthwhile results along in the connections
>> field. Either the array is empty or it contains 2 elements, whose
>> values are all null. What is the difference between the two results?
>> Do any of the profiles currently contain connections that are not
>> null?
>>
>> 3) To get the current number of profiles in the API/database, I'm
>> executing :http://search.socialentrepreneurapi.org/entrepreneurs.json?just_stats...
>>
>> Is this the preferred method of retrieving the total size? (i.e. Are
>> these numbers accurate and can I rely on them?)
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any help I can get!
>>
>> -Sam Choi
>

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>
>

--

[Peter Deitz]

Hi Jason,

Yes, let's make an XML file publicly available on
search.socialentrepreneurapi.org/profile-sources.xml or /sites.xml for
reference. This will permit Sam and others to view and query the
ProgramIDs of the award and fellowship programs participating in the
Social Entrepreneur API.

Another way to access ProgramIDs currently is to 'view source' on the
search.socialentrepreneurapi.org page.

All the best,
Peter

[Peter Deitz]

Hi Sam,

Regarding the Connections data point, I wouldn't spend too much time on
that field at this point.

The participating organizations have included two names in the 'title'
field for entrepreneurs that have been awarded in pairs.

For example, see this search result for the keyword, "and":

http://is.gd/521eE

All the best,
Peter


Jason Mott wrote:

[sam]

Thanks everybody!
I apologize Jason and Peter if I just increased your workload.
All the responses to my questions here and in my previous post seem to
have been addressed, but I'm sure I'll have more in the next few days.

-Sam Choi

On Nov 23, 11:16 am, Peter Deitz <peterde...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Sam,
>
> Regarding the Connections data point, I wouldn't spend too much time on
> that field at this point.
>
> The participating organizations have included two names in the 'title'
> field for entrepreneurs that have been awarded in pairs.
>
> For example, see this search result for the keyword, "and":
>
> http://is.gd/521eE
>
> All the best,
> Peter
>
> Jason Mott wrote:
> >> 1) The documentation for the Social Entrepreneur API lists:

> >> "sites comma separated list of award program IDs to return results

> >> for. " as a parameter.
>
> >> Is there a way I could retrieve the list of program IDs through the
> >> API? If not, is this list maintained anywhere for reference?
>
> > This is currently behind password protection, so we'll have to let Peter
> > chime in on whether or not I can lift that restriction.
>
> >> 2) Oddly enough, as I run more and more queries, I'm noticing that I
> >> am not receiving any worthwhile results along in the connections
> >> field. Either the array is empty or it contains 2 elements, whose
> >> values are all null. What is the difference between the two results?
> >> Do any of the profiles currently contain connections that are not
> >> null?
>
> > Searching by connections is not currently turned on. We had an issue
> > with Sphinx that limited the amount of search-able fields and
> > temporarily turned it off. I should be able to to that back on when
> > category searching goes up.
>
> >> 3) To get the current number of profiles in the API/database, I'm

> >> executing :http://search.socialentrepreneurapi.org/entrepreneurs.json?just_stats...

[Peter Deitz]

Hi Sam,

Great. Don't hesitate to let us know if you have more Qs.

All the best,
Peter

[Jason Mott]

I have a development version up that supports searching and sorting by
award_status, issue_area, region, target_population. To search by any of
them use the sphinx syntax. For example, if I want to search for Non
Profit issue areas, my search string would be:

q=@issue_area+Non+Profit

Or if you're just filling in the search field on the web interface:

@issue_area Non Profit


Test is out on the development server, and if all agree it's good to go,
I'll push it live.

http://seapi.ronincollective.com

--

[Jason Mott]

Oh, and use @category for searching general category values.

[Peter Deitz]

Hi Jason,

I look forward to Sam's feedback on this enhancement. Would it be
possible to create separate search fields (or drop down menus) in the
advanced search for issue area, target population, and region? As it
currently stands, I don't think most people (including myself) will
master the search query syntax to effectively look up social
entrepreneurs by issue area, target population, and/or region. Also, I'm
a bit confused on how a developer or end user would use this query
syntax to search for a combination of issue area and region.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Jason Mott]

Peter Deitz wrote:
> Also, I'm
> a bit confused on how a developer or end user would use this query
> syntax to search for a combination of issue area and region.
>

Let's say I want to find profiles in region America who work in the
issue area of Technology. I would put this in the search field:

@region America @issue_area Technology

In other words, everything after a field name applies to that field name
until another field name comes along. Let's say I wanted it to be an
"or" search (i.e. either they are from America or they work in
technology), it would look like this:

@region America | @issue_area Technology

Let's say I want to do a search on all fields for "water" but just for
region America issue area Technology matches:

water @region America @issue_area Technology

--

[Jason Mott]

I have updated the API documentation to reflect the changes I made.
Please note the changes are not live yet, (Peter, let me know when/if
you want me to pull the trigger).

http://socialactions.pbworks.com/Social+Entrepreneur+API+-+Documentation

Also, note that there are slight changes to the json format, see example
at the end of the documentation.

> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/social-actions-dev?hl=en.
>
>
>

--

[Peter Deitz]

Hi Jason,

Although I wouldn't ordinarily use the metaphor, let's go ahead and
pull the trigger in question. Thanks for updating the API
documentation and rolling the latest changes to the live version of
the Social Entrepreneur API.

Sam, or anyone else, do you have any questions / feedback for Jason on
the search queries for issue / region?

Happy Thanksgiving all around,
Peter

Sent from my mobile device

[Jason Mott]

Come to think of it, the end of the day before a holiday is a really bad
time to go live with a new feature set! I will be around on Friday and
do it then.

[Jason Mott]

OK, it's live.