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Factual Developer Wiki

Welcome to the Factual Developer Wiki, your guide to the various API options to access Factual data. Now let's get started.

Which API is Right for my Application?

There are two methods for incorporating Factual data in you application - Server API and Visualization. There are benefits and restrictions to each, so make sure you read through this before heading down one path.

Server API

Your server calls the Factual dataset through a RESTful API call and you get full control of data presentation. These operators are functional through the Server API:

Read - get data from a dataset
Write - put data into a dataset
Schema - get metadata about a dataset
States::Read - get data from a saved state dataset (like a view)
States::Schema - get metadata about a saved state dataset (like a view)
Filters: Examples, Operators, Vote Filters, Row Filters

This seems like a lot, but there are a few things that you can't do with the Server API - at least for now.

Access vote-level data - on a given record or fact we don't expose the how many users voted one way compared to another.
Search - you can apply filters across multiple fields, but you can't use advance operators.
Autocomplete - sort of related to search, but we can't give you all the terms dataset to autocomplete a query.

Since you don't have access to the vote-level data, you can't build an explorer for a record or fact. There is a reasonable workaround where you can take JavaScript code for the explorer. Think of this as sort of a hybrid model. We are working on how and where to best expose this code, but if you need it just ping us through the Factual Developer Group.

Visualization

Visualizations are JavaScript code that you embed in the client-side code of your site. Think of is as code to easily inject Factual's structured data into the DOM. Each visualization is completely customizable and you can apply your CSS. Basically these will work if your application is browser-based.

If the Visualizations provided by Factual don't work for your use case or you want to provide Visualizations for everyone to use, we've exposed the Factual JSAPI. Here you can get enough access to build your own Visualizations and add them to the ecosystem. If you are interested in getting access to the JSAPI please let us know through the Factual Developer Group.