COVID-19 Datalake Public API Tips and Tricks

For many researchers, accessing the public API for the COVID-19 Federated Data Image will be enough for their research goals.
The public API provides fetch access to many datalake objects, and metrics access to some time series data such as case
data.

Pros:

• Easy to integrate into existing scientific workflows and run on existing scientific computational hardware
• Publicly available API means no credentials or special software are needed.
• Assuming you have access to your own computational resources, you don't have to worry about allocations
  on C3's platform.

Cons:

• All data used from the Datalake must be streamed to wherever you're processing data
• Performance benefits from working with the Datalake using C3 will not be available.
• Not all data within the Datalake is available through the public API.

Necessary References/Training

If your research belongs in this category, finishing the necessary training below is enough to get started.

• Official C3 Public COVID-19 API Documentation
  
  • This excellent set of documentation from C3 describes the publicly available API.
  • This documentation comes with plenty of examples showing how to use the API.
  • This documentation comes with a python notebook and R notebook showing exactly
    how to use this API.
  • Researchers may find they do not need to read all of this document. We however, recommend
    reading at least to the section 'Using C3.ai APIs'. The rest of the document gives examples
    on how to fetch the various available data types.

Optional References/Training

While not necessary, some researchers may find this optional reference useful.

• Differences between the public API and the full Datalake
  • The DTI team tries to keep a list of differences between the public face of the Datalake, and the full
    Datalake.
  • This will help researchers decide whether they need full access, or can just use the public
    API.
• COVID-19 Datalake Public API Tips and Tricks
• DTI Guide to utilizing C3 Documentation
  • While not necessary, some portions of the C3 Documentation is useful even for Public API users.

Example Workflows

• Official C3 Public COVID-19 API Documentation
  • Worked examples in both Python and R are available from the link above.
• CasesExample (Public API) example
• Vaccine Listing (Public API) example