About the API<\/h3>\n
The Kiva API is a HTTP Rest API\u00a0 using Basic HTTP Auth. I noticed Kiva do not check on credentials on the function I list below here, but I included a basic http authentication anyway. I do expect Kiva to switch to using OAuth somewhere along the line, but for now it is Basic HTTP Auth.<\/p>\n
Rate limiting and TOS<\/h3>\n
Kiva allow 60 calls per minute for unregistered and 500 calls a minute per registered account, Kiva terms are general but Kiva emphasize you should respect the privacy of site users and not misrepresent the data.<\/p>\n
The sample<\/h3>\n
On with the sample, I am going to make a Visual Basic Class to access the Kiva API, retrieve an XML response file, load that into a DataSet object and retrieve and display the data from the DataSet object on a Form.<\/p>\n
I took the UrlFactory Class from the Kiva Api Library C#<\/a> example, and recoded part of it in Visual Basic, one class URLFactory<\/strong> to compose the URL’s accor :<\/p>\n With that URL available, let’s get some XML, in this case the basic lender record of Matt (one of the co founders of kiva), retrieved from \/\/api.kivaws.org\/v1\/lenders\/matt.xml<\/strong><\/p>\n Now we have the code to retrieve the DataSet object from the Kiva API, so let’s make a quick Form, with three texboxes (username, password and the id of the lender you want to retrieve data for), two rich format boxes to display data from the dataset and a button to run the API Test :<\/p>\nNamespace KivaVBLibrary\r\n\r\n Public Class URLFactory\r\n\r\n Public baseURL As String = \"http:\/\/api.kivaws.org\/v1\/\"\r\n Public urlSuffix As String = \".xml\"\r\n \/\/The API returns either html, xml or json depending on the suffix you send in the url.\r\n\r\n Public Function GetLenderURL(ByVal UID As String) As String\r\n Return baseURL + \"lenders\/\" + UID + urlSuffix\r\n End Function\r\n End Class\r\nEnd NameSpace<\/pre>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.juust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/kiva-api-example-visual-basic-003-300x263.png\" "\\"kiva")
<\/a>The GetLender function of the KivaAPI class gets the XML data from the API and returns it as Dataset :<\/p>\nImports System.Net\r\nImports System.Text\r\n\r\nNamespace KivaVBLibrary\r\n\r\nPublic Class KivaAPI\r\n\r\n Private _UrlFactory As New KivaVBLibrary.URLFactory\r\n\r\n Private _AppID As String = \"org.juust.kivareader\"\r\n Private _UserAgent As String = \"KivaReader (https:\/\/www.juust.org) appid:\" & _AppID\r\n\r\n Private _userName As String = \"\"\r\n Private _userPassword As String = \"\"\r\n\r\n Public Property AppID As String\r\n Get\r\n Return _AppID\r\n End Get\r\n Set(ByVal value As String)\r\n _AppID = value\r\n End Set\r\n End Property\r\n\r\n Public Property userName As String\r\n Get\r\n Return _userName\r\n End Get\r\n Set(ByVal value As String)\r\n _userName = value\r\n End Set\r\n End Property\r\n\r\n Public Property userPassword As String\r\n Get\r\n Return _userPassword\r\n End Get\r\n Set(ByVal value As String)\r\n _userPassword = value\r\n End Set\r\n End Property\r\n\r\n Public Sub New()\r\n End Sub\r\n\r\n Public Sub SetBasicAuthHeader(ByVal request As HttpWebRequest)\r\n\r\n Dim authInfo As String = Me.userName + \":\" + Me.userPassword\r\n authInfo = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(authInfo))\r\n With request\r\n .Headers(\"Authorization\") = \"Basic \" + authInfo\r\n .Accept = \"application\/xml\"\r\n .UserAgent = \"KivaReader 1.0.0.0 (juust.org)\"\r\n .AllowAutoRedirect = False\r\n .Timeout = 5000\r\n .KeepAlive = False\r\n End With\r\n End Sub\r\n\r\n Public Function GetLender(ByVal LenderID As String) As DataSet\r\n\r\n Dim MyRequest As HttpWebRequest\r\n\r\n MyRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(_UrlFactory.GetLenderURL(LenderID))\r\n With MyRequest\r\n .Method = \"GET\"\r\n End With\r\n\r\n SetBasicAuthHeader(MyRequest)\r\n\r\n Dim DataSetLender As DataSet\r\n DataSetLender = New DataSet()\r\n Using MyResponse As HttpWebResponse = MyRequest.GetResponse()\r\n DataSetLender.ReadXml(MyResponse.GetResponseStream())\r\n End Using\r\n MyRequest = Nothing\r\n\r\n Return DataSetLender\r\n\r\n End Function\r\n\r\nEnd Class\r\nEnd NameSpace<\/pre>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.juust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/kiva-api-example-visual-basic-001-300x206.png\" "\\"kiva")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.juust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/kiva-api-example-visual-basic-002-300x196.png\" "\\"kiva")
<\/a><\/p>\n