DegreeDaysApi Class

How the API works: requests, responses, and errors

• You create a Request object that specifies what you want the API to do. There are different types of Request for different API operations, like LocationDataRequest for requesting a set of degree-day data.
• Your Request gets processed. (Internally this library will turn your request into XML, send it to the API servers, and parse the XML response that the servers send back.)
• You'll get a Response object back (assuming no errors). There are different types of Response, mirroring the different types of Request. For example, if you use a LocationDataRequest to request some degree-day data, successful processing will give you a LocationDataResponse in return.

If something goes wrong in sending your request to the API servers, or in getting your response back, you'll get a TransportException. Typically that means there was a network error of some sort.

If your request was transported to the API servers OK, but couldn't be processed properly, you'll get a RequestFailureException instead of a Response. There are different types of RequestFailureException for the different types of Request. For example, take a look at the docs for GetLocationData(LocationDataRequest) to see the exceptions that can be thrown if the API servers can't process a LocationDataRequest. The exceptions should help you to determine the cause of the failure and decide what to do next.

API access keys: the account key and the security key

Every customer's API account is associated with two access keys: a public "account key" and a private "security key", both of which are generated automatically when the account is created. These keys are used to secure each request sent to the API by the customer (or by software trusted to work on their behalf), to protect the API usage that the customer has paid to enable.

The account key is used to uniquely identify the customer account. It is a public key in the sense that there is no need to keep it secret.

Here's an example account key:

k9vs-e6a3-zh8r

The security key is a private key that should be kept secret. In this respect it is like a password. The only entities that should have access to the security key are: Degree Days.net (systems and staff), the API account holder(s), and any trusted software systems that the API account holder(s) are using to manage their interactions with the API.

Here's an example security key:

b79h-tmgg-dwv5-cgxq-j5k9-n34w-mvxv-b5be-kqp5-b6hb-3bey-h5gg-swwd

For more on the format of these access keys, see the notes in AccountKey and SecurityKey.

Creating a DegreeDaysApi object

A DegreeDaysApi object needs a IRequestProcessor to function. The IRequestProcessor does the real work of turning requests into responses, and the DegreeDaysApi wraps that functionality up into a (hopefully) user-friendly interface.

You'll typically want to create a DegreeDaysApi object using this constructor. For example:

DegreeDaysApi api = new DegreeDaysApi(
    new AccountKey("k9vs-e6a3-zh8r"),
    new SecurityKey("b79h-tmgg-dwv5-cgxq-j5k9-n34w-mvxv-b5be-kqp5-b6hb-3bey-h5gg-swwd"));

Dim api As New DegreeDaysApi( _
    New AccountKey("k9vs-e6a3-zh8r"), _
    New SecurityKey("b79h-tmgg-dwv5-cgxq-j5k9-n34w-mvxv-b5be-kqp5-b6hb-3bey-h5gg-swwd"))

Internally, that constructor will create and store an XmlHttpRequestProcessor with your access keys and a default configuration. Your DegreeDaysApi object will use that internal XmlHttpIRequestProcessor object to process all the requests you make through the DataApi (and, later, an AccountApi that we intend to introduce at some point).

You might sometimes want to pass in a custom IRequestProcessor using this constructor. Maybe a mock IRequestProcessor for testing, or an IRequestProcesor that you've customized for use in your application (e.g. one that uses an alternative to System.Net for its HTTP processing).

You'd typically create just one DegreeDaysApi object for use throughout your application. The default configuration is perfectly safe for use from multiple threads. But there's nothing to stop you creating and using as many instances as you like.

Using a DegreeDaysApi object

Here's an example of how you might fetch some degree-day data. We'll assume that you have already created the DegreeDaysApi object called api (see above), and created the LocationDataRequest object called request:

LocationDataResponse response = api.DataApi.GetLocationData(request);

Dim response As LocationDataResponse = api.DataApi.GetLocationData(request)

Assuming no exception was thrown, the response object should contain the data you requested.

See the DataApi class documentation for a more complete example that includes creating the LocationDataRequest object and getting the degree-day values out of the LocationDataResponse object.

Reference