Anglican Church in North America

Parishes API Guide

Revised November 30, 2009

===

The Parishes API allows users to retrieve parish information from the ACNA database by calling a PHP script and passing it a number of URL parameters.

The location of the Parishes API is:

http://anglicanchurch.net/api/parishes.php

A typical call to the Parishes API would look like this:

http://anglicanchurch.net/api/parishes.php?states=pa,tx,ca&address=1&phone=1&web=1&map=1&order=state&output=html


The Parishes API returns results in HTML or XML format. This is specified by the "output" paramater (see below for usage).


===============================
== OUTPUT FORMATS            ==
===============================

-------------------------------
-- HTML                      --
-------------------------------

The following is a sample parish listing in HTML format. The entire list is enclosed in the <div id="acnaParishes"> tag, and each parish is enclosed in a <div class="parish"> tag.

<div id="acnaParishes">
	<div class="parish">
		<h1>All Saints Anglican Church</h1>
		<h2>11122 Link Dr.<br />
		San Antonio, TX&nbsp;&nbsp;78213</h2>
		<div class="contact"><a href="tel:210-344-1920"><img src="http://anglicanchurch.net/img/phone.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin-right:4px" />210-344-1920</a>&nbsp&nbsp;
			<a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=11122+Link+Dr.+San+Antonio+TX+78213" target="_blank"><img src="http://anglicanchurch.net/img/map.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin-right:4px" />Map</a>&nbsp&nbsp;
		</div>
	</div>
	...
</div>


-------------------------------
-- XML                       --
-------------------------------

The following is a sample parish listing XML Format. The root element is <parish_list>, and all parishes are enclosed in the <parish> tag.

<parish_list>
  <parish>
   <parish_name>All Saints Anglican Church</parish_name>
   <address>11122 Link Dr.</address>
   <city>San Antonio</city>
   <state>TX</state>
   <zip>78213</zip>
   <phone>210-344-1920</phone>
   <web>http://www.allsaintsanglican.net/</web>
   <map>http://maps.google.com/?q=11122+Link+Dr.+San+Antonio+TX+78213</map>
 </parish>
 ...
</parish_list>


Note: Parish names are always included by default. Other items are included only when requested. See below for options and usage.



===============================
== PARAMETERS                ==
===============================

The Parishes API supports the following parameters and values:


-------------------------------
--  Parameter name: output   --
-------------------------------

Explanation: Specifies output in either HTML or XML format.
Valid values: html | xml
Case-sensitive: No
Delimiter: N/A
Default: html

Example:

output=html
output=xml


-------------------------------
-- Parameter name: states    --
-------------------------------

Explanation: Restricts results to one or more U.S. states or Canadian provinces.
Valid values: 2-letter U.S. state and Canadian province abbreviation(s). Multiple abbreviations must be separated by a comma.
Case-sensitive: No
Delimiter: Comma
Default: All U.S. states and Canadian provinces

Example:

states=PA
states=PA,TX
states=pa,tx,fl

Notes:

- All non two-character values are ignored.
- Any parameters not in the format of xx,yy,zz may result in undesired results being returned.
- Before processing the request, trailing comma(s) are trimmed from the states parameter, but it is preferred that you not include a trailing comma after the last item.


-------------------------------
-- Parameter name: order     --
-------------------------------

Explanation: Specifies the order in which results are returned.
Valid values: name | state
Case-sensitive: No
Delimiter: N/A
Default: name

Example:

order=name
order=states

Notes:

- If "states" order is specified, parishes are sorted by name within states.


-------------------------------
-- Parameter name: address   --
-------------------------------

Explanation: Specifies whether to include the parish street address.
Valid values: 1 | 0
Case-sensitive: N/A
Delimiter: N/A
Default: 0

Example:

phone=0
phone=1

Notes:

- Address includes street address, city, state, and postal code as present in the database. Address is formatted in 2 lines separated by a br tag in this format:

[Street address][br /]
[City, ST  ZIP]

- If address components are missing from results it is because they are not present in the database.
- Address lines are enclosed in h2 tags (see output example above).


-------------------------------
-- Parameter name: phone     --
-------------------------------

Explanation: Specifies whether to include the parish phone number.
Valid values: 1 | 0
Case-sensitive: N/A
Delimiter: N/A
Default: 0

Example:

phone=0
phone=1

Notes:

- In HTML output, phone number is returned with accompanying PNG icon, with icon and text hyperlinked using the href="tel:" anchor attribute.
- If phone number is missing from results it is because it is not present in the database.


-------------------------------
-- Parameter name: web       --
-------------------------------

Explanation: Specifies whether to include the parish web address.
Valid values: 1 | 0
Case-sensitive: N/A
Delimiter: N/A
Default: 0

Example:

web=0
web=1

Notes:

- In HTML output, web address is returned with accompanying PNG icon, with icon and text hyperlinked.
- If web address is missing from results it is because it is not present in the database.


-------------------------------
-- Parameter name: map       --
-------------------------------

Explanation: Specifies whether to include a URL to Google maps pinpointing the parish location.
Valid values: 1 | 0
Case-sensitive: N/A
Delimiter: N/A
Default: 0

Example:

map=0
map=1

Notes:

- In HTML output, map is returned with accompanying PNG icon, with icon and text hyperlinked.
- If map link is missing from results it is because insufficient location information is present in the database.
- Given the large amount of information in the database and the variety of sources from which it is acquired, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of map information.


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