Geni.com just introduced a major new feature; an Application Programming Interface (API). A two-part introduction to the Geni API, The Geni API and The Geni Model, discusses it in some detail.
Geni.com is not the first web genealogy vendor to offer a public API to their genealogy server. Mid 2009, OneGreatFamily introduced GenealogyCloud. An interesting feature of the GenealogyCloud API is that it not only exposes OneGreatFamily's matching & merging technology, but also gives you a choice between two licensing models; integration of your data with OneGreatFamily or your own, empty database for a higher licensing fee. Geni.com offers no such choice. The Geni API is for accessing the Geni.com database, and there are no licensing fees.
Another interesting property of the GenealogyCloud API is that OneGreatFamily's own application uses it. The Geni API is a new development and the current Geni application does not use Geni API, but will probably change over to using their own API in 2011.
Other vendors have APIs to access their web databases too, but little of that is
publicly documented. There is some
API between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com, and some years ago Ancestry.com
said they would publish it, but they still have not done so. There is some API
between Family Tree Builder and MyHeritage, but it is not publicly documented.
There is an API for New FamilySearch (NFS), the decade-delayed social genealogy
site of FamilySearch, but it is not publicly documented. FamilySearch has
a developer program through which developers can get access and documentation,
but limits access to both their social genealogy site itself and the developer
documentation for it to mormons.
So far, none of these APIs is a big industry success. The Ancestry.com API for Family Tree Maker and the MyHeritage API for Family Tree Builder remain private. Quite a few applications feature New FamilySearch support, but the system still is still not public.
When OneGreatFamily introduced GenealogyCloud, OneGreatFamily CEO Robert Armstrong told me that multiple genealogy vendors had shown an interest in their API, including several vendor of desktop genealogy applications. However, 1½ years later, I am not still aware of any third party product that integrates with GenealogyCloud. I asked them about it a few weeks ago, and they were not able to mention any product. So it remains to be seen how successful the Geni API will be.
There are two public genealogy web APIs now. If FamilySearch were to open up
their documentation, there would be three.
None of the three systems is completely freely accessible; OneGreatFamily requires a subscription, Geni.com requires a subscription for advanced features, and FamilySearch still limits their site to mormons.
Still, with a growing a number of public web APIs for large
genealogical databases, interest from third-party vendors is likely to increase.
After all, there certainly is a market for applications that integrate access to
all these systems. It would be much nicer to access all these systems from within a single
application than to have to use a separate application for each one.
The open source genealogy project PhpGedview offers a SOAP web service that allows programmatic access to PhpGedView databases. The Dutch Genealogie Online service supports the PhpGedView interface.
AppleTree, a social genealogy site that is still in beta, has a publicly documented API. The API is freely available, once you've obtained a developer key to use with the API.
Traces of the Past 2.0, an iPhone app that started out as an app for NFS, now supports Geni.com through the Geni API.
TruScape Solutions has discontinued Traces of the Past.
The Family Tree Maker SearchService is an Ancestry.com API used by New Family Tree Maker.
MyHeritage Family Graph API introduces MyHeritage's new Family Graph API.
Getting Started with the MyHeritage Family Graph API reveals undocumented facts & features you need to get started.
Added link to Family Echo's Family Tree API.
Photoloom has an API - and an example application at familyphotoloom.com.
The FamilySearch Family Tree API is public.
KiN2 is a new FaceBook and iPhone app, still in beta, that uses OneGreatFamily's GenealogyCloud.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.