API Catalogue

The API Catalogue is the register kept by the Developer Portal of the Velocity Interoperability Network of every interface exposed by a service of the Velocity Interoperability Network. It records, for each interface, a catalogue identifier, the service that provides it, the standard in the VIN series that it follows, its current version and status, and the route on this site at which its documentation is published.

The catalogue is authoritative. A member organisation that needs to know whether an interface is available, at what version, and under which standard, should consult the catalogue rather than the provider. A change to any particular of an interface is entered in the catalogue on the day it takes effect and recorded in the table of changes at the foot of this page.

The status of an entry is one of Planned, Interim, Confirmed or Withdrawn. The meaning of each status, and the requirements common to every interface, are set out on the APIs page. Interface versions are explained under Versioning.

6

Entries in the catalogue

4

Interfaces available to member organisations as Interim

2

Interfaces announced as Planned

5

Network services exposing or planning interfaces

Providers. Four Network services presently expose interfaces. The Member Registry provides the registry lookup, the Identity Service the identity assertion, the Status Service the incident submission and the Official Register the notice feed. The Developer Portal itself plans two interfaces: a conformance record lookup, so that a Network authority may confirm the declarations recorded against a system, and a standards feed, which will announce the issue of any new version of a standard.

How an entry is added and how it changes. Every entry passes through the same stages. The Developer Portal does not itself build or operate the interfaces of other services; it records what providers expose and holds them to the procedure below.

1. 1

   Step 1: The provider notifies the Developer Portal

   A Network service that intends to expose an interface writes to the Developer Portal naming the interface, the standard in the VIN series that it will follow and the month in which it expects to make it available.

2. 2

   Step 2: An identifier is assigned and the entry is listed as Planned

   The Developer Portal assigns the next identifier in the series API-01, API-02 and so on, and adds the entry to the catalogue with the status Planned. The identifier is never reused, and the entry is never removed.

3. 3

   Step 3: The interface is made available and becomes Interim

   When the provider makes the interface available to member organisations and supplies documentation of its operations, the entry becomes Interim and receives an interface version below 1.0. The documentation is published on this site and its route is recorded in the catalogue.

4. 4

   Step 4: The interface is Confirmed at Version 1.0

   Once the documentation is complete, the interface has been stable for at least three months and two member systems have declared conformance to the standard it follows, the entry becomes Confirmed and the interface is issued at Version 1.0. From that point it changes only by a new version of the standard.

5. 5

   Step 5: Withdrawal is announced six months in advance

   A provider that intends to withdraw an interface gives six months' notice through the Developer Portal. On withdrawal the entry is marked Withdrawn with the date; it remains in the catalogue, and its documentation remains published, for reference.

Changes to the catalogue. The table records every change since the catalogue was opened, most recent last. A change of version, status or provider is entered on the day it takes effect.

A provider wishing to notify a new interface, or a member organisation that believes an entry to be wrong, should write to contact@developer.gov.vin. Terms used in the catalogue are defined in the Glossary; the procedure by which a system declares the standards it implements is set out under Conformance.