Web services

Species File Software provides the web services listed below for species files. Data is returned as XML files that conform with the schemas as indicated. You may see the selection of web services at http://[SiteName].speciesfile.org/ws.asmx or go directly to the desired service with the link listed below. [SiteName] refers to the name of the particular species file.


 * http://[SiteName].speciesfile.org/ws.asmx/TCSbyID?TaxonNameID=[nnn] [nnn] is the ID for a taxon name not hidden by an access code.  A file will be returned that gives basic information about the taxon as set forth in http://software.speciesfile.org/ws/TCSsubset.xsd.  This is a subset of the Taxon Concepts Schema provided by the Taxonomic Databases Working Group at http://www.tdwg.org/uploads/media/v101.xsd.  The apex taxon in a species file always has TaxonNameID = 1.  Since the data returned includes all immediately subordinate names, it is possible to recursively call this service and build the entire hierarchy contained in the species file.
 * http://[SiteName].speciesfile.org/ws.asmx/SimpleHierarchy This returns the entire hierarchy contained in the species file without much of the information contained the service listed above.  The schema may be seen at http://software.speciesfile.org/ws/SimpleHierarchy.xsd.
 * http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/ws.asmx/TaxaPage?TaxonNameID=[nnn] (This is currently implemented only in Orthoptera Species File.)  This provides a simplified version of the HTML to display the taxa page seen in the species file.  The HTML can easily be extracted from the XML and used for display in a browser.  The schema may be seen at http://software.speciesfile.org/ws/TaxaPage.xsd.
 * Species 2000 Spice protocol This has also been implemented.  Specifics can be provided for anyone who needs the information.

Various additional services are planned for the future including specification by taxon name instead of the TaxonNameID, which is primarily an internal identifier. Similar services will be provided for LSIDs assigned by species files.