Web service API for Observatory’s search service

A new search engine went live on the Observatory’s website last month. The aim is to provide you with better search results — ranked by relevancy — and more detailed controls over refinements to your search results.

Another feature is that the search service provides search results from other regional organisations’ websites; the search isn’t limited to the pages within wmro.org.

Also, the search service is open for use by other organisations. The search functions are exposed as a web service API, which developers can use to query our search index and display the results in their own websites or applications.

This is a new step for the Observatory (I’m not a developer and am new to this world too, having had my eyes opened at a data, mashups and APIs event in Birmingham last month).

So, I’d like to encourage you to make use of the new API and let me know what you think:

• Can you access the web service ok?
• Can you query the web service to find appropriate content?
• Any ideas on how the service can be improved?

Here are the details on how to access the web service plus the documentation for developers.

What’s in the search service?

The first version, released in August 2009, includes results from the following sources:

• www.wmro.org — this includes the Resource Catalogue, containing almost 4,000 entries relating to policy, data, statistics, maps and websites
• This Observations blog
• Advantage West Midlands’ resource library and events
• Reports, datasets and presentations by Learning and Skills Council West Midlands.

Related links

• The Observatory’s search service is powered by Exalead
• Frequently asked questions about mashups and APIs