Overview
These pages document all the available HTTP requests and their data format and schemes.
All requests to the API go through this URL:
We also have a test environment. Access to it is granted separately with another API token.
Theca API tokens
The first step in using our API is to acquire a Theca-Client-Token. The client token is a long string that uniquely identifies each client and must be added to each API request. Though some requests are open for all users. API requests to closed requests without a Theca-Client-Token will be rejected with a 401 Unauthorized HTTP status. Note that tokens may be revoked by Theca, e.g., if they are compromised or if a token generating service is implemented in a future version of the API.
A Theca-User-Token is also required to identify which user is making requests. Requests using the same user token will be grouped together to filter bot traffic from statistics and to improve the search results. The provided token will be one-way encrypted (i.e., hashed). Though, it is still not recommended to use sensitive user data for this parameter, such as e-mails or usernames. Internal user IDs or session tokens are both recommended. The maximum size is 255 bytes, the remainder will be discarded.
Info
Do not prefix the headers with X- (this is a deprecated custom for custom HTTP header parameters).
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Theca-Client-Token | Text | Provided by Theca to identify the client making the request. |
| Theca-User-Token | Text | Chosen to persistently identifying users across queries. |
Formats
Search result data can be returned in either application/json or application/ld+json format. The client chooses which format to use with the HTTP Accept header parameter. The data types of result objects are documented in the same way as the query parameters above.
JSON
The data will be returned in RFC8259 JSON standard. The charset is always UTF-8 and no characters except " and \ will be escaped. JSON is the default if no Accept parameter is provided or if / is used. When there are multiple possible return values, the @type-field is used to disambiguate which type is the currently returned one.
LD-JSON
Returned data follows the LD-JSON RDF format from https://schema.org/. The data will have no Theca extensions, so ItemList will be used instead of ResultList. The structure is equivalent to application/json but the @type of all objects are always included which might make development easier. The data returned can be validated at https://validator.schema.org/.
Note that properties with the enum type will have values prefixed with https://schema.org/ as per the specification. For example, when using LD-JSON the item availability property of in stock will be just "availability": "InStock" for application/json but will be "availability": https://schema.org/InStock for LD-JSON.
Tip
You can place LD-JSON content in a script tag on HTML pages to have content from Theca's API be searchable from other search engines. A good way of complementing inspirational content with a dynamic yet SEO friendly product listing.
Versions
If major updates are conducted to the API a new version will be made available under e.g. v2 instead of v1. A major update is defined as: - Changing the overall request of any endpoint, e.g. URL path, HTTP method, or Content-Types. - Adding new mandatory query parameters or header parameters. - Adding or removing mandatory attributes in the responses - Changing the data types of any attribute in the responses
Minor updates to the API will not result in a new version. This includes for example:
- Adding new optional query or header parameters.
- Adding new attributes to the response of an API request.
- Removing attributes marked as optional to the response of an API request.
- Changing the HTTP status code for an error.
- Fixing errors in the normalization or deduplication behavior of the crawler of the data in an index.
These are all classified as minor updates and should be considered as backwards compatible. Hence, they should not affect your integration with the API.