Departments API

The Departments API provides access to the list of academic departments at Albion College. This endpoint is useful for retrieving department IDs that can be used with other API endpoints.

Endpoint


GET /api/data/departments

Authentication

All requests to this endpoint require authentication using an API key. You can provide your API key in one of the following ways:

HTTP Header: X-API-Key: your_api_key
Bearer Token: Authorization: Bearer your_api_key
Query Parameter: ?apiKey=your_api_key

If you don’t have an API key, you can obtain one from your dashboard settings .

Response Format

The API returns a JSON response with the following structure:


{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "Anthropology & Sociology"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "name": "Art & Art History"
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "name": "Biology"
    },
  ]
}

Response Fields

Field	Description
`success`	Boolean indicating if the request was successful
`data`	Array of department objects
`data[].id`	Unique identifier for the department
`data[].name`	Name of the academic department

Examples

cURL

Get All Departments


curl -X GET "https://openalbion.org/api/data/departments" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

Python

Get All Departments


import requests
 
url = "https://openalbion.org/api/data/departments"
headers = {
    "X-API-Key": "your_api_key"
}
 
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
data = response.json()
 
print(data)

Using Department IDs with Other Endpoints


import requests
 
url = "https://openalbion.org/api/data/departments"
headers = {
    "X-API-Key": "your_api_key"
}
 
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
departments = response.json()["data"]
 
# Find a specific department ID
biology_dept = next((dept for dept in departments if dept["name"] == "Biology"), None)
 
if biology_dept:
    # Use the department ID with the class-sizes endpoint
    class_sizes_url = f"https://openalbion.org/api/data/class-sizes?departmentId={biology_dept['id']}"
    class_sizes_response = requests.get(class_sizes_url, headers=headers)
    class_sizes_data = class_sizes_response.json()
    
    print(f"Class sizes for {biology_dept['name']} department:")
    print(class_sizes_data)

JavaScript

Get All Departments


fetch("https://openalbion.org/api/data/departments", {
  method: "GET",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "your_api_key"
  }
})
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(data => console.log(data))
  .catch(error => console.error("Error:", error));

Using Async/Await


async function getDepartments() {
  try {
    const response = await fetch("https://openalbion.org/api/data/departments", {
      method: "GET",
      headers: {
        "X-API-Key": "your_api_key"
      }
    });
    
    const data = await response.json();
    console.log(data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error:", error);
  }
}
 
getDepartments();

PHP

Get All Departments


<?php
$url = "https://openalbion.org/api/data/departments";
 
$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, [
    "X-API-Key: your_api_key"
]);
 
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$data = json_decode($response, true);
 
curl_close($curl);
print_r($data);
?>

Using Department IDs with Other Endpoints


<?php
$url = "https://openalbion.org/api/data/departments";
 
$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, [
    "X-API-Key: your_api_key"
]);
 
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$departments = json_decode($response, true)["data"];
 
// Find a specific department
$biologyDept = null;
foreach ($departments as $dept) {
    if ($dept["name"] === "Biology") {
        $biologyDept = $dept;
        break;
    }
}
 
if ($biologyDept) {
    // Use the department ID with the class-sizes endpoint
    $classSizesUrl = "https://openalbion.org/api/data/class-sizes?departmentId=" . $biologyDept["id"];
    
    $curl = curl_init($classSizesUrl);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, [
        "X-API-Key: your_api_key"
    ]);
    
    $classSizesResponse = curl_exec($curl);
    $classSizesData = json_decode($classSizesResponse, true);
    
    curl_close($curl);
    
    echo "Class sizes for " . $biologyDept["name"] . " department:\n";
    print_r($classSizesData);
}
?>

Error Responses

Status Code	Description
401	Authentication error (missing or invalid API key)
500	Server error

Example error response:


{
  "success": false,
  "error": "API key missing",
  "message": "Please provide an API key via X-API-Key header, Authorization: Bearer header, or apiKey query parameter.",
  "docs": "https://docs.openalbion.org"
}