Posted on February 23, 2024

Build an API integration

APIs are essential tools for incorporating Township America's data and services into your applications and workflows. This guide introduces APIs, highlights their benefits, and guides you through obtaining an API key, managing subscriptions, and monitoring system health.

API integration

API endpoints

Township America offers four distinct API endpoints: Search, Autocomplete, Batch, and Maps.

  • Search API: This enables the conversion of legal land descriptions to geographic coordinates and finding legal land locations using longitude and latitude.
  • Autocomplete API: Ideal for searching legal land descriptions with partial or complete text, returning up to 10 matching results, including the search term, matched description, and coordinates.
  • Batch API: Similar to the Search API in function, the Batch API stands out with its capacity to process up to 100 records in a single call, converting legal land descriptions to geographic coordinates and vice versa.
  • Maps API: Offers the capability to display legal survey grids on maps in web and mobile applications, serving geospatial grid map data in vector tiles format, compatible with various web mapping libraries.

For detailed information on each API, including documentation and code examples, visit the developers documentation.

Getting an API key

To use Township America's APIs, an API key is required. Obtain yours by:

  • Logging into your Township America account.
  • Navigating to "API Access" under "My Account" in the main menu.
  • Selecting the desired tier and billing cycle for the API endpoint, then clicking "Select Plan".
  • Upon plan selection, you'll receive a unique API key for your account, necessary for API request authentication.

Managing API subscriptions

Manage your API subscriptions in the "API Access" section. Choose from various tiers for monthly or annual subscriptions. Each tier has a limit on concurrent requests and a monthly quota for API calls. Exceeding the quota results in HTTP 429 Too Many Requests until the next cycle. Regularly check your API usage and adjust your tier as needed in the "API Usage" section. Subscription updates, tier changes, or cancellations are manageable anytime, with API access continuing until the end of the current billing cycle.

Checking system health

For the current status of Township America's APIs, including uptime, response time, and incident history, visit status.townshipamerica.com. This site provides real-time updates on API system health.