How to Consume Project Nimbus Dataservices via REST in Java/Android

In my previous post, I’ve wrote about consuming Project Nimbus Datasets in Ruby through their REST API interface.

Right now, on Project Nimbus’s guides to consuming their datasets in Java/Android currently introduces two method. One is to use the Restlet framework to connect, and another is through a manual webservice method.

I particulaly found the two tutorials lacking, especially for a beginning Java guy, or a Rusty java guy. The webservice tutorial have lots of holes in between and might throw off new users, like how it threw me off.

So instead, I found another way to consume the dataset, and I thought I’ll share with you how I did it.

Things you’re going to need:

• RESTClient.java (code courtesy of Cansın Yıldız)

That is all :)

Now all you need to do is to add the following snippet, with your key and uniqueid, and you’re set. I think the codes are pretty self-explainatory.

//Creating a URLConnection.
//Change the following URL to the dataset path that you'd like to access
final String LOGIN_URL = "http://lta.projectnimbus.org/ltaodataservice.svc/TrafficConditionSet";
RestClient client = new RestClient(LOGIN_URL);
client.AddHeader("AccountKey", <Your Nimbus API Key>);
client.AddHeader("UniqueUserID", <A Unique UserID>);
 
try {
    client.Execute(RequestMethod.GET);
    String response = client.getResponse();

    // Do whatever you want with 'response'
    // I'd recommend using SAXParser to iterate through the results

    }
catch(Exception e){
    e.printStackTrace();
}