Troubleshooting & FAQ

Known Issues and Limitations

Our issue tracker is open to the public.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the field prefixes (sigils) mean?

We’ve got a list of those over here.

Is there a list of all the facet/sourceResource/document types somewhere?

There sure is!

What does the admin/ingestDate/_rev/etc field mean?

If we’re not defining it in our Field Reference, you probably shouldn’t rely on it. We’re still emitting some internal fields that make it easier for us to play with the API.

Can I pick my facet type?

Not yet. If you’re not getting what you need, demand satisfaction.

There are contributor links, but they don’t seem to do anything.

You’re right! We’re getting there.

What are all these namespaces?

We name all the namespaces on our Tech page.

What metadata standard does the API use?

The DPLA API is built following the DPLA Metadata Application Profile (MAP), our internal metadata schema. The DPLA MAP is designed to build on the experience of the Europeana Data Model (EDM) and to crosswalk with commonly used metadata standards, including Dublin Core (qualified and unqualified), MODS, and others. It references Dublin Core, ORE, and a variety of controlled vocabularies and thesauri. A preliminary release of the RDF schema is also available. The MAP will continue to evolve to implement more linked-data friendly methodologies to better share, expose, and connect DPLA’s content with users across the web.

I built something against the API.  Is it going to break when you update the API?

Nope – at least for a while. You can target a specific version of the API in your request, or leave out the version number to always use the latest version.