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Why do we need this?

Setting your location at Direct Scot means we can give you search results that are both local and relevant to you (e.g. your bin collection days, school term dates, nearby schools and sports and leisure services)

We don't store this user data, so your security is guaranteed.

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Welcome to DirectScot.org

DirectScot is the experimental prototype of a public service website for Scotland. It offers access to information, services and applications from a wide variety of sources.

It aims to be simple, intuitive and to put the needs of users first. We stress that this is an experimental prototype. Please don’t rely on it. At this stage it is neither comprehensive nor is it fully robust.

Developed by the Scottish Government, DirectScot is a response to the ongoing debate on how government services can be delivered efficiently in the digital age.

To make our point, we have developed a few fully-functioning user journeys that show how a full DirectScot website might work. You can find out more in the DirectScot blog.

Get started and give us your views…

DirectScot API

Introduction

To provide up-to-date and relevant content on DirectScot a good deal of effort has gone into aggregating content from various sources: Directgov, four pilot Scottish Local Authorities, and the Business Gateway in Scotland. In addition, there will be a limited amount of content that has been authored solely for DirectScot. In the spirit of open government, DirectScot is keen to make this content available to third parties to allow them to provide value-added services for use by Scottish citizens, and to that end have created a simple RESTful service to allow interested parties to review the content we have already aggregated in order to assess its usefulness and provide us with feedback to improve the service over time. The current service exposes search and download methods which allow you to query the datastore and download the content we hold. We offer this data in 3 formats, json, xml and html for your convenience.

Current service

Search methods

  • http://www.directscot.org/api/search.json
  • http://www.directscot.org/api/search.xml
  • http://www.directscot.org/api/search.html

parameters: q = keyword

start = search result document to start from

example: http://www.directscot.org/api/search.json?q=recycling&start=2 This method returns a page of results starting from the third document

Download methods

  • http://www.directscot.org/api/download.json
  • http://www.directscot.org/api/download.xml
  • http://www.directscot.org/api/download.html

parameters: http://www.directscot.org/api/download.json?DirectScotId=3771813E3EBB74B07CEC7F759AB3AC39 ID

Example: 3771813E3EBB74B07CEC7F759AB3AC39

Data Sources

We currently aggregate data from the following sources:

  • Directgov
  • DirectScot Specific content

Local Authorities

  • Edinburgh
  • East Lothian
  • Midlothian
  • South Lanarkshire
  • Business Gateway (Scotland)

Planned improvements

App Key – we will ask you to register your app and using the key we will provide you with method calls:

  • Methods to download all controlled list data
  • Source parameter – filter for content from a particular source (controlled list)
  • Modified data – filter for content changed between two dates
  • Categories – filter for content within a set of categories (controlled list)

Disclaimer

DirectScot is currently operating as an experimental prototype. We are likely to make substantial changes to the content and presentation of this app and there are no service level agreements whatsoever around the availability and quality of the services provided. Please bear this in mind when using and reviewing the site.

Your feedback

We fully support the drive for open data and we are keen that the data from DirectScot is put to good use.

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve this service please contact us:

DirectScot
3W
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG, U.K.
e: info@directscot.org