Resources for developers

Audience

This documentation is designed for people who intend to take Filmchief to the next level. For some of the tools presented here, you need to be familiar with REST API services and object-oriented programming concepts. You should also be familiar with Filmchief from a user's point of view.

Guidelines

For a successful implementation of the Filmchief API, please read the following recommendations and guidelines.

We recommend acquiring a Web developer role (ask your Administrator about this) and enable Show API column names on your My account page. This way, you will be able to navigate through the festival database to get a sense of its contents, and see the internal column names which you will be using in your API calls.

Most importantly, the festival and web developer must coordinate the following aspects:

• Data selection: which information to read from Filmchief at each level: event, program line, program, viewing, film, credit
• Presentation: special programs (workshops, installations etc.) are usually presented differently than regular screening programs, so it's important to identify the conditions that determine which presentation format to use. The Program type field is often used for this purpose.
• Navigation: define which pages are available to visitors and how these pages will link to one another.
• Exceptions: certain programs or films or may be withheld from online publication. It is recommended to use Publication tags to indicate such exceptions, so the developer can verify if a particular program or film should be excluded from the website.
• Functionality: make sure to work out a detailed description of any additional functionality, such as a search tool.
• Performance: instead of making several API calls for each page request, it is recommended to cache API responses and refresh cached data every hour or so. This will greatly improve website performance. Searching and filtering is also recommended to be performed using cached data.

Filmchief API

The Filmchief REST API is the preferred way for developers to connect their system with any Filmchief database. The documentation includes examples in PHP.

For secure client-to-server interaction with the API, a JavaScript wrapper is available.