Self-documentation and discovery API for API?

[seandavi]

The new additions to the API are very welcome--thanks! How would one discover programmatically the available endpoints, their possible arguments/parameters, etc.?

[wwysoc2]

Hi Sean,
The endpoints aren't programmatically discoverable, but the possible arguments and parameters can be accessed by looking at:

https://api.gdc.cancer.gov/<endpoint>/_mapping

Note that the 'analysis' endpoints do not have a _mapping option.

[seandavi]

Thanks, @wwysoc2. Could I suggest this as a feature request, then? Standards such as:

https://www.openapis.org/

are pretty relevant for such tasks, as the YAML description leads to a highly documented and discoverable API, complete with tooling on the client and server sides. I am not suggesting this one specifically as an implementation, but more as a concept.

[wwysoc2]

@seandavi Thanks for the input! I'll put in a feature request for this.