Getting started
The Explore education statistics (EES) API provides a way to directly consume published data from the EES service using HTTP.
To get started with the EES API, you’ll need either:
- an API client such as Postman or Insomnia if you are exploring the API
- an HTTP client in the programming language of your choice if you are developing on top of the API
Where to start
There are three suggested starting points that are recommended depending on your knowledge of HTTP, APIs and the EES API.
Beginner level
If you are not familiar with how HTTP and APIs work, it is recommended that you start with the Beginner’s guide to APIs. This guide will provide knowledge of foundational concepts that will make you more productive with the rest of the API documentation.
Once you are more confident with these topics, the Quick start guide is a good next step.
Intermediate level
If you are familiar with how HTTP and APIs work, but are new to the EES API, it is recommended that you start with the Quick start guide. This will guide you through essential parts of the API and the workflow to perform a basic data set query.
The Overview section is a good next step for a more in-depth understanding of the high level parts of the EES API.
To assist in specific tasks once you’ve started using the EES API, there are additional guides under the ‘Getting started’ of the navigation menu that you may find useful.
Expert level
If you are already familiar with the EES API, you will find all relevant reference documentation in the Overview, Endpoints and Schemas sections.
Documentation structure
The Overview section provides high level documentation about the EES API. This details things such as message formats, error handling, versioning and the OpenAPI specification.
The Endpoints section provides reference documentation about the endpoints available in the API. This details the requests that can be made and their responses. Code samples are also provided to illustrate how requests could be made.
The Schemas section provides reference documentation about the structure of all the requests and responses (i.e. their schemas) across the API. Each schema provides in-depth detail about their properties, including their type and validation rules.