The Topics resource can be used to access the Academic Benchmarks Topic Taxonomy and related metadata. The API provides a simple integration point, eliminates the need to maintain a copy of the taxonomy locally and provides the foundation for additional connected metadata. Use of the API ensures the most current taxonomy is available to your application.
One of the benefits of AB Connect is the ability to navigate relationships between Topics and Standards. Topics can also be related to other Topics by the nature of their position in the hierarchy of the Topic Taxonomy (parent/child). Retrieving related Standards and Topics is done in a similar fashion as attributes, but they are contained in the JSON API relationships response. Note that due to the JSON API standard, only the type and ID are returned in the relationship data. Keep in mind that the JSON API ID is the same as the AB GUID for these entities. If you'd like to retrieve the data of the related Standards or Topics, use the include parameter.
Topics can also be related to Assets. Note that if a Topic is related to an Asset, Standards related to that same Topic automatically become related to the Asset as "predicted" (and vice versa). Relationships between Topics and Assets are managed through the Asset endpoint. See the documentation on the Asset endpoint for details.
All calls against the Topics resource must be implemented as HTTP GET requests, and must include proper Partner Authentication Credentials.
Note that the Academic Benchmarks Topic Taxonomy is licensed separately. If your credentials are correct and you are still receiving a 401 error (or no results), check with AB Support to ensure you are licensed for Topics.
Single Topic
In its simplest form, you are able to retrieve the details of a specific Topic by appending the AB GUID to the path portion of the URL.
Fetching a Topic
Searching for Topics
Using filtering and facets, it is possible to retrieve sets of Topics that match specific criteria. These Topics are returned in an array of Topics objects. See the Introduction for an explanation on filtering and the use of facets. This section covers the specifics of using these parameters with the Topics resource.
