R-universe API use cases

content/blog/2026-06-04-r-universe-api/index.Rmd

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+---
+title: An API for Everything There Is to Know About Packages
+author: 
+- Maëlle Salmon
+editor: 
+date: '2026-06-04'
+slug: r-universe-apis-use-cases
+description: Use cases of the R-universe APIs
+tags:
+  - tech notes
+  - r-universe
+params:
+  doi: "10.59350/vrv9q-27605"
+output: hugodown::md_document
+---
+
+R-universe, our platform for improving publication and discovery of research software in R, not only provides a human-friendly website, but also programmatic access through APIs!
+Thanks to those APIs you can list universes, packages in an universe, get information on packages, perform searches, without any need for authentication.
+
+The APIs are both handy and reliable.
+You can build upon them, as both rOpenSci and community members have done.
+In this post, we provide a short overview of use cases.
+
+
+## Know what packages are yours
+
+The toolbox for community management tasks, [promoutils](https://ropensci.r-universe.dev/promoutils), calls an R-universe API to get information, and the list of, [rOpenSci packages](https://github.com/ropensci-org/promoutils/blob/18c80362002bafe48c7c88c1ca062ac3a3050358/R/utils.R#L25).
+This list of packages is in particular used in the [function](https://github.com/ropensci-org/promoutils/blob/18c80362002bafe48c7c88c1ca062ac3a3050358/R/help_wanted_json.R#L48) that outputs data on [help-wanted issues](/help-wanted).
+
+## Display packages developed at your organization
+
+If your organization develop R packages, you can use its R-universe as the source of truth of the collection of packages.
+For instance, the [R-universe of ggsegverse](https://ggsegverse.r-universe.dev/builds) corresponds to, well, the ggsegverse.
+Therefore, on ggsegverse website, the [listing of packages](https://ggsegverse.github.io/ecosystem/) is created by querying `https://ggsegverse.r-universe.dev/api/packages`, the endpoint for [information on all packages in the universe](https://docs.r-universe.dev/browse/api.html#information-of-all-packages-in-an-universe).
+
+```{=html}
+{{< figure src="ggsegverse.png" alt="Screenshot of the ggsegverse website, with informative package cards" link="https://ggsegverse.github.io/ecosystem/" >}}
+```
+
+Likewise, the [docs page](https://ggsegverse.github.io/docs/) of ggsegverse relies on the R-universe API to get vignettes for each package.
+
+### Server-side or client-side API requests
+
+The ggsegverse website perform **client-side requests**: 
+it queries the R-universe API when you open the webpage, through a [JS script](https://github.com/ggsegverse/ggsegverse.github.io/blob/aea3723f885387ca9399408ccfbcc7a1ec9d7820/js/api.js).
+You can also check this through the [web developer tools](https://inspectelement.org/apis.html#how-to-find-and-use-undocumented-apis):
+
+```{=html}
+{{< figure src="request.png" alt="Screenshot of the web developer tools' network tab, showing the XHR request logged when one reloads the ggsegverse website" >}}
+```
+
+The rendering of the nice package cards happens through [another JS script](https://github.com/ggsegverse/ggsegverse.github.io/blob/fec52718432d098b1162772f3f94985a1d0feef3/js/render.js) that uses information such as the package's title, description, number of stars, etc.
+
+The rOpenSci website uses, for the package listings on the author pages and packages pages, **server-side requests**: the API is called when Hugo renders our website.
+For instance, for the list of packages at the bottom of [Jeroen Ooms' author page](https://ropensci.org/author/jeroen-ooms/), we [query](https://github.com/ropensci/roweb3/blob/503f0547854925eaa72a0e2c36420e3731e98ebf/themes/ropensci/layouts/author/list.html#L84) the R-universe API link from our website [configuration](https://github.com/ropensci/roweb3/blob/7851904c5297868b7c372788166c526f2fe2ed1d/config.toml#L60) and [filter](https://github.com/ropensci/roweb3/blob/503f0547854925eaa72a0e2c36420e3731e98ebf/themes/ropensci/layouts/author/list.html#L85) the packages for which the maintainer's GitHub login is the same as the GitHub username of the person.
+
+```{=html}
+{{< figure src="jeroen.png" alt="Screenshot of Jeroen Ooms' author page on the rOpenSci website, featuring the list of rOpenSci packages that he maintains." >}}
+```
+
+On a Quarto website, you could have a code chunk using R to query the R-universe APIs, through the [universe R package](https://docs.ropensci.org/universe/) for instance.
+
+In any case, if you use server-side requests, you need to re-render your website fairly regularly to avoid your packages' listing to get out-of-date.
+
+
+## Conclusion
+
+In this post we provided some use cases of the R-universe APIs.
+Try them out, or read the [docs](https://docs.r-universe.dev/browse/api.html) to get a sense of all the information that's shared through the different endpoints.
+If you maintain some infrastructure that uses an API of R-Universe's, feel free to report an [use case](/usecases)!

content/blog/2026-06-04-r-universe-api/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+---
+title: An API for Everything There Is to Know About Packages
+author: 
+- Maëlle Salmon
+editor: 
+date: '2026-06-04'
+slug: r-universe-apis-use-cases
+description: Use cases of the R-universe APIs
+tags:
+  - tech notes
+  - r-universe
+params:
+  doi: "10.59350/vrv9q-27605"
+output: hugodown::md_document
+rmd_hash: fb2e953bf7d04c4d
+
+---
+
+R-universe, our platform for improving publication and discovery of research software in R, not only provides a human-friendly website, but also programmatic access through APIs! Thanks to those APIs you can list universes, packages in an universe, get information on packages, perform searches, without any need for authentication.
+
+The APIs are both handy and reliable. You can build upon them, as both rOpenSci and community members have done. In this post, we provide a short overview of use cases.
+
+## Know what packages are yours
+
+The toolbox for community management tasks, [promoutils](https://ropensci.r-universe.dev/promoutils), calls an R-universe API to get information, and the list of, [rOpenSci packages](https://github.com/ropensci-org/promoutils/blob/18c80362002bafe48c7c88c1ca062ac3a3050358/R/utils.R#L25). This list of packages is in particular used in the [function](https://github.com/ropensci-org/promoutils/blob/18c80362002bafe48c7c88c1ca062ac3a3050358/R/help_wanted_json.R#L48) that outputs data on [help-wanted issues](/help-wanted).
+
+## Display packages developed at your organization
+
+If your organization develop R packages, you can use its R-universe as the source of truth of the collection of packages. For instance, the [R-universe of ggsegverse](https://ggsegverse.r-universe.dev/builds) corresponds to, well, the ggsegverse. Therefore, on ggsegverse website, the [listing of packages](https://ggsegverse.github.io/ecosystem/) is created by querying `https://ggsegverse.r-universe.dev/api/packages`, the endpoint for [information on all packages in the universe](https://docs.r-universe.dev/browse/api.html#information-of-all-packages-in-an-universe).
+
+{{< figure src="ggsegverse.png" alt="Screenshot of the ggsegverse website, with informative package cards" link="https://ggsegverse.github.io/ecosystem/" >}}
+
+Likewise, the [docs page](https://ggsegverse.github.io/docs/) of ggsegverse relies on the R-universe API to get vignettes for each package.
+
+### Server-side or client-side API requests
+
+The ggsegverse website perform **client-side requests**: it queries the R-universe API when you open the webpage, through a [JS script](https://github.com/ggsegverse/ggsegverse.github.io/blob/aea3723f885387ca9399408ccfbcc7a1ec9d7820/js/api.js). You can also check this through the [web developer tools](https://inspectelement.org/apis.html#how-to-find-and-use-undocumented-apis):
+
+{{< figure src="request.png" alt="Screenshot of the web developer tools' network tab, showing the XHR request logged when one reloads the ggsegverse website" >}}
+
+The rendering of the nice package cards happens through [another JS script](https://github.com/ggsegverse/ggsegverse.github.io/blob/fec52718432d098b1162772f3f94985a1d0feef3/js/render.js) that uses information such as the package's title, description, number of stars, etc.
+
+The rOpenSci website uses, for the package listings on the author pages and packages pages, **server-side requests**: the API is called when Hugo renders our website. For instance, for the list of packages at the bottom of [Jeroen Ooms' author page](https://ropensci.org/author/jeroen-ooms/), we [query](https://github.com/ropensci/roweb3/blob/503f0547854925eaa72a0e2c36420e3731e98ebf/themes/ropensci/layouts/author/list.html#L84) the R-universe API link from our website [configuration](https://github.com/ropensci/roweb3/blob/7851904c5297868b7c372788166c526f2fe2ed1d/config.toml#L60) and [filter](https://github.com/ropensci/roweb3/blob/503f0547854925eaa72a0e2c36420e3731e98ebf/themes/ropensci/layouts/author/list.html#L85) the packages for which the maintainer's GitHub login is the same as the GitHub username of the person.
+
+{{< figure src="jeroen.png" alt="Screenshot of Jeroen Ooms' author page on the rOpenSci website, featuring the list of rOpenSci packages that he maintains." >}}
+
+On a Quarto website, you could have a code chunk using R to query the R-universe APIs, through the [universe R package](https://docs.ropensci.org/universe/) for instance.
+
+In any case, if you use server-side requests, you need to re-render your website fairly regularly to avoid your packages' listing to get out-of-date.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+In this post we provided some use cases of the R-universe APIs. Try them out, or read the [docs](https://docs.r-universe.dev/browse/api.html) to get a sense of all the information that's shared through the different endpoints. If you maintain some infrastructure that uses an API of R-Universe's, feel free to report an [use case](/usecases)!
+