The Government Printing Office took a big step in modernizing the Federal Register with the release of an application programming interface August 1. The agency said it hopes the API will make it easier for developers to interact with Federal Register, the daily publication primarily used for federal agency announcements, rules and regulations.

"You can easily fetch information about agencies, particular articles, or use any of our advanced search functionality to programmatically find the articles your users are interested in," wrote Michael White, managing editor of the Federal Register in a blog post.

White said the move builds upon GPO's XML bulk data feed, which launched in October 2009. The open-data project allows bulk data downloads of Federal Register files from 2000 to present in XML.

According to the developer site, the API comes pre-processed. The data provided is a cleaned-up combination of data from GPO's metadata object description schema (MODS) and GPO bulk data, says the site.

The API uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) because it's a "lighter-weight, more web-friendly data transfer format," according to White. No API keys are needed and developers will only need an HTTP client or browser to use it. More technical details of the API are explained on the developer site.

The initial response from developers is positive, if comments on this Hacker News forum are any indication. Developers appear particularly pleased that API keys are unnecessary and that the team behind the API kept things simple by tapping "JSON, javascript and HTTP friendly APIs instead of bloated SOAPware," as one commenter put it.

The Federal Register API trumps the Labor Department's recent API release, said another commenter. "I can say that at first glance the Federal Register API is far ahead of DoL which requires API keys, shared secrets, HMAC SHA1 encryption (for _every request_) and other assorted annoyances that made writing the wrapper a pain," wrote mattdeboard.

According to further information from the Hacker News forum--which was also linked to from FederalRegister.gov--Andrew Carpenter, Dave Augustine and Bob Burbach, developers for travel site airbnb.com, led the API development for GPO as a freelance project. They were contacted by GPO to work on "Federal Register 2.0" after winning second place honors in the Sunlight Foundation's Apps for America contest for the development of http://GovPulse.us.

For more:
- see the developer site
- see the Federal Register blog post

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