S
Expanding Access To
Department of Labor
(DOL) Data
Building APIs
Tyrone Grandison, PhD
Presidential Innovation Fellow
Department of Labor (DOL)
Data Innovation DC
March 4th, 2015

What is the DOL?
S A system of systems:
S Many moving parts. Some connected. Some not.
1. Administrative Review Board (ARB)
2. Benefits Review Board (BRB)
3. Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB)
4. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
5. Center for Faith-Based &Neighborhood Partnerships
(CFBNP)
6. Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
7. Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB)
8. Employment & Training Administration (ETA)
9. Job Corps
10. Mine Safety &Health Administration (MSHA)
11. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
12. Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ)
13. Office of Congressional & Intergovernmental Affairs
(OCIA)
14. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration &
Management (OASAM)
15. Civil Rights Center
16. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy (OASP)
17. Office of the Chief Financial Officer(OCFO)
18. Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)
19. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)
20. Office of Inspector General (OIG)
21. Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
22. Office of Public Engagement (OPE)
23. Office of the Solicitor(SOL)
24. Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP)
25. Ombudsman for the Energy Employees Occupational
Illness Compensation Program (EEOMBD)
26. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
27. Veterans' Employment & Training Service (VETS)
28. Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
29. Women's Bureau (WB)
30. Office Of Public Affairs (OPA)

Organizational Structure

Current Landscape
S Some agencies provide raw data through text files, Excel
sheets and or API
S Examples: MSHA, BLS, OSHA, ETA, VETS, WHD, OPA
S Current API*
S Covers over 200 datasets.
S Created by OPA Division of Enterprise Communications.
S Sole mission is to provide developers with access to DOL
data.
S api.dol.gov currently runs on Windows 2008.
*The current API is often referred to as APIv1 or “the legacy API

APIv1 Backend
S Built using OData.
S Solution also
contains:
S Drupal
S Software development
kits - not required, but
eases the
development of
applications
S Databases

Sources
S Department of Labor (DOL) data primarily available at:
S DOL’s developer site
S Data.gov

Other Sources
S Career One Stop
S AJC locations; licensing, certification, education,
apprenticeship, community college and training info; job
listings and job count info.
S Occupational Information Network (O*NET)
S Detailed profiles of occupations; translations from military
occupations, profiles of interests

One Last Source
S Bureau of Labor Statistics
S Labor Market Information

Using APIv1
S Register
S Visit https://devtools.dol.gov/developer
S Click the Register link.
S Fill in the registration form and submit it.
S A confirmation email will be sent to the
address you provided during registration.
S Click on the link in the email to activate
your developer account.
S Create API Key (Token)
S Visit https://devtools.dol.gov/developer
S At the login page, enter your username
and password
S Click on the My Tokens link
S Click "Create New Token"
S Provide a Shared Secret (deprecated, but
for the moment still required for the
registration process), Application Name,
and a Description
S The token value will be auto-generated
and added to your tokens list.
S Access the API
S The API is exposed as an OData
producer, with the addition of
request authorizations.
S To make API calls you must
supply a valid Token as the
"KEY" parameter on the query
string with every request.
Example
For DOLAgency and token d9c6c290-
da4c-424e-a378-fb4bd027b58b, the
direct link to Agency data is:
http://api.dol.gov/V1/DOLAgency/Agen
cies/?KEY=d9c6c290-da4c-424e-
a378-fb4bd027b58b
Result Format
By default, the DOL API's responses
are in XML format. To receive the data
in JSON, send an "Accept" header
with "application/json.”

FYI
S A lot of the assets are utilizing APIv1.
S Some are using their own API standard.
S By Q4 2015, all (participating) agencies will move to
APIv2.

APIv2 Desired Features
1. Single sign-on and authentication for datasets with private or
sensitive data.
2. Improved readability and usability of dataset documentation for all
skill levels of developers.
3. Create Internal API with legacy functions, plus CRUD and account
deactivation.
4. Modifying External API and SDKs to facilitate end-user development.
5. Enable all open data that is available via the API to be available in
one of the accepted bulk downloadable formats with options for
filtering.
6. Update Token self-service app to integrate with APIv2, mobile
support and new datasets.
7. Expose DOL web content as structured data via the API.
APIv2 is backwards-compatible with APIv1

APIv2 High Level Requirements
S Support requests over SSL/TLS
S Support read/write transactions (it is currently read-only)
S Continue to require and support API Keys
S Continue to be a centralized API
S Should not break existing apps using the DOL API
S Support the myUSA (if available or equivalent) authentication
service
S Continue to be a RESTful service that supports all platforms
S Same codebase for internal and external deployments
S Conform to the 18F API standards to the highest degree
practicable

APIv2 Backend
S Based on the GitHub - Project Open
Data community contributed code
S Will run on the LAMP stack.
S Will also consist of:
S Code Igniter (Ellis Lab) Application
Framework
S Server Clustering using a Beowulf Cluster
to leverage load balancing and parallel
processing
S Caching using Varnish Cache
S Will incorporate Object Oriented
Design
S Results default to JSON

Live Long
and
Prosper
Questions:
innovationopenhrs@dol.gov