GeoDB Cities GraphQL API Free Tutorials (wirefreethought)

GeoDB Cities GraphQL

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By Michael Mogley | Updated 14 days ago | Data

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Getting City Tourist Attractions

Why should I care about this?

If you want to return anything interesting about cities to your users beyond the basics, you really should care about WikiData. This is a growing online database that is intended to be the structured-data equivalent to Wikipedia. Using WikiData SPARQL queries, you can enrich the results from the GeoDB Cities API with WikiData information linked to those cities. Here are just a few examples:

By leveraging both services, you can combine the quick GeoDB Cities API response time of finding your list of cities with the rich detail view made possible by WikiData.

In plain English, what are we trying to do?

In this example, we walk you through how to retrieve tourist attractions for the New York City area.

What do I need to know before we start?

This tutorial assumes a basic knowledge of:

All GraphQL queries below will be issued using the following cURL invocation:

curl --request POST \
     --url https://geodb-cities-graphql.p.rapidapi.com/ \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --header 'x-rapidapi-host: geodb-cities-graphql.p.rapidapi.com' \
     --header 'x-rapidapi-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
     --data '{"query":"QUERY"}'

I’m hooked into a caffeine drip, go on!

To get the WikiData id for New York, we’ll query cities in the US starting with ‘new’ and having a population of at least 1 million. That should narrow it down to our single desired result.

{
  populatedPlaces(types:["CITY"], countryIds:["US"], namePrefix:"new", minPopulation:1000000, first:1) {
    totalCount
    edges {
      node {
        wikiDataId
        name
      }
    }
  }
}

This gives back the following JSON response:

{
  "data": {
    "populatedPlaces": {
      "totalCount": 1,
      "edges": [
        {
          "node": {
            "wikiDataId": "Q60",
            "name": "New York City"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

The SPARQL Query

Having obtained the WikiData id for New York (Q60), our SPARQL query can now be formed from the following rule-matching triplets:

An attraction is an instance of any subclass of a Tourist Attraction.
?attraction (wdt:P31/wdt:P279*) wd:Q570116
An attraction is located in the administrative territorial entity of New York City.
?attraction wdt:P131 wd:Q60
An attraction has a coordinate location of gps.
?attraction wdt:P625 ?gps
An attraction has a label of attractionLabel.
?attraction rdfs:label ?attractionLabel
With these triplets, we can now write the full query below (we also include a FILTER constraint on the attractionLabel for English only):

PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX wd: <http://www.wikidata.org/entity/>
PREFIX wdt: <http://www.wikidata.org/prop/direct/>

SELECT DISTINCT ?attraction ?attractionLabel ?gps 

WHERE {
    ?attraction (wdt:P31/wdt:P279*) wd:Q570116;
        wdt:P625 ?gps;
        rdfs:label ?attractionLabel.
 
    ?attraction wdt:P131 wd:Q60
            
    FILTER(LANG(?attractionLabel) = "en")
}

You can execute this query directly in WikiData’s excellent online Query UI to obtain the following results:

attraction	attractionLabel	gps
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6940939	National Museum of Mathematics	Point(-73.9883 40.7437)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q952270	Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum	Point(-74.00083333 40.76472222)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q18343137	Godwin-Ternbach Museum	Point(-73.817274 40.73634)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q17984748	9/11 Tribute Museum	Point(-74.012416666 40.710083333)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q29469136	Choco-Story New York	Point(-74.00683 40.727664)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q18157051	Pulitzer Fountain	Point(-73.9736 40.764)

That’s it? Why so few results?

WikiData entities tend to refer to very specific things. In particular, as of this writing, there is no native concept of one entity semantically subsuming another. So when you directly ask for all tourist attractions in New York City (Q60), WikiData does not automatically infer that you must also be talking about the borough of Manhattan.

There are two ways to fix this:

Update the SPARQL query to add triplet rules for attractions in New York City and all of its boroughs, or:
Instead of just getting the WikiData id for New York City, get the ids for ALL cities - large and small - in that area. Then update the SPARQL query to cover attractions in any of these cities.

Let’s go with Option 2

To get the WikiData ids for relevant cities in the NYC area, we’ll query cities within 10 miles of NYC (Wikidata id: Q60) with a population of at least half a million.

{
  populatedPlace(id:"Q60") {     
    nearbyPopulatedPlaces(radius:20, distanceUnit:MI, minPopulation:500000, first:10) {
      edges {
        node {
          wikiDataId
          name
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This gives back the following JSON response:

{
  "data":{
    "populatedPlace":{
      "nearbyPopulatedPlaces":{
        "edges":[
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q60",
              "name":"New York City"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q11980692",
              "name":"Kings County"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q855974",
              "name":"Bronx County"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q18424",
              "name":"Queens"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q18419",
              "name":"Brooklyn"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q500416",
              "name":"New York County"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q11299",
              "name":"Manhattan"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q5142559",
              "name":"Queens County"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q490505",
              "name":"Hudson County"
            }
          },
          {
            "node":{
              "wikiDataId":"Q18426",
              "name":"The Bronx"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Let’s update the SPARQL query

From the above results, we now get the list of WikiData ids. Note that as of this writing, the WikiData id for Queens is missing. This is because GeoDB relies on the WikiData GeoNames property to correlate GeoNames data to WikiData, and the Queens entry is currently missing that property. Such situations should become less frequent over time as WikiData matures.

In the meantime though, we have the following list of WikiData ids:

Q60 (NYC)
Q11299 (Manhattan)
Q18419 (Brooklyn)

The updated query uses the UNION operator to effectively OR together the triplets for these three cities, as follows:

PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX wd: <http://www.wikidata.org/entity/>
PREFIX wdt: <http://www.wikidata.org/prop/direct/>

SELECT DISTINCT ?attraction ?attractionLabel ?gps 

WHERE {
    ?attraction (wdt:P31/wdt:P279*) wd:Q570116;
        wdt:P625 ?gps;
        rdfs:label ?attractionLabel.
 
    {?attraction wdt:P131 wd:Q60}
    UNION
    {?attraction wdt:P131 wd:Q11299}
    UNION
    {?attraction wdt:P131 wd:Q18419}
            
    FILTER(LANG(?attractionLabel) = "en")
}

Using the WikiData Query UI, this gives us the following results:

attraction	attractionLabel	gps
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1278593	Museum of Chinese in America	Point(-73.999444444 40.716111111)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1136137	National September 11 Memorial & Museum	Point(-74.013611111 40.711388888)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1129820	Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum	Point(-73.95805556 40.78472222)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1139071	New York City Police Museum	Point(-74.008192 40.703538)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1059456	New-York Historical Society	Point(-73.974166666 40.779166666)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q808531	Barnum’s American Museum	Point(-74.0086 40.7112)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q839985	Museum of Jewish Heritage	Point(-74.01875 40.70621)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q901533	Lower East Side Tenement Museum	Point(-73.990139 40.7185)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1478423	The Morgan Library & Museum	Point(-73.981556 40.748803)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1503777	New York Transit Museum	Point(-73.99 40.6904)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2915494	Skyscraper Museum	Point(-74.0175 40.705555555)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q632682	Brooklyn Museum	Point(-73.96375 40.671306)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q63751	Rubin Museum of Art	Point(-73.997805555 40.740111111)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q124302	Chelsea Art Museum	Point(-74.007 40.74783333)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q59468	Neue Galerie	Point(-73.9603 40.7813)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q160236	Metropolitan Museum of Art	Point(-73.96367 40.77891)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2420849	Hispanic Society of America	Point(-73.9465 40.8335)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q201469	Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum	Point(-73.958889 40.783056)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q188740	Museum of Modern Art	Point(-73.977664 40.761484)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q639791	Whitney Museum of American Art	Point(-74.0089 40.7396)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q636942	International Center of Photography	Point(-73.9834 40.7558)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q682827	The Frick Collection	Point(-73.9675 40.771111111)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q592116	Jewish Museum	Point(-73.9575 40.7854)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1061142	El Museo del Barrio	Point(-73.9514 40.7931)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q903403	Studio Museum Harlem	Point(-73.947533333 40.808477777)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1138030	The Cloisters	Point(-73.931905 40.86484)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1321141	Museum of the City of New York	Point(-73.951944444 40.7925)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1156823	New Museum	Point(-73.992916666 40.722361111)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q464354	American Folk Art Museum	Point(-73.9781 40.7616)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3328431	Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art	Point(-73.9871 40.7401)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3039170	Drawing Center	Point(-74.0029 40.7224)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2999991	Dahesh Museum of Art	Point(-74.00480556 40.725)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1954603	The Africa Center	Point(-73.928333333 40.746388888)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3021342	Deitch Projects	Point(-74.0025 40.722)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5362267	Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art	Point(-73.9638 40.6713)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5159606	Coney Island USA	Point(-73.9798 40.5753)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6052565	International Print Center New York	Point(-74.0043 40.7501)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4884230	Bellwether Gallery	Point(-74.0062 40.7449)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5098177	Children’s Museum of Manhattan	Point(-73.9772 40.7859)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4470591	Ukrainian Museum	Point(-73.9897 40.7278)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5422747	Eyebeam Art and Technology Center	Point(-74.00712222 40.74710556)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5354207	Museum of American Finance	Point(-74.0092 40.7064)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6516654	Lefferts Historic House	Point(-73.9638 40.6643)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7703226	Terrain Gallery	Point(-73.9988 40.726)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7338883	Rivington Arms	Point(-73.9836 40.7187)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6530976	Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art	Point(-74.0031 40.7216)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6940773	Museum of Arts and Design	Point(-73.9819 40.7675)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6940781	Museum of Biblical Art	Point(-73.9827 40.7702)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5539979	National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center	Point(-74.0138 40.7043)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6659326	Living Torah Museum	Point(-73.9808 40.6356)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7085115	Old Stone House	Point(-73.984625 40.672958)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6924383	Mount Vernon Hotel Museum	Point(-73.96 40.760556)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q8052851	Yeshiva University Museum	Point(-73.9939 40.7381)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7579760	Sports Museum of America	Point(-74.0132 40.7051)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q572548	Anthology Film Archives	Point(-73.9901 40.7247)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q952270	Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum	Point(-74.00083333 40.76472222)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6941063	Museum of the American Gangster	Point(-73.9858 40.7279)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6940955	Museum of Motherhood	Point(-73.9499 40.7756)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7026138	Nicholas Roerich Museum	Point(-73.9691 40.8029)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6973870	National Jazz Museum in Harlem	Point(-73.938 40.8055)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6940939	National Museum of Mathematics	Point(-73.9883 40.7437)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7979549	Weeksville Heritage Center	Point(-73.9254 40.674)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q18343137	Godwin-Ternbach Museum	Point(-73.817274 40.73634)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2865930	Dyckman House	Point(-73.923056 40.867361)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3306353	Merchant’s House Museum	Point(-73.992361111 40.727666666)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3784918	Henry Clay Frick House	Point(-73.9672 40.7711)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q217717	American Museum of Natural History	Point(-73.974722222 40.780555555)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q29469136	Choco-Story New York	Point(-74.00683 40.727664)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q16025238	South Street Seaport Museum	Point(-74.0028 40.7061)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7768627	The Theatre Museum	Point(-73.9839 40.7599)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1087567	National Track and Field Hall of Fame	Point(-73.94125 40.84213889)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q17984748	9/11 Tribute Museum	Point(-74.012416666 40.710083333)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q18748945	Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives	Point(-73.9636306 40.6712062)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q18154623	Morbid Anatomy Museum	Point(-73.9901 40.6728)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q954207	Central Park Zoo	Point(-73.971666666 40.767777777)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7927217	Victorian Gardens	Point(-73.9773 40.7686)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1058899	Prospect Park Zoo	Point(-73.964361111 40.665772222)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5092377	Cherry Hill	Point(-73.9727 40.7747)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4848351	Bailey Fountain	Point(-73.9649 40.6655)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q532029	Bethesda Terrace	Point(-73.9711 40.7741)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q17151590	Untermyer Fountain	Point(-73.95195 40.79426)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q18157051	Pulitzer Fountain	Point(-73.9736 40.764)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q665475	Hayden Planetarium	Point(-73.9732 40.7815)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5359415	Elephantine Colossus	Point(-73.9783 40.5767)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1322466	Museum of Sex	Point(-73.987 40.7443)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1060884	New York Aquarium	Point(-73.9751 40.5743)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4974780	Brooklyn Children’s Museum	Point(-73.9439 40.6745)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1049423	Castle Clinton	Point(-74.01681 40.70348)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1049423	Castle Clinton	Point(-74.016667 40.703611)

NOTE: Castle Clinton shows up twice due to two slightly different coordinate locations associated with it. This highlights a case where your code may occasionally have to do some slight judgment calls to decide which version to take.

Great, but how do I do this programmatically?

GeoDB Integration

RapidQL

WikiData Integration

HTTP REST
https://query.wikidata.org/sparql?format=json&query={SPARQL}
Java
JavaScript
Python

For more information on how to integrate with WikiData, go here.

Well done getting this far!

This was a long tutorial, but we hope you can now see the power of combining the GeoDB Cities API with WikiData to create novel and compelling user experiences. Please let us know what you come up with!

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