NOTE: "Field names" as given in this document are intended to be descriptive and may not map to actual concepts in Arctos.

NOTE: This document is out of date.

JSON

JSON is “an open-standard file format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects.” In Arctos, JSON is a way for us to share complex data with both humans (the data is easily read by humans) and machines (the data is easily read by a very wide variety of programs) in otherwise simple formats, such as the ubiquitous table.

Shortening

JSON can be a very verbose format; we have abbreviated terms in an attempt to fit more data in less space. We have occasionally merged various concepts - value-space-units as one JSON variable, for example.

Limitations

We generally limit JSON to 4000 bytes. Data which would exceed that are delivered as

[{"STATUS":"ERROR CREATING JSON"}]

Please Contact Us with any issues, needs, or concerns.

Locality

Any specimen may have any number of specimen-events, and each may have any number of collecting event attributes and/or geology determinations. These data are available in specimenresults as “JSON Locality” in the following format.

[
   {
      "ST":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.SPECIMEN_EVENT_TYPE",
      "VS":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.VERIFICATIONSTATUS",
      "VB":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.VERIFIED_BY_AGENT",
      "VD":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.VERIFIED_ON_DATE",
      "AB":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.ASSIGNED_BY_AGENT",
      "AD":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.ASSIGNED_ON_DATE",
      "CM":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.COLLECTING_METHOD",
      "CS":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.COLLECTING_SOURCE",
      "BD":"COLLECTING_EVENT.BEGAN_DATE",
      "ED":"COLLECTING_EVENT.ENDED_DATE",
      "RD":"COLLECTING_EVENT.VERBATIM_DATE",
      "RL":"COLLECTING_EVENT.VERBATIM_LOCALITY",
      "HB":"SPECIMEN_EVENT.HABITAT",
      "SL":"LOCALITY.SPEC_LOCALITY",
      "CD":"LOCALITY.COORDINATES",
      "CE":"LOCALITY.COORDINATE_ERROR",
      "EL":"LOCALITY.ELEVATION",
      "DP":"LOCALITY.DEPTH",
      "DM":"LOCALITY.DATUM",
      "HG":"GEOGRAPHY.HIGHER_GEOGRAPHY",
      "GY":[
         {
            "TY":"GEOLOGY.GEOLOGY_ATTRIBUTE",
            "VU":"GEOLOGY.VALUE",
            "RK":"GEOLOGY.REMARK",
            "MD":"GEOLOGY.DETERMINED_METHOD",
            "DA":"GEOLOGY.DETERMINED_DATE",
            "DT":"GEOLOGY.DETERMINED_BY_AGENT"
         }
      ],
      "EA":[
         {
            "TY":"COLLECTING_EVENT_ATTRIBUTES.EVENT_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE",
            "VU":"COLLECTING_EVENT_ATTRIBUTES.EVENT_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE",
            "RK":"COLLECTING_EVENT_ATTRIBUTES.EVENT_ATTRIBUTE_REMARK",
            "MD":"COLLECTING_EVENT_ATTRIBUTES.DETERMINED_METHOD",
            "DA":"COLLECTING_EVENT_ATTRIBUTES.DETERMINED_DATE",
            "DT":"COLLECTING_EVENT_ATTRIBUTES.DETERMINED_BY_AGENT"
         }
      ]
   }
]

Parts

“PartDetail” contains all parts, parentage, and attributes as JSON. The format is as follows.

[
   {
      "ID":"SPECIMEN_PART.PART_ID",
      "SF":"SPECIMEN_PART.SAMPLED_FROM_PART_ID",
      "PN":"SPECIMEN_PART.PART_NAME",
      "LC":"SPECIMEN_PART.LOT_COUNT",
      "DP":"COLL_OBJECT.DISPOSITION",
      "CD":"COLL_OBJECT.CONDITION",
      "BC":"CONTAINER.CONTAINING_BARCODE",
      "CP":"CONTAINER.FULL_PATH",
      "RK":"COLL_OBJECT.REMARKS",
      "PA":[
         {
            "AT":"PART_ATTRIBUTE.ATTRIBUTE_TYPE",
            "AV":"PART_ATTRIBUTE.ATTRIBUTE_VALUE",
            "AU":"PART_ATTRIBUTE.ATTRIBUTE_UNITS",
            "DD":"PART_ATTRIBUTE.DETERMINED_DATE",
            "DR":"PART_ATTRIBUTE.DETERMINED_BY_AGENT",
            "AR":"PART_ATTRIBUTE.ATTRIBUTE_REMARK"
         }
      ]
   }
]

Media

“Media” in SpecimenResults download is media metadata as JSON. The format is as follows.

MEDIA.MEDIA_ID can be used to form Media Detail URLs of the format http://arctos.database.museum/{MEDIA.MEDIA_ID}
MEDIA.MEDIA_ID can be used to form URLs which GET the Media object as http://arctos.database.museum/{MEDIA.MEDIA_ID}?open

[
   {
      "MI":"MEDIA.MEDIA_ID",
      "MT":"MEDIA.MIME_TYPE",
      "PU":"MEDIA.PREVIEW_URL",
      "MU":"MEDIA.MEDIA_URI",
      "MC":"MEDIA.MEDIA_CATEGORY"
   }
]

Attributes

[
   {
      "ID":"attributes.attribute_id",
      "CID":"cataloged_item.collection_object_id",
      "AT":"attributes.attribute_type",
      "AV":"attributes.attribute_value",
      "AU":"attributes.attribute_units",
      "AA":"attributes.determined_by_agent",
      "AR":"attributes.attribute_remark",
      "AM":"attributes.determination_method",
      "AD":"attributes.determined_date"
   }
]
		

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last edited 10 July 2025