Though we've only looked in depth at a handful of the methods, the remaining methods generally function in a very similar manner, accepting the same sorts of arguments and returning the same sorts of data. The only new category of information to go over is that of shelters.
Before we get there though,let's take a look at what we have left:
pet.getRandom - returns a random pet matching a set of characteristicsshelter.getPets - returns pets / ids of pets (of all types) from the indicated sheltershelter.listByBreed returns a list of shelters that have pets of a specified type and breed.In the sections below I will briefly cover these methods, how they relate to the previously explained methods and how they differ some.
| Name | Type | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| key | string | required | your developer key |
| token | string | optional | session token |
| animal | string | optional | type of animal (barnyard, bird, cat, dog, horse, pig, reptile, smallfurry) |
| breed | string | optional | breed of animal (use breeds.list for a list of valid breeds) |
| size | string | optional | size of animal (S=small, M=medium, L=large, XL=extra-large) |
| sex | character | optional | M=male, F=female |
| location | string | optional | the ZIP/postal code or city and state the animal should be located (NOTE: the closest possible animal will be selected) |
| shelterid | string | optional | ID of the shelter that posted the pet |
| output | string | optional (default=id) | How much of the pet record to return: id, basic, full |
| format | string | optional (default=xml) | Response format: xml, json |
As you may have noticed many of these parameters are the same as those from the pet.find method.
The only real changes are the lack of count, offset and age. It's worth nothing that the first two are unnecessary since we are only pulling a single random pet. As far as why we cannot add age in here goes, I have no idea.
It does have an additional parameter though. That would be shelterid. Here was can provide the id of a shelter (which we can get from shelter.find) to get a random pet only from that single shelter.
This method will return a list of all pets that are currently at specified the shelter.
| ARGUMENTS | |||
| Name | Type | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| key | string | required | your developer key |
| token | string | optional | session token |
| id | string | required | shelter ID (e.g. NJ94) |
| status | character | optional (default=A, public may only list adoptable pets) | A=adoptable, H=hold, P=pending, X=adopted/removed |
| offset | integer | optional | offset into the result set (default is 0) |
| count | integer | optional | how many records to return for this particular API call (default is 25) |
| output | string | optional (default=basic) | How much of the pet record to return: id, basic (no description), full |
| format | string | optional (default=xml) | Response format: xml, json |
The only new parameter is status which allows us to indicate the type of pet we want to receive back (adoptable, adopted, etc). However, free API keys are only able to see the adoptable pets, so feel free to ignore this parameter.
Aside from that, this method has very few parameters to worry about, and none that are new.
This method returns all shelters that have animals of a specific breed available. For example, it could grab all shelters that have Appaloosa horses available.
| Name | Type | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| key | string | required | your developer key |
| token | string | optional | session token |
| animal | string | required | type of animal (barnyard, bird, cat, dog, horse, pig, reptile, smallfurry) |
| breed | string | required | greed of animal(use breed.list for a list of valid breeds) |
| offset | integer | optional | offset into the result set (default is 0) |
| count | integer | optional | how many records to return for this particular API call (default is 25) |
| format | string | optional (default=xml) | Response format: xml, json |
For this last method, there are actually no new parameters to see.
Like the other methods returning multiple records, it also uses count and offset to navigate and grab specific ranges of results.
Since the method does not allow you to specify the location of the shelter, it seems more of a tool ot just find shelters offering a breed of animal for other purposes besides adopting. After all, what use is getting shelters from Alaska if you live in Florida? Nevertheless you could trim the results by having a function only grab those in your state. You could then call shelter.getPets to obtain all pets from those shelters, and then you could loop through the results to grab only the pets of your desired breed.
Below is an example of using the method to get a big list and then paring it down to just those from a single state: California.
Be sure to insert your own key before running.