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Migration

The Python reimplementation provides the same endpoints as the old API, which are largely functioning the same way. However, there are a few major deviations:

  • Use of typed JSON: e.g., when a value represents an integer, it is returned as integer.
  • Lists when multiple values are possible: if a field can have none, one, or multiple entries (e.g., authors), we always return a list.
  • Restriction or expansion of input types as appropriate.
  • Standardizing authentication and access messages, and consistently execute those checks before fetching data or providing error messages about the data.

The list above is not exhaustive. Minor changes include, for example, bug fixes and the removal of unnecessary nesting. There may be undocumented changes, especially in edge cases which may not have occurred in the test environment. As the PHP API was underspecified, the re-implementation is based on a mix of reading old code and probing the API. If there is a behavioral change which was not documented but affects you, please open a bug report.

All Endpoints

The following changes affect all endpoints.

Error on Invalid Input

When providing input of invalid types (e.g., a non-integer dataset id) the HTTP header and JSON content will be different.

HTTP Header
- 412 Precondition Failed
+ 422 Unprocessable Entity
JSON Content
- {"error":{"code":"100","message":"Function not valid"}}
+ {"detail":[{"loc":["query","_dataset_id"],"msg":"value is not a valid integer","type":"type_error.integer"}]}

Input validation has been added to many end points

There are endpoints which previously did not do any input validation. These endpoints now do enforce stricter input constraints. Constraints for each endpoint parameter are documented in the API docs.

Other Errors

For any other error messages, the response is identical except that outer field will be "detail" instead of "error":

JSON Content
- {"error":{"code":"112","message":"No access granted"}}
+ {"detail":{"code":"112","message":"No access granted"}}

In some cases the JSON endpoints previously returned XML (example), the new API always returns JSON.

XML replaced by JSON
- <oml:error xmlns:oml="http://openml.org/openml">
-   <oml:code>103</oml:code>
-   <oml:message>Authentication failed</oml:message>
- </oml:error>
+ {"detail": {"code":"103", "message": "Authentication failed" } }

Datasets

GET /{dataset_id}

  • Dataset format names are normalized to be all lower-case ("Sparse_ARFF" -> "sparse_arff").
  • Non-arff datasets will not incorrectly have a "parquet_url" (openml#1189).
  • If "creator" contains multiple comma-separated creators it is always returned as a list, instead of it depending on the quotation used by the original uploader.
  • For (some?) datasets that have multiple values in "ignore_attribute", this field is correctly populated instead of omitted.
  • Processing date is formatted with a T in the middle:
    processing_date
    - "2019-07-09 15:22:03"
+ "2019-07-09T15:22:03"
  • Fields which may contain lists of values (e.g., creator, contributor) now always returns a list (which may also be empty or contain a single element).
  • Fields without a set value are no longer automatically removed from the response.

GET /data/list/{filters}

The endpoint now accepts the filters in the body of the request, instead of as query parameters. 

-  curl -d '' 127.0.0.1:8002/api/v1/json/data/list/status/active
+ curl -X 'POST' 'http://localhost:8001/v1/datasets/list' \
+  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+  -d '{}'
This endpoint is now also available via a POST request, and will exhibit the same behavior regardless of how it is accessed.

When accessing this endpoint when authenticated as administrator, it now correctly includes datasets which are private.

The limit and offset parameters can now be used independently, you no longer need to provide both if you wish to set only one.

POST /datasets/tag

When successful, the "tag" property in the returned response is now always a list, even if only one tag exists for the entity. For example, after tagging dataset 21 with the tag "foo": 

{
   data_tag": {
      "id": "21",
-      "tag": "foo"
+      "tag": ["foo"]
   }
}

Studies

GET /{id_or_alias}

Old-style "legacy" studies which are solely based on tags are no longer supported.

Affected Legacy Studies

Only 24 old studies were affected by this change, listed below. There is currently not yet a migration plan for these studies.

id name
1 A large-scale comparison of classification algorit...
2 Fast Algorithm Selection using Learning Curves
3 Multi-Task Learning with a Natural Metric for Quan...
5 Local and Global Feature Selection on Multilabel T...
7 Massive machine learning experiments using mlr and...
8 Decision tree comparaison
10 Collaborative primer
11 Having a Blast: Meta-Learning and Heterogeneous En...
12 Subspace Clustering via Seeking Neighbors with Min...
13 Meta-QSAR: learning how to learn QSARs
17 Subgroup Discovery
20 Mythbusting data mining urban legends through larg...
22 Identifying critical paths in undergraduate progra...
24 OpenML R paper
25 Bernd Demo Study for Multiclass SVMs OML WS 2016
27 Compare three different SVM versions of R package ...
30 OpenML Paper Study
31 Iris Data set Study
32 Data Streams and more
34 Massively Collaborative Machine Learning
37 Speeding up Algorithm Selection via Meta-learning ...
38 Performance of new ctree implementations on classi...
41 ASLib OpenML Scenario
50 Hyper-parameter tuning of Decision Trees
51 ensemble on diabetes

Flows

GET /flow/exists/{name}/{external_version}/

Behavior has changed slightly. When a flow is found:

- { "flow_exists": { "exists": "true", "flow_id": "123" } }
+ { "flow_id": 123 }

and when a flow is not found: 

- { "flow_exists": { "exists": "false", "flow_id": "-1" } }
+ { "detail": "Flow not found." }
and the HTTP header status code is 404 (NOT FOUND) instead of 200 (OK).

In the future the successful case will more likely just return the flow immediately instead (see #170).

Others

GET /estimationprocedure/list

The ttid field has been renamed to task_type_id. All values are now typed. Outer levels of nesting have been removed.

GET /evaluationmeasures/list

Outer levels of nesting have been removed.