AlpineBits DestinationData

The AlpineBits Alliance is working on a standardisation of the exchange of events and mountain resort-related information in a task force named AlpineBits DestinationData. The first two releases AlpineBits of the destination data are named AlpineBits DestinationData 2020-04 and AlpineBits DestinationData 2021-04.

AlpineBits® DestinationData specifies a REST API for exchanging destination data based on the AlpineBits® DestinationData Ontology. The API is built on JSON:API v1.0 designed to support the client-server communication model, with a focus on system-to-system communication.

AlpineBits® DestinationData is built on:

• an OntoUML ontology that describes the conceptualization and scope of the standard;
• the RESTfull architectural style;
• the JSON:API v1.0 specification for REST APIs that exchanges JSON data through HTTP messages;
• HTTPS and basic authentication protocols for secure communication
• the JSON Schema standard – draft 7 for validation of messages in the AlpineBits® DestinationData
standard
• the GeoJSON standard for modelling JSON geospatial data
• Schema.org structured data for inspiration for the design of resource types

The AlpineBits® DestinationData standard is intended for the exchange of touristic information between systems acting as clients and servers, where clients consume the data provided by the servers. The AlpineBits® DestinationData standard includes the definition of:
• specific server endpoints
• resource types
• support to GET requests
• request and response headers and parameters
• additional request features (e.g., pagination and hypermedia controls)

At the current version of the standard, the scope of AlpineBits® DestinationData covers exchanging data about events, event series, event venues, mountain areas, lifts, trails, snowparks, agents, and media objects.

Changelog AlpineBits DestinationData

   
Release version Document release date Description
2022-04 2022-04-30 This release contains the following improvements: 
 • Added resource creation specification
 • Added resource update specification
 • Added resource deletion specification
 • Added support to virtual and hybrid events
 • Updated licensing information on mediaObjects resources with the replacement of the copyrightOwner relationship with licenseHolder and introduction of the author attribute
 • Improvement of the definition of the dataProvider field on the meta of any resource
 • Improvement of the definition of the editions and series relationships on events and eventSeries resources
 • Improvement of the definition of the connections relationships on lifts, mountainAreas, skiSlopes, and snowparks resources
• Improvement of the definitions of the ontology
• Updated list of HTTP status codes
• Re-structuring of chapter API Architecture into chapters API Architecture, Requests and Responses, and Routes for improved organization of contents
2021-04 2021-03-24 This release contains the following improvements:
• Added filtering specification
• Added searching specification
• Added sorting specification
• Added random sorting specification
• Added field selection specification
• New resource type: categories
• Transformed categories attribute into a relationship
• New resource type: features
• Transformed features attribute into a relationship
• Changed the versioning format of server routes
• Renamed the trails resource type to skiSlopes
• Improved guidelines on how to handle bad requests
• Added recommendation for server to provide OpenAPI-based
documentations
2020-04 2020-04-30 First release published
Contains the source files for the AlpineBits DestinationData Standard.

Additional Resources

For every route type defined in the standard, there is a JSON Schema that describes the structure of the messages it should return. Schemas can be used to programmatically validate messages against.

  • If you are implementing a DestinationData server, you can use these schemas to check if your implementation is compliant with the standard. You can also use them at run-time to check if your server is sending correctly structured messages.
  • If you are consuming data from a DestinationData server, you can use these schemas to validate the data you receive, which adds a layer of protection to your application.

Issue tracker

General issues and questions about AlpineBits for Developers (en/de/it)

Git Repository for Standard Specification

Public Git repositories (standard specification sources, code snippets and more)

Source Code for Reference Implementation

Source Code for the Reference Implementation on the Open Data Hub provided by NOI Techpark