API Resources

Overview

APIs are an important part of our data systems at HOURCAR. In order to pull data from external sources (i.e. Vulog, Lytx, Stripe, etc.), we have to access their APIs. In practice, this means writing a script in Python that deals with authentication and sending requests to access the data that we need. This is how our main GitHub repository, api-bridge, functions.

We can also access APIs from Postman. This is helpful for testing and debugging, since the authentication and headers are already built-in. To get access to our Postman workspace, please contact Gunnar or Noah.

API Formatting

We primarily work with REST APIs, meaning that they follow specific methods and formatting. The four main resource methods associated with REST APIs are: GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE. At HOURCAR, we mostly use GET methods, with the occasional PUT or POST.

Here is more information on REST APIs.

Vulog APIs

This is our most commonly used API collection. Vulog provides APIs to access data related to our Evie Carshare and Fleet Admin apps (trips, users, invoices, tickets, zones, points of interest, reservations, vehicle events, and others).

We also use Vulog APIs in our ticket automations, in order to create or edit existing tickets.

Here is the Vulog API documentation.

Lytx APIs

We use Lytx APIs to access camera events that indicate unsafe driving behaviors.

Here is the new Lytx API documentation, and here is the old Lytx API documentation.

Stripe APIs

We use Stripe APIs to access financial data, such as monthly balance reports.

Here is the Stripe API documentation.