Search.jsp returning blank data when searching for size

API
#1

I’m trying to further improve my .NET library for handling api calls to PVOutput.org and I’ve run in to a problem.

It appears there are search queries I can do in the “Find”-box on the site, that do not work when done through the api. For example the following query works on the site: 4250 size, but if I try it through the api call:

https://pvoutput.org/service/r2/search.jsp?q=4250 size (the space is encoded to %20)

The result is two blank lines. Obviously the api key and my own system are in the headers. I haven’t yet tested every query parameter but the orientation query (fronius +N) appears to have the same problem. I thought the space character was the problem, but a query like 92 postcode works like expected so that’s not the cause. It seems query parameter related.

Am I doing something wrong or is there some bug in this part of the api?

#2

Give it another try.

1 Like
#3

Thanks BB, the “4250 size” query appears to work as expected now. :+1:

However the https://pvoutput.org/service/r2/search.jsp?q=fronius +N does not. It has the same symptoms as the size-query had.

#4

Using Postman I’ve tested the rest of the search methods I’m implementing. I’ve found some other queries that do not seem to work (return empty results sets in every case):
https://pvoutput.org/service/r2/search.jsp?q=morra +E (query by name and orientation)
https://pvoutput.org/service/r2/search.jsp?q=53 tilt (query by tilt)
https://pvoutput.org/service/r2/search.jsp?q=9200 25km (distance query with postcode)

And one query that works different as expected:
https://pvoutput.org/service/r2/search.jsp?q=660 (query by postcode or size)
it seems to ignore postcodes altogether. It also returns by size.

I hope I’m not bothering you with these things :smile: These api methods are probably not used that often, but I’m aiming for 100% api coverage in my library so I try them all.

#5
  1. The “+” will need to be encoded as “%2B” otherwise they will be translated to spaces.

q=morra +E`

Should be -

q=morra%20%2BE

  1. Tilt queries have been added to the service API

  2. For postcode distance searches, add country_code parameter

q=9200%2025km&country_code=nl

1 Like
#6

Thanks for your fast reply!

And you are right about the +. Apparently Postman (the tool I use for testing api calls) encodes all characters properly except for +. My mistake, I should’ve checked that. So queries by orientation, tilt and postcode/distance are now working as intended. I can finish the implementation for those queries in the library.

Did you also look at the query by a single numeric value (postcode or size, the api documentation calls it)? That one still only seems to search by system size, never postcode. I don’t mind leaving that call out for now, as it’s usage seems limited but I still wanted to mention it.

#7

This should now be working as expected, thanks for reporting these issues.

1 Like
#8

I did a quick test and https://pvoutput.org/service/r2/search.jsp?q=660 now also returns systems with a system size that does not start with 660 but a postcode that does. Everything seems to work as expected.

Thank you for solving them so quickly :slight_smile: