The Cat API

Author

Cade Campise

API Analysis: The Cat API!

What is it?

The Cat API is an API that contains lots of data about cats, such as:

  • Cat Images

  • Breed Information

  • Facts and more detailed facts

    • (Paid)

  • Medical Data

    • (Paid & Not Currently Available)

This data, while it can be silly in nature, can be quite important in the pet care space. For example, a person looking to be a pet owner can query breed information and images to look for a breed they may want to adopt, a vet could use the soon-to-be-added medical data to quickly and more accurately diagnose pet conditions, and of course, can be used to produce many cute cat pictures.

How do you access it?

This API has some calls you can make without an API key, but getting a key is simple! You can obtain a free key which can be obtained at https://thecatapi.com.

By scrolling down, you can view the API key types here:

upon clicking the GET FREE ACCESS button, you are taken to page where you are asked to provide some information on your usage with the api

After putting in your information and clicking submit, and if you are approved, you should get an email with your new Cat API key!

Demonstration

Load our libraries

library(tidyverse)
library(httr)   
library(jsonlite)  
library(imager)

Without an API Key

The Cat Api actually has a few non-api-key requests! This is one of them, which can grab a random cat picture!

catInfo = "https://api.thecatapi.com/v1/images/search" %>% 
  GET() %>% 
  content(as = "text",
          encoding = "UTF-8") %>%
  fromJSON()

catImage = load.image(catInfo$url)
plot(catImage)

Another thing you can do is grab a data set of all the breeds of cats!

catBreeds = "https://api.thecatapi.com/v1/breeds" %>% 
  GET() %>% 
  content(as = "text",
          encoding = "UTF-8") %>%
  fromJSON()
head(catBreeds,4)
# A tibble: 4 × 38
  id    name           cfa_url vetstreet_url vcahospitals_url temperament origin
  <chr> <chr>          <chr>   <chr>         <chr>            <chr>       <chr> 
1 abys  Abyssinian     http:/… http://www.v… https://vcahosp… Active, En… Egypt 
2 aege  Aegean         <NA>    http://www.v… <NA>             Affectiona… Greece
3 abob  American Bobt… http:/… http://www.v… https://vcahosp… Intelligen… Unite…
4 acur  American Curl  http:/… http://www.v… https://vcahosp… Affectiona… Unite…
# ℹ 31 more variables: country_codes <chr>, country_code <chr>,
#   description <chr>, life_span <chr>, indoor <dbl>, lap <dbl>,
#   alt_names <chr>, adaptability <dbl>, affection_level <dbl>,
#   child_friendly <dbl>, dog_friendly <dbl>, energy_level <dbl>,
#   grooming <dbl>, health_issues <dbl>, intelligence <dbl>,
#   shedding_level <dbl>, social_needs <dbl>, stranger_friendly <dbl>,
#   vocalisation <dbl>, experimental <dbl>, hairless <dbl>, natural <dbl>, …

With an API Key

Getting an API allows us to apply filters to our image-getting commands. We would be able to get more detailed information and facts and sort by breeds and such, but that is sadly paid access.

siberianCatsURL = paste(
  "https://api.thecatapi.com/v1/images/search?",
  "limit=3", # how many images we want
  "&breed_ids=sibe", # the breed we're filtering by, siberian cats
  "&api_key=<!API_KEY_HERE!>", # put your api key here!
  sep=""
)

siberianCats = siberianCatsURL %>% 
  GET() %>% 
  content(as = "text",
          encoding = "UTF-8") %>%   
  fromJSON()

Replacing <!API_KEY_HERE!> with your given api key would allow this code to run!

siberianCats = read_csv("3SiberianCats.csv") # to keep my api key private, I have imported my results into my own csv
Rows: 3 Columns: 5
── Column specification ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Delimiter: ","
chr (2): id, url
dbl (2): width, height
lgl (1): breeds

ℹ Use `spec()` to retrieve the full column specification for this data.
ℹ Specify the column types or set `show_col_types = FALSE` to quiet this message.
siberianCats
# A tibble: 3 × 5
  breeds id        url                                             width height
  <lgl>  <chr>     <chr>                                           <dbl>  <dbl>
1 NA     LSaDk6OjY https://cdn2.thecatapi.com/images/LSaDk6OjY.jpg  1080   1080
2 NA     Rl39SPjDO https://cdn2.thecatapi.com/images/Rl39SPjDO.png  1198   1379
3 NA     ZocD-pQxd https://cdn2.thecatapi.com/images/ZocD-pQxd.jpg   880   1100

let’s display the 2nd cat picture as an example!

siberianCatImage = load.image(siberianCats$url[2])
plot(siberianCatImage)