Every station already has its crew's availability in iOnCall: who's on call right now, who's responding, who's away. Until now the only way to see it was through our apps, the station dashboard and the crew board. Today we're opening it up. The iOnCall Developer API lets your own software read your station's crew and their current status.
It's a first version and it's deliberately small. It is read-only: it can show you who is available, but it can't change anyone's status or send a callout. We'd rather prove it works with stations first and add more as you ask for it.
What you can build with it
Some of the things stations have in mind:
- A crew-room screen of your own design, if our crew board doesn't fit the way your station works.
- Your own rostering or cover tools, pulling live availability rather than asking everyone to fill in a second system.
- Station reporting: how often you're fully crewed, sampled through the day.
- A simple "crew available" figure on a station or brigade intranet.
What it gives you
There are three calls in this first version:
- Your station: its name and time zone, plus how many crew there are, how many are available and how many are responding right now.
- Your members: everyone at the station, with their name, rank, callsign, current availability and whether they're responding.
- One member: the same details for a single person.
Here's the whole of a first call:
curl https://ioncall.app/api/v1/station \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $IONCALL_KEY"
Private by design
The API follows the same rule as the rest of iOnCall: everyone at a station can see current availability, because covering the station is the point, but a member's history belongs to them. So the API shares current status only. It never returns email addresses, phone numbers, locations, qualifications, planned availability or anyone's history.
Each API key belongs to one station and can only ever read that station. We store only a scrambled fingerprint of the key, so not even we can read it back, and a key can be switched off instantly.
Try it now, no sign-up
You don't need a key to see it working. The Quickstart on the developer page has a public demo key for Kilbrook, our made-up demo fire station with fourteen made-up crew. Every example on the page uses it, in cURL, C#, Node and Python, so you can copy a call and run it straight away. The demo key can only ever read Kilbrook.
Getting a key for your station
Keys are issued by hand while the API is in preview. If you're a station admin, get in touch and tell us what you'd like to build. We'll send you a key for your station. It's shown once, so keep it somewhere safe.
What's next
This is the starting point, not the finished thing. If your station needs more, such as setting availability from another system or receiving callouts, tell us. Each addition will be its own permission, which a station chooses to give, so a key only ever does what you've agreed it can.
The full reference, including errors, paging and limits, is on the developer page.