Advanced Python API Guide

This page assumes you already have Conservator CLI installed. If you do not, follow the Installation instructions first.

This guide will discuss more of the underlying tech in Conservator CLI. If you’re just getting started, take a look at the Python API Quickstart, or check out /examples.

GraphQL and SGQLC

Conservator uses GraphQL. GraphQL is very useful in that it lets an API call specify what information it is interested in. For instance, if you want a list of all of the names of the Projects on Conservator, you don’t need to also be sent the metadata, file urls, etc–You can just request the name field.

Another feature of GraphQL is introspection, which lets you discover all available API calls and types using other API calls. SGQLC is a Python library that can automatically generated a Python API wrapper, autogenerated from these introspective API calls.

Conservator CLI is built on top of an autogenerated SGQLC API. This API is available in FLIR.conservator.generated.schema and can be used for any query.