The Annotation API is an extension to the Europeana REST API which allows you to create, retrieve and manage annotations on Europeana objects. Annotations are user-contributed or system-generated enhancements, additions or corrections to (or a selection of) metadata or media. We adopted the Web Annotation Data Model as a base model for the representation of annotations and as a format for exchanging annotations between client applications and the API, but also the Web Annotation Protocol as base HTTP protocol for the API.

Get your API Key here

Get Started with the Annotations API

note

Go to the Annotations API Console

Go to the Annotations API Console

Need help?

Please note that this API is in an Alpha state, you can use your regular API key for GET requests in this API Using the PUT/POST/DELETE methods for this API is currently not publicly available.. You can request access to the write methods by emailing us with your use case.

The Annotation Data Model

What are annotations?

Annotations (in the Europeana context) are user-contributed or system-generated enhancements to (a selection of) metadata or media. The most well-known type of annotation is the "tag", a short textual depiction of something. Annotations allow for the creation of meaningful connections across Europeana and will also offer up new ways to explore or find the content you're looking for.

The Annotations API adopted the Web Annotation Data Model (WA) as a base model for exchanging annotations between client applications and the API. It is a W3C recommendation that describes a model and format to share annotations across different platforms.

Please note that, even though we have adopted WA as underlying data model for this API, it is not expected that we support the full extent of the model. We thus advise to look at the EDM Annotations Profile which describes the basics of our implementation and, in particular, the section on Annotation Scenarios for a comprehensive list of the different kinds of annotations that we support.

Basics of the model

In the Web Annotation Data Model an annotation is essentially a reified relation between two or more resources, typically a body and a target, and conveys that the body reflects what is intended to be said about the target. A body can also be absent to describe situations where a target is simply bookmarked. A target can represent a resource or just a part of it that is being annotated.

Being reified as a class enables an annotation to be further described with a motivation which expresses the reason why the annotation was created but also some provenance information such as the user that created the annotation and the software application that was used, as well as the times when it was initially created and sent to the API.

Representation in JSON-LD

Annotations

Field

Datatype

Description

@context

String (URL)

The URL of the JSON-LD context. (always with value "http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld")

id

String (URI)

The identifier of the Annotation. It is automatically generated unless a local identifier is specified upon creation.

type

String

Always has the values of "Annotation".

created

String (DateTime)

The time at which the Annotation was created by the client application. It must be expressed in ISO8601 format and should have a timezone specified.

creator

Object (Agent)

The agent responsible for creating the Annotation. This may be either a human or software agent.

generated

String (DateTime)

The time at which the annotation was sent to the server.

generator

Object (Software)

The agent responsible for generating the Annotation. Typically a client application used to create the annotation.

motivation

String

Expresses the reason why the annotation was created. The value can be either "tagging", "linking" or "transcribing".

body

String or Object (Semantic Resource or Textual Body)

A body conveying what is intended to be said about the target. If the value is provided as a string, then it is interpreted as the URI and must only be used for the semantic tagging scenario. See the application scenarios section for more information.

bodyValue

String

A string conveying the tag text. This field must only be used in combination with "tagging" as motivation and when the language of the tag is not known. Otherwise, it is recommended to use the body field as defined in the Application Scenarios section.

target

String, Media Resource or Array (String)

The URL of the resource that is being annotated, or a specific resource in the case of media annotations. An array of URLs may also be set (mostly used for the object linking).

via

String

The URL of the annotation, if available in an external service.

Agent

An Agent can be either a Person or a Software. Typically the Person corresponds to the user that created the annotation while the Software reflects the client application that was used to create it. A Software can also create annotations if they result from an automatic process.

Field

Datatype

Description

type

String

Either "Person" or "Software".

name

String

The name of the agent. Either the name of the user that created the annotation, or the name of the client software that was used to create it.

homepage

String

The homepage of the user or client application, if available.

Semantic Resource

A Semantic Resource is used whenever an external resource needs to be referenced as the body of the annotation. It is mostly used for Semantic Tagging.

Field

Datatype

Description

type

String

Always "SpecificResource".

source

String (URI)

The URI of the resource being referred as body.

language

String (ISO639)

The ISO639 language code corresponding to the language of the resource.

Media Resource

Annotations that refer to a media resource require that an oa:SpecificResource object is defined so that the context in which the annotation was made is captured by the annotation. Besides context, a Specific Resource can be used to capture any additional information about how a target is used in the Annotation. The following table lists the properties supported by this class.

Field

Datatype

Description

type

String

Always "SpecificResource".

source

String (URL)

The URL that identifies the media resource which is the ultimate target of the annotation.

scope

String (URI)

The unique identifier of the Europeana item to which this media resource is associated. In more general terms, scope is used to define the context in which the annotation was made, in terms of the resources that the annotator was viewing or using at the time.

Optional and mandatory fields

Field name

is the field mandatory?

Field Value

Datatype

Description

@context

O

M

N/A

M

id

O

M

N/A

M

type

O

M

N/A

M

created

O

M

N/A

M

creator

M

M

N/A

M

generated

O

M

N/A

M

generator

O

M

N/A

M

motivation

M

M

N/A

M

body

O

M (either body or bodyValue)

N/A

M (either body or bodyValue)

bodyValue

O

M (either body or bodyValue)

N/A

M (either body or bodyValue)

target

M

M

N/A

M

O means that the field is Optional, M means that the Field is Mandatory. Note that for all fields, whether they’re Optional or Mandatory, if they’re used it is mandatory to give the field a value and a Description.

{
  "@context": “http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld”
  "id": "http://data.europeana.eu/annotations/1",
  "type": "Annotation",
  "created": "2015-03-10T14:08:07Z",
  "creator": {
    "type": "Person",
    "name": "John Smith"
  },
  "generated": "2015-04-01T09:00:00Z",
  "generator": {
      "type": "Software",
      "name": "HistoryPin",
      "homepage": "https://www.historypin.org/"
  },
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "bodyValue": "MyBeautifulTag",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/92062/BibliographicResource_1000126189360"
}

Annotation Scenarios

The Annotations API supports different types of annotations. This page explains the types of annotations that are currently supported, providing examples on how to represent them in the API.

The examples used in this Section are shortened versions of the Annotation Model, you can find an example of a complete Annotation Data Model implementation here.

Simple tags (without language)

A simple tag is a short textual description of a resource. This scenario only applies when the language of the tag is not known, otherwise see the scenario described in the next Section.

Examples:

church
blue
black and white

Requirement:

A maximum of 64 characters is allowed for a simple tag. A tag cannot be a URL.

In the API:

Set the "motivation" to "tagging" and set the tag within the "bodyValue" field.

Availability:

Since version 0.2.1.

{
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "bodyValue": "painting",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/92062/BibliographicResource_1000126189360"
}

Simple tags (with language)

A simple tag is a short textual description of a resource.

Examples:

church
blue
black and white

Requirement:

A maximum of 64 characters is allowed for a simple tag. A tag cannot be a URL and the language information must be specified.

In the API:

Set the "motivation" to "tagging" and set the tag within the "body" field as a Textual Body.

Availability:

Since version 0.2.1.

{
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "body": {
    "type": "TextualBody",
    "value": "painting",
    "language": "en"
 },
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/92062/BibliographicResource_1000126189360"
}

Semantic tags

A semantic tag is a tag to a resource from a controlled vocabulary, making it machine-interpretable.

Example:

This object in Europeana is somehow related to France (http://sws.geonames.org/2988507).

Requirement:

Any URI is accepted as semantic resource. In the future, it will be limited to a controlled list of acceptable domains.

In the API:

Set the "motivation" to "tagging" and set as body the URI for the semantic resource taken from a contolled vocabulary.

Availability:

Since version 0.2.1.

{
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "body": "http://sws.geonames.org/2988507",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/09102/_UEDIN_214"
}

Object links

An object link is a relationship between two (Europeana) objects. This relationship can be any.

Example:

This object in Europeana is (in some way) similar to this object.

Requirement:

An object link can only be made between two Europeana objects.

In the API:

Set the "motivation" to "linking" and set as target an array containing the URIs of both objects.

Availability:

Since version 0.2.1.

{
  "motivation": "linking",
  "target": [
      "http://data.europeana.eu/item/92062/BibliographicResource_1000126189360",
      "http://data.europeana.eu/item/92062/BibliographicResource_1000126189361"
  ]
}

Geo Tags

A geo-tag adds a geographical location to an item.

Example:

This object in Europeana was located at latitude 52.081131 and longitude 4.324053. .

In the API:

Set the "motivation" to "tagging" and include the "type", "lat" and "long" attributes in the body as per the example below.

Availability:

Since version 0.2.2.

{
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "body": {
    "@context": "http://www.europeana.eu/schemas/context/entity.jsonld",
    "type": "Place",
    "lat": "52.081131",
    "long": "4.324053"
  },
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/92034/GVNRC_NFA03_kop_6_3"
}

Annotating media resources

Annotating a media resource means that the target of the annotation is not the Europeana item but instead a specific media resource within that item.

In the API:

Set the "target" of the annotation to a JSON object with the "scope" holding the unique identifier of the Europeana item and the "source" field the URL of the actual media resource being annotated.

Availability:

Since version 0.2.8.

{
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "bodyValue": "Folk Music",
  "target": {
    "type": "SpecificResource",
    "scope": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/2059207/data_sounds_T471_5",
    "source": "http://comhaltasarchive.ie/tracks/12535"
  }
}

Transcriptions

A transcription is typically an annotation expressing a relation between an image and the text that is represented on that image. Besides the text, the annotation can also refer to a page where the text is displayed, like in the example below.

In the API:

Set the "motivation" to "transcribing" and apply the same criteria as for media resources.

Availability:

Since version 0.2.8.

Example: annotating the image of an Europeana item with the transcription page available at Transcribathon.

{
  "motivation": "transcribing",
  "body": {
    "id": "https://europeana.transcribathon.eu/documents/story/item/?item=39378387",
    "language": "de",
    "format": "text/html"
  },
  "target": {
    "scope": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/743/_nhp5sXg",
    "source": 
    "https://glam.uni.wroc.pl/iiif/image-api/RKP_HAASE_371_62468_0001/full/full/0/default.jpg"
  }
}

Getting Started

Access keys

While this API is in an Alpha state you will need to use a separate API key (other than for the main Europeana REST API) to start using it. You can use the following keys:

Environment

Details

Test

API key apidemo with user token tester1 (allows to create, update & remove annotations on behalf of a test user in the Annotations API test environment).

Production

API key apidemo (allows to search and retrieve annotations in the Annotations API production (live) environment).

Creating annotations in the production (live) environment is currently limited to only selected partners, this will be opened up as part of the Beta release.

Request

Every Annotations API call is an HTTP request in a specified format that is sent to the Annotations API service. The API root URLs for the two environments are located at:

https://test-annotations.europeana.eu/annotation (test)
https://www.europeana.eu/api/annotations (production)

Response

This API only supports the JSON-LD format, which is the Linked Open Data version of JSON (with the same syntax as JSON). The request and response format does not need to be passed along to the API, if not provided it will fallback to the default. You can provide the format either via the URL (extension) or via the "Accept" header. To specify the request and response format you can either do:

/search.jsonld?wskey=xxxxx&query=*:*

Or:

Request header: "Accept: application/ld+json"
/search?wskey=xxxxx&query=*:*

Authentication

For reading requests (GET) you need to authenticate by passing along your API key as the wskey parameter. Example (replace YOUR_KEY with your API key):

/search?wskey=YOUR_KEY&query=*:*

For writing requests (POST/PUT/DELETE) on behalf of a user you need to pass along your API key as the wskey parameter along with a user token as the userToken parameter. Example (replace YOUR_KEY with your API key and YOUR_TOKEN with the user token):

/create?wskey=YOUR_KEY&userToken=YOUR_TOKEN&query=*:*

Error Codes

An error during processing of an API method is reported by (1) a relevant HTTP status code, (2) a value of the success field and (3) a meaningful error message in the error field.

The following HTTP status codes are returned:

HTTP Status Code

Description

200

The request was executed successfully.

401

Authentication credentials were missing or authentication failed.

404

The requested annotation was not found.

429

The request could be served because the application has reached its usage limit.

500

Internal Server Error. Something has gone wrong, which we will correct.

Annotation API Methods

Search

Search for annotations.

GET /search

Request

Parameter

Datatype

Description

query

String

The search term(s), this is mandatory.

profile

String

The search profile which determines the extent of information returned as search result. Currently, two options are supported: "minimal" which returns only the identifier of the annotation; and "standard" (the default) which returns the annotation as it was sent to the API.

qf

String

Query filter, to search on specific fields. The list of fields is presented below.

facet

String

Includes a field to be used as facet in the response (see below which fields can be used as facets). More than one field can be added if separated by a space.

pageSize

Number

The number of records to return per page. For minimal profile, the maximum is 10.000 while for the standard profile is 100, with 10 as default for both profiles.

page

Number

The page of the search results, defaults to 0 (first page).

sort

String

Includes a field to be used for sorting. One of: created, generated or modified.

sortOrder

String

Order of sorting, either "asc" (ascending) or "desc" (descending).

Search and Facet fields

The following table shows the fields that can be used for searching annotations and the ones that can be used for faceting:

Field

Datatype

Used for Facetting

Description

motivation

keyword

yes

motivation of the Annotation

anno_uri

keyword

complete identifier of an Annotation

anno_id

keyword

local identifier of an Annotation (/<provider>/<identifier>)

generator_uri

keyword

yes

complete identifier of the generator

generator_name

keyword

yes

name of the generator

generated

date

date on which the Annotation was first provided to the API

creator_uri

keyword

yes

complete identifier of the creator

creator_name

keyword

yes

name of the user that created the annotation

created

date

date on which the Annotation was created by the annotation client application

modified

date

date on which the Annotation was last modified

moderation_score

integer

yes

sum of all reports made to an Annotation by other users

text

text

searches in all searchable text in an Annotation

body_value

text

yes

value within the body of an Annotation, applies to e.g. simple tagging

body_uri

keyword

yes

complete identifier of the resource within the body of an Annotation, applies to e.g. semantic tagging

target_uri

keyword

yes

complete identified of the target(s) of an Annotation

target_record_id

keyword

yes

local identifier of a record when the target is a record (/collectionId/objectId)

link_resource_uri

keyword

yes

complete identifier of the resource being linked to (ie. through the relation property)

link_relation

keyword

yes

property being used to link two resources.

Response

{
  "@context": "http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld",
  "id": "http://annotations.europeana.eu/annotation/search?wskey=xxxxx&query=*:*&page=0&pageSize=10",
  "items": [
    "http://data.europeana.eu/annotation/base/1",
    "http://data.europeana.eu/annotation/base/2",
    [..]
  ],
  "next": "http://annotations.europeana.eu/annotation/search?wskey=xxxxx&query=*:*&page=1&pageSize=10",
  "partOf": {
     "id": "http://annotations.europeana.eu/annotation/search?wskey=xxxxx&query=*:*",
     "total": 135610
  },
  "total": 10,
  "type": "AnnotationPage"
}

/search?wskey=xxxxx&profile=minimal&query=*:*&qf=motivation:tagging&sort=created&sortOrder=desc

/search?wskey=xxxxx&profile=minimal&query=target_id:"/92028/532E53363138382D2F290A40B3CA26B3889A6907"

/search?wskey=xxxxx&profile=minimal&query=*:*&qf=moderation_score:[-1 TO *]

Note that providing *:* as a search query means you will get all annotations.

Create

The API has a generic method available for the creation of annotations. The creation method expects a body payload in the request with the full annotation. Alternatively you can provide this information as part of the body parameter.

POST http://annotations.europeana.eu/annotation/

Request

An example to create a simple tag:

POST  http://annotations.europeana.eu/annotation/?wskey=YOUR_KEY&userToken=YOUR_TOKEN HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/ld+json
Content-Type: application/ld+json
Content-Length: 999
{
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "bodyValue": "Trombone",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/09102/_UEDIN_214"
}

Note that the motivation for a simple and a semantic tag is always "tagging", whereas the motivation for object linking scenarios is "linking".

Response

Response to the example request:

Content-Type: application/ld+json
ETag: "_87e52ce126126"
Link: <http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#Resource>l; rel="type"
Allow: POST,GET,OPTIONS,HEAD
Vary: Accept
Content-Length: 999
{
  "@context": "http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld",
  "id": "http://data.europeana.eu/annotation/base/1",
  "type": "Annotation",
  "created": "2016-01-31T12:03:45Z",
  "creator": "http://data.europeana.eu/user/55376",
  "generated": "2016-01-31T12:04:00Z",
  "generator": "http://data.europeana.eu/provider/historypin",
  "bodyValue": "Trombone",
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/09102/_UEDIN_214"
}

For more examples and information on the data model for an annotation, see data model.

Read

Retrieve annotations by their identifier.

GET /{provider}/{identifier}

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/ld+json
{
  "@context": "http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld",
  "id": "http://data.europeana.eu/annotation/base/1",
  "type": "Annotation",
  "created": "2016-01-31T12:03:45Z",
  "generated": "2016-01-31T12:04:00Z",
  "generator": "http://www.europeana.eu",
  "bodyValue": "Trombone",
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/09102/_UEDIN_214"
}

See data model for more information on the representation of an annotation.

Update

Update the contents of an annotation. For this you can send a PUT request to the ID of the annotation. You can only update the annotations you have created yourself.

PUT /base/1

Request

You can provide the same content in the Update method as you’d provide for the Create method. Note that you have to provide the full annotation body, you currently cannot update parts of the annotation.

PUT /base/1 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/ld+json
{
  "bodyValue": "Trombone",
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/09102/_UEDIN_214"
}

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/ld+json
{
  "@context": "http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld",
  "id": "http://data.europeana.eu/annotation/base/1",
  "type": "Annotation",
  "created": "2016-01-31T12:03:45Z",
  "generated": "2016-01-31T12:04:00Z",
  "generator": "http://www.europeana.eu",
  "bodyValue": "Trombone",
  "motivation": "tagging",
  "target": "http://data.europeana.eu/item/09102/_UEDIN_214"
}

Delete

Delete an annotation. You can send a DELETE HTTP request using the ID of the annotation. You can only delete the annotations you have created yourself. Deletion means the annotation will not be available anymore for search, and only available for retrieval based on the ID of the annotation.

DELETE /base/1

Request

DELETE /collections/1 HTTP/1.1

Response

HTTP/1.1 204 NO CONTENT
Content-Length: 0

Console

Roadmap and Changelog

The current version of the Annotations API is 0.3.3 (August 2022). It is currently available as a Public Alpha, which is the first public version released primarily to get feedback from you. Do note that this means that changes can be introduced which could break backwards compatibility. It also means that to use this API you need a separate API key than for the other Europeana APIs. To see the changes made for the current version and also all previous releases, see the API changelog in the project GitHub.

Credits

This API was initially developed as part of the Europeana Sounds project. It's development has been carried out by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in cooperation with the Europeana Foundation.