cURL Examples¶

Comprehensive command-line examples for accessing the Danish Parliament API using cURL. Perfect for testing, scripting, and command-line tools.

Overview¶

The Danish Parliament API is ideal for cURL usage because: - No authentication required - Direct access without API keys - CORS enabled - Works from any environment - Standard HTTP/JSON - Simple request/response patterns - Rich OData support - Powerful query capabilities

Quick Start¶

# Basic API test - get 5 recent cases
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=5"

# Pretty print JSON (if you have jq)
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=5" | jq '.'

# Get total count of cases
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24inlinecount=allpages&%24top=1" | jq '."odata.count"'

Critical: URL Encoding¶

The #1 mistake developers make: Always use %24 instead of $ in URLs.

# L WRONG - This will not work
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?$top=5"

# ✅ CORRECT - Always encode $ as %24
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=5"

# Or use proper shell escaping (bash/zsh)
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?\$top=5"

Quick Reference¶

Purpose	Entity	Example
Cases/Bills	`Sag`	`curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=10"`
Politicians	`Aktør`	`curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Aktør?%24top=10"`
Votes	`Afstemning`	`curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Afstemning?%24top=5"`
Individual Votes	`Stemme`	`curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Stemme?%24top=5"`
Documents	`Dokument`	`curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Dokument?%24top=5"`
Meetings	`Møde`	`curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Møde?%24top=5"`

Examples by Category¶

Basic Queries - Essential cURL patterns
Testing Commands - API health checks and diagnostics

Common Patterns¶

Search and Filter¶

# Search for climate legislation
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24filter=substringof('klima',%20titel)"

# Cases updated in 2025
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24filter=year(opdateringsdato)%20eq%202025"

# Recent activity (last 24 hours)
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24filter=opdateringsdato%20gt%20datetime'2025-09-08T00:00:00'"

Pagination¶

# First page (records 1-100)
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=100&%24skip=0"

# Second page (records 101-200)
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=100&%24skip=100"

# Get total count for pagination
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24inlinecount=allpages&%24top=1" | jq '."odata.count"'

Relationships¶

# Get cases with categories
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24expand=Sagskategori&%24top=5"

# Get voting with individual votes
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Afstemning?%24expand=Stemme&%24top=1"

# Deep expansion (2 levels)
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Afstemning?%24expand=Stemme/Aktør&%24top=1"

Useful cURL Options¶

# Silent mode (no progress bar)
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=1"

# Include HTTP headers in output
curl -i "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=1"

# Show only HTTP status code
curl -s -w "%{http_code}" -o /dev/null "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag"

# Timeout after 30 seconds
curl --max-time 30 "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=100"

# Follow redirects
curl -L "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=1"

# Save to file
curl -o cases.json "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=100"

JSON Processing with jq¶

# Extract just the titles
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=5" | jq '.value[].titel'

# Count records returned
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=10" | jq '.value | length'

# Get specific fields
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=3" | jq '.value[] | {id, titel, opdateringsdato}'

# Filter by field value
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=20" | jq '.value[] | select(.statusid == 3)'

# Sort by update date
curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=10" | jq '.value | sort_by(.opdateringsdato) | reverse'

Shell Scripting Examples¶

Simple monitoring script¶

#!/bin/bash

# Monitor recent parliamentary activity
echo "Recent Parliamentary Activity (Last 4 hours):"

CUTOFF=$(date -d '4 hours ago' -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S)
RECENT=$(curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24filter=opdateringsdato%20gt%20datetime'${CUTOFF}'&%24top=10")

echo "$RECENT" | jq -r '.value[] | "\(.id): \(.titel[0:60])... (Updated: \(.opdateringsdato))"'

Batch data collection¶

#!/bin/bash

# Collect climate legislation data
TOPICS=("klima" "miljø" "energi" "bæredygtig")
OUTPUT_DIR="parliamentary_data"
mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

for topic in "${TOPICS[@]}"; do
    echo "Collecting data for: $topic"

    curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24filter=substringof('${topic}',%20titel)&%24top=100" \
        > "${OUTPUT_DIR}/${topic}_cases.json"

    # Count results
    COUNT=$(cat "${OUTPUT_DIR}/${topic}_cases.json" | jq '.value | length')
    echo "Found $COUNT cases for $topic"

    # Be respectful to the API
    sleep 1
done

Error Handling¶

# Check for HTTP errors
response=$(curl -s -w "HTTPSTATUS:%{http_code}" "https://oda.ft.dk/api/InvalidEntity")
http_code=$(echo "$response" | grep -o "HTTPSTATUS:.*" | cut -d: -f2)

if [ "$http_code" -eq 200 ]; then
    echo "Success"
    echo "$response" | sed 's/HTTPSTATUS:.*$//'
else
    echo "HTTP Error: $http_code"
fi

# Retry on failure
max_attempts=3
attempt=1

while [ $attempt -le $max_attempts ]; do
    response=$(curl -s --max-time 30 "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=1")

    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "Success on attempt $attempt"
        break
    else
        echo "Attempt $attempt failed, retrying..."
        sleep $((attempt * 2))  # Exponential backoff
        ((attempt++))
    fi
done

Advanced Use Cases¶

Parliamentary Activity Dashboard¶

#!/bin/bash

echo "=== Danish Parliament Activity Dashboard ==="
echo

# Total statistics
echo "=Ê Overall Statistics:"
TOTAL_CASES=$(curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24inlinecount=allpages&%24top=1" | jq -r '."odata.count"')
TOTAL_ACTORS=$(curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Aktør?%24inlinecount=allpages&%24top=1" | jq -r '."odata.count"')
echo "  Total Cases: ${TOTAL_CASES}"
echo "  Total Actors: ${TOTAL_ACTORS}"

# Recent activity
echo
echo "¡ Recent Activity (Last 24 hours):"
YESTERDAY=$(date -d '24 hours ago' -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S)
RECENT=$(curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24filter=opdateringsdato%20gt%20datetime'${YESTERDAY}'&%24top=5&%24orderby=opdateringsdato%20desc")

echo "$RECENT" | jq -r '.value[] | "  " \(.titel[0:50])... (ID: \(.id))"'

# Topic analysis
echo
echo "<÷ Topic Analysis:"
declare -A topics=(
    ["klima"]="Climate"
    ["sundhed"]="Health" 
    ["økonomi"]="Economy"
    ["uddannelse"]="Education"
)

for key in "${!topics[@]}"; do
    COUNT=$(curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24filter=substringof('${key}',%20titel)&%24inlinecount=allpages&%24top=1" | jq -r '."odata.count"')
    printf "  %-12s: %s cases\n" "${topics[$key]}" "$COUNT"
done

Performance Tips¶

# Use compression for large responses
curl --compressed "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=100"

# Parallel requests (be respectful - max 3-5 concurrent)
{
    curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=50&%24skip=0" > page1.json &
    curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=50&%24skip=50" > page2.json &
    curl -s "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=50&%24skip=100" > page3.json &
    wait
}

# Use HTTP/2 for better performance
curl --http2 "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=10"

# Connection reuse for multiple requests
{
    echo "url = \"https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=10\""
    echo "url = \"https://oda.ft.dk/api/Aktør?%24top=10\""
    echo "url = \"https://oda.ft.dk/api/Afstemning?%24top=5\""
} | curl --config -

Security Notes¶

# Always use HTTPS (the API enforces this)
curl "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=1"  # ✅ Secure

# Verify SSL certificate
curl --cacert /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=1"

# Check TLS version
curl -v "https://oda.ft.dk/api/Sag?%24top=1" 2>&1 | grep "TLS"

Next Steps¶

Basic Queries - Essential cURL patterns and examples
Testing Commands - API health checks and diagnostics

cURL provides an excellent way to explore the Danish Parliament API, test queries, and build command-line tools for parliamentary data analysis.