It’s Day 3 and I’m tired. Time blocking hasn’t panned out very well for me and is something I really want to stick to for today’s challenge. Today, we’re going to be working with US National Park Service API data. This will require authorization and the usage of Alteryx!
The NPS API provides a variety of data about national parks, including activities, alerts, amenities, campgrounds, events, fees, and visitor centers. It also provides access to multimedia content, news releases, road conditions, and suggested activities. Overall, these categories offer a comprehensive view of what national parks have to offer.
Initial thoughts
Lessons I learnt from my previous API challenges include the following:
- Is there a rate limit? If so, cache the workflow
- Read the documentation thoroughly
- Pick the story before connecting the selected endpoint onto Alteryx
These points and time boxing will be my priority when tackling this challenge.
Time Boxing Task
- Explore data and ascertain a story angle
- Connect the chosen API endpoints to Alteryx
- Transform and output data
- Visualize on Tableau
Alteryx workflow
After reading through the documents and obtaining my API key, I decided to connect and use one endpoint to create two tables – ‘Park’ and ‘Activities’ as seen below. Although the endpoint was data rich in a multitude of activities, I decided that my story angel would relate to only one activity – ‘astronomy’ to which I can link to stargazing.
Final Thoughts
This time around, I did in fact not bite off more than I can chew. I was able to finish the the final product much closer to the allocated time restraints and deliver MVP at the end. See below a shot of the final dashboard or otherwise have a looky see here.
