A web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over a network. The Iowa Flood Center (IFC) is working to provide advanced users from research organizations and government agencies an alternative way to access its network of sensors. The IFIS Web Service allows automated sharing of sensor data in a common format. The IFIS Web Service may be queried using the Representational State Transfer (REST) protocol.

IFIS Web Service returns the list of all IFC sensors with site information and recent data. Alternatively, this service provides time series data for selected IFC site. The web service returns the data in XML, TAB, and CSV formats.

Users can request a list of all IFC stream sensors with site information and recent values by calling the following script:

Stream Sensors: (Reporting Depth)

Stream Sensors: (Reporting Elevation)
http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/ws/elev_sites.php?format=[...]

Important Note: Site ids might change due to updates on the network. Please check correct site id from site list before querying. We will switch to new site ids soon, that will always be constant.

Users can request time series for a specific IFC sensor and a particular time period by calling the following script:

Stream Sensors: (Reporting Depth)
http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/ws/sites.php?site=[...]&period=[...]&format=[...]

Stream Sensors: (Rerporting Elevation)
http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/ws/elev_sites.php?site=[...]&period=[...]&format=[...]

PARAMETERS
site: list of site ids for all IFC sensors are available using a blank web service call
period: number of hours [values: 1 - 720]
format: output format [values: tab, xml]

EXAMPLES
Use this script to request a list of all IFC sites in XML format:
http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/ws/sites.php?format=xml
http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/ws/elev_sites.php?format=xml

Use this script to request data for selected IFC Site:
http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/ws/sites.php?site=SHLRK05&period=72&format=xml
http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/ws/elev_sites.php?site=SHLRK05&period=72&format=xml