API Guide Basics

At Swiftly we understand the importance of owning your data, and that's why we offer our Swiftly APIs. Our APIs empower you to take Swiftly's data beyond the dashboard - creating your own data reports and pushing data into other platforms, whether internal or public-facing. There are many ways to use Swiftly APIs, and we see customers presenting creative and innovative ways to use it all the time. 

Most of our customers use Swiftly APIs to seamlessly connect real-time prediction information to commonly used transit apps, such as Google, and Transit. Teams from planning to operations) use our historical data to create their own reporting tools and project analysis based on the Swiftly data.

Video Overview of API Guide

How to Access the API Guide

Step 1: Go to the three-menu bar on the top right of your dashboard.

Step 2: Click "API Guide" from the drop-down menu.

Step 3: Then you will land on the introduction page to the API Guide. 

List of Swiftly APIs

Below are the list of standard Swiftly APIs. Note that API endpoints are not included in this list. 

• Agency info
• GPS Playback
• Headway
• Internal
• On-time Performance
• Operations
• Operator
• Real-time*
• Rider alerts
• Ridership
• Run-times
• Speed Map
• Service Metrics

For the extensive list of endpoints, visit the reference section of your API Guide in your dashboard at API Guide > Reference.

*Non-customers, third party developers, researchers and students can request permission to access agency real-time APIs. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee access to every request.

API Guide Basics

Overview: The API Guide provides you with an introduction plus documentation for the Swiftly API, the ability to test your API key, and provides testing capabilities. The heart of the API Guide lives in the Reference section, which has in-depth documentation of all of our API options. The Reference section also provides testing widgets to make sure you know what information you will output from an API call. 

Introduction: This view introduces you to the Swiftly API and provides details on your API access. This is where you'll find your agency key, your API key, your API call limit, and the API calls you have permission to make. This is purely informative and gives you a high-level overview of your API access and permissions. 

Test Your Key: This view allows you to test your key. If you ever need to double-check that your Swiftly API key is functioning, then you will want to utilize the widget on this view. Copy in your API key to the code, and if the key is functional the call will return a success statement.

Reference: This view holds the documentation for all of the Swiftly API calls. While you may only have access to certain specific API calls, you can view the documentation on all possible API calls in the Reference section. Each call will have documentation on what information it returns, the definitions of the parameters of that call, the common responses you may encounter, and a testing widget to test each call.

This testing widget allows you to input the parameters you want, run the API call, test whether the call works, and see what type of information the call returns. This widget provides a testing ground so you can understand each API call before setting up the Swiftly API to work with your internal systems. 

If you would like access to the Swiftly API please contact [e-mail]

Take API Guide Beyond the Basics

Swiftly Customer use cases:

• How the MBTA Is Using Swiftly APIs to Expand their Operations Toolkit

Customer Community Training Webinars:

• Own Your Data: The Power of the Swiftly API