name: University of Alberta
description: University of Alberta public developer/API footprint review for APIs.json cataloging.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/university-of-alberta/refs/heads/main/review.yml
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-06-03'
reviews:
  - date: '2026-06-03'
    rating: 2
    summary: >-
      The University of Alberta has a limited, decentralized public API footprint.
      The central api.ualberta.ca site is live but is only a placeholder stating
      the institution is "currently working to improve the way data is cataloged,
      shared, and governed" — no self-service developer portal or documented
      institutional APIs. The most concrete confirmed programmatic access is
      research data via Borealis (Canadian Dataverse): the Native/Search REST API
      and OAI-PMH endpoint both resolve live and return University of Alberta
      affiliated datasets (subtree "ualberta"). The ualbertalib GitHub org is real
      and active (138 repos). No official course/timetable/SIS API exists; the
      course catalogue and Bear Tracks are web-only, and a third-party unofficial
      scraping API (Heroku) is now dead (404). The legacy library Dataverse host
      (dataverse.library.ualberta.ca) did not resolve. No endpoints were fabricated;
      every cataloged API was probed live.
    endpoints:
      - url: https://api.ualberta.ca/
        status: 200
        note: Live but placeholder; no documented APIs or developer portal yet.
      - url: https://www.ualberta.ca/
        status: 403
        note: Official site; bot-blocks automated curl but loads in browser.
      - url: https://borealisdata.ca/api/search?q=*&subtree=ualberta
        status: 200
        note: Live Dataverse Search API; returns UAlberta-affiliated datasets as JSON.
      - url: https://borealisdata.ca/oai?verb=Identify
        status: 200
        note: Live OAI-PMH metadata harvesting endpoint for Borealis.
      - url: https://borealisdata.ca/dataverse/ualberta
        status: 200
        note: University of Alberta research data collection landing page.
      - url: https://github.com/ualbertalib
        status: 200
        note: Real, active University of Alberta Library GitHub org (138 repos).
      - url: https://www.library.ualberta.ca/about/open-data
        status: 200
        note: Library open-data page; links to GitHub, Dataverse, Z39.50.
      - url: https://apps.ualberta.ca/catalogue
        status: 200
        note: Course catalogue; web UI only, no documented public JSON API.
      - url: https://www.beartracks.ualberta.ca/
        status: 200
        note: Student SIS portal; SSO-gated web app, no public API.
      - url: https://dataverse.library.ualberta.ca/
        status: 0
        note: Legacy library Dataverse host did not resolve (migrated to Borealis).
      - url: https://unofficial-ualberta-api.herokuapp.com/docs
        status: 404
        note: Third-party unofficial course API; Heroku deployment is dead.