openapi: 3.0.2 info: title: Penn Courses API Documentation [Accounts] User [Accounts] User [PCx] Section API version: '' description: ' # Introduction Penn Courses ([GitHub](https://github.com/pennlabs/penn-courses)) is the umbrella categorization for [Penn Labs](https://pennlabs.org/) products designed to help students navigate the course registration process. It currently includes three products, each with their own API documented on this page: Penn Course Alert, Penn Course Plan, and Penn Course Review. See `Penn Labs Notion > Penn Courses` for more details on each of our (currently) three apps. For instructions on how to maintain this documentation while writing code, see the comments in `backend/PennCourses/docs_settings.py` (it is easy, and will be helpful for maintaining Labs knowledge in spite of our high member turnover rate). See our [GitHub](https://github.com/pennlabs/penn-courses) repo for instructions on installation, running in development, and loading in course data for development. Visit the `/admin/doc/` route ([link](/admin/doc/)) for the backend documentation generated by Django (admin account required, which can be made by running `python manage.py createsuperuser` in terminal/CLI). # Unified Penn Courses By virtue of the fact that all Penn Courses products deal with, well, courses, it would make sense for all three products to share the same backend. We realized the necessity of a unified backend when attempting to design a new Django backend for Penn Course Plan. We like to live by the philosophy of keeping it [DRY](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don''t_repeat_yourself), and PCA and PCP''s data models both need to reference course and section information. We could have simply copied over code (a bad idea) or created a shared reusable Django app (a better idea) for course data, but each app would still need to download copies of the same data. Additionally, this will help us build integrations between our Courses products. # Authentication PCx user authentication is handled by platform''s Penn Labs Accounts Engine. See [Penn Labs Notion > Platform > The Accounts Engine](https://www.notion.so/pennlabs/The-Accounts-Engine-726ccf8875e244f4b8dbf8a8f2c97a87?pvs=4) for extensive documentation and links to repositories for this system. When tags or routes are described as requiring user authentication, they are referring to this system. I highly recommend the [official video course on OAuth2](https://oauth.net/2/) (by Aaron Parecki), then the Platform Notion docs on the "Accounts Engine" for anyone who wants to understand Labs authentication better. Platform is our OAuth2 "Authorization Server", and Django Labs Accounts is an OAuth2 client run by our Django backends (Clubs, Penn Courses, etc), exposing client-facing authentication routes like `penncourseplan.com/accounts/login`. There''s also this Wikipedia page explaining [Shibboleth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth_(software)) (which is used by Penn for authentication, and by the Platform authorization server). See the Django docs for more on Django''s features for [User Authentication](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/topics/auth/), which are used by PCX apps, as part of Platform''s accounts system. ' x-logo: url: https://i.imgur.com/tVsRNxJ.png altText: Labs Logo contact: email: contact@pennlabs.org servers: - url: https://penncoursereview.com description: Penn Course Review - url: https://penncourseplan.com description: Penn Course Plan tags: - name: '[PCx] Section' description: '' paths: /api/base/{semester}/search/sections/: get: operationId: Section Search description: '(GET `/api/base/{semester}/search/sections/`) Retrieve a list of sections (less detailed than [PCx] Section, or SectionDetail on the backend). The sections are filtered by the search term (assumed to be a prefix of a section''s full code, with each chunk either space-delimited, dash-delimited, or not delimited).' parameters: - name: semester in: path required: true description: 'The semester of the course (of the form YYYYx where x is A [for spring], B [summer], or C [fall]), e.g. ''2019C'' for fall 2019. Alternatively, you can just pass ''current'' for the current semester. Finally, you can pass ''all'' to always return the most recent course for each full_code, no matter which semester it is from. The ''all'' option can be significantly more expensive, so use only where needed. ' schema: type: string - name: search required: false in: query description: A search term. schema: type: string responses: '200': content: application/json: schema: type: array items: type: object properties: section_id: type: string readOnly: true description: ' The dash-separated dept, full-code, and section-code, e.g. `CIS-120-001` for the 001 lecture section of CIS-120. ' status: enum: - O - C - X - '' type: string readOnly: true description: 'The registration status of the section. Options and meanings:
"O""Open"
"C""Closed"
"X""Cancelled"
"""Unlisted"
' activity: enum: - '' - CLN - CRT - DAB - DIS - DPC - FLD - HYB - IND - LAB - LEC - MST - ONL - PRC - REC - SEM - SRT - STU type: string readOnly: true description: 'The section activity, e.g. `LEC` for CIS-120-001 (2020A). Options and meanings:
"""Undefined"
"CLN""Clinic"
"CRT""Clinical Rotation"
"DAB""Dissertation Abroad"
"DIS""Dissertation"
"DPC""Doctoral Program Exchange"
"FLD""Field Work"
"HYB""Hybrid"
"IND""Independent Study"
"LAB""Lab"
"LEC""Lecture"
"MST""Masters Thesis"
"ONL""Online"
"PRC""Practicum"
"REC""Recitation"
"SEM""Seminar"
"SRT""Senior Thesis"
"STU""Studio"
' meeting_times: type: string readOnly: true description: ' A JSON-stringified list of meeting times of the form `{days code} {start time} - {end time}`, e.g. `["MWF 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM","F 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM","T 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM"]` for PHYS-151-001 (2020A). Each letter of the days code is of the form M, T, W, R, F for each day of the work week, respectively (and multiple days are combined with concatenation). To access the Meeting objects for this section, the related field `meetings` can be used. ' instructors: type: array items: [] readOnly: true description: A list of the names of the instructors teaching this section. course_code: type: string readOnly: true description: ' The full code of the course this section belongs to, e.g. `CIS-120` for CIS-120-001. ' course_title: type: string readOnly: true description: ' The title of the course this section belongs to, e.g. ''Programming Languages and Techniques I'' for CIS-120-001. ' semester: type: string readOnly: true description: ' The semester of the course (of the form YYYYx where x is A [for spring], B [summer], or C [fall]), e.g. `2019C` for fall 2019. ' registration_volume: type: integer readOnly: true description: The number of active PCA registrations watching this section. description: Sections Listed Successfully. tags: - '[PCx] Section' /api/base/{semester}/sections/{full_code}/: get: operationId: Retrieve Section description: '(GET `/api/base/{semester}/sections/{full_code}/`) Retrieve a detailed look at a specific course section.' parameters: - name: semester in: path required: true description: 'The semester of the course (of the form YYYYx where x is A [for spring], B [summer], or C [fall]), e.g. ''2019C'' for fall 2019. Alternatively, you can just pass ''current'' for the current semester. Finally, you can pass ''all'' to always return the most recent course for each full_code, no matter which semester it is from. The ''all'' option can be significantly more expensive, so use only where needed. ' schema: type: string - name: full_code in: path required: true description: ' The full code of the section, in the form ''{dept code}-{course code}-{section code}'', e.g. `CIS-120-001` for the 001 section of CIS-120. ' schema: type: string responses: '200': content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: id: type: string readOnly: true description: ' The dash-separated dept, full-code, and section-code, e.g. `CIS-120-001` for the 001 lecture section of CIS-120. ' status: enum: - O - C - X - '' type: string readOnly: true description: 'The registration status of the section. Options and meanings:
"O""Open"
"C""Closed"
"X""Cancelled"
"""Unlisted"
' activity: enum: - '' - CLN - CRT - DAB - DIS - DPC - FLD - HYB - IND - LAB - LEC - MST - ONL - PRC - REC - SEM - SRT - STU type: string readOnly: true description: 'The section activity, e.g. `LEC` for CIS-120-001 (2020A). Options and meanings:
"""Undefined"
"CLN""Clinic"
"CRT""Clinical Rotation"
"DAB""Dissertation Abroad"
"DIS""Dissertation"
"DPC""Doctoral Program Exchange"
"FLD""Field Work"
"HYB""Hybrid"
"IND""Independent Study"
"LAB""Lab"
"LEC""Lecture"
"MST""Masters Thesis"
"ONL""Online"
"PRC""Practicum"
"REC""Recitation"
"SEM""Seminar"
"SRT""Senior Thesis"
"STU""Studio"
' credits: type: number multipleOf: 0.01 maximum: 100 minimum: -100 readOnly: true nullable: true description: The number of credits this section is worth. capacity: type: integer readOnly: true description: The max allowed enrollment across all crosslistings of this section. semester: type: string readOnly: true description: ' The semester of the course (of the form YYYYx where x is A [for spring], B [summer], or C [fall]), e.g. `2019C` for fall 2019. ' meetings: type: string readOnly: true description: ' A list of the meetings of this section (each meeting is a continuous span of time during which a section would meet). ' instructors: type: array items: [] readOnly: true description: A list of the names of the instructors teaching this section. course_quality: type: number multipleOf: 0.001 maximum: 10 minimum: -10 readOnly: true description: The average course quality rating for this section, on a scale of 0-4. instructor_quality: type: number multipleOf: 0.001 maximum: 10 minimum: -10 readOnly: true description: The average instructor quality for this section, on a scale of 0-4. difficulty: type: number multipleOf: 0.001 maximum: 10 minimum: -10 readOnly: true description: The average difficult rating for this section, on a scale of 0-4. work_required: type: number multipleOf: 0.001 maximum: 10 minimum: -10 readOnly: true description: The average work required for this section, on a scale of 0-4. associated_sections: type: array items: [] readOnly: true description: ' A list of all sections associated with the Course which this section belongs to; e.g. for CIS-120-001, all of the lecture and recitation sections for CIS-120 (including CIS-120-001) in the same semester. ' registration_volume: type: integer readOnly: true description: The number of active PCA registrations watching this section. description: Section detail retrieved successfully. tags: - '[PCx] Section' x-tagGroups: - name: Penn Course Plan tags: - '[PCP] Course Recommendations' - '[PCP] Schedule' - '[PCP] Primary Schedule' - '[PCP] Calendar' - '[PCP] Break' - name: Penn Course Alert tags: - '[PCA] Registration History' - '[PCA] Registration' - name: Penn Course Review tags: - '[PCR] Course Reviews' - '[PCR] Autocomplete Dump' - '[PCR] Department Reviews' - '[PCR] Section-Specific Reviews' - '[PCR] Plots' - '[PCR] Instructor Reviews' - name: Penn Courses (Base) tags: - '[PCx] NGSS Restrictions' - '[PCx] Attributes' - '[PCx] Status Updates' - '[PCx] Healths' - '[PCx] Friendship' - '[PCx] Course' - '[PCx] Section' - '[PCx] Pre-NGSS Requirements' - name: Penn Labs Accounts tags: - '[Accounts] User' - name: Other tags: - '[PDP] Docked Course' - '[PDP] Degree' - '[PDP] Onboard From Transcript' - '[PDP] Fulfillment' - '[PDP] Degree Plan Lists' - '[PDP] Satisfied Rule Lists' - '[PDP] Degree Plan Detail'