The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has set up its own API developer portal and launched the first service – the API for the Vehicle Enquiry Service (VES) – in public beta format.
Vehicle enquiries service designer Emma Steele said DVLA has been the first body to apply for an API domain name from the Government Digital Service (GDS), that it will be able to use the portal for other services and is planning to produce more APIs.
The move follows the launch of the VES for checking if a vehicle is taxed and has an MOT, and the subsequent development of the VES API channel.
DVLA decided that, to enable developers to build their own front end interfaces, it needed to develop the API portal. This involves a list of available APIs for datasets that are currently open, along technical documentation, details of the support available for integration, and a route into applying for the service.
The portal has now gone into public beta with more than 90 customers being given access so far.
Rosalie Marshall, API lead at GDS, said it encourages development teams to use consistent naming conventions to make APIs and resources easier to locate, and that it hopes DVLA’s adoption will encourage more teams to follow suit.
Image from iStock
