FSC integration customers believe that plans for the reform of the API are good

In February 2025, the Digital and Population Data Services Agency conducted a survey aimed at FSC integration customers to determine how customers use FSC data and how they perceive the DVV, how they view the plans for the reform of the next interface version 12, in which major changes will be made to the API.

57 people responded to the survey, 50 of whom were representatives of customer organisations that had implemented or planned to implement the integration and of 7 IT suppliers. Respondents utilise FSC data in various ways on their organisations’ websites, in their map services, the e-service portal, regional service platforms, the organisations’ Google profiles and their customer service background system. They also planned to utilise data in their telecommunications service system, Power BI reports and the enterprise architecture system.

20 respondents felt that there were problems in retrieving data from the current API. Users experienced slowness and errors when trying to retrieve data. Contradictions were also found between the implementation of the API and its documentation. In addition, users found the retrieval of changed data and formatting of description texts difficult.

The survey listed the planned reforms:

• An API key will be implemented in the OUT interface.
• From now on, it will be ensured that the API and schema and other interface documentation correspond with one another.
• In the new API, the data in each language version will be returned in its own collection, not one record at a time by language version, as is currently the case.
• The organisation of services and service channels in the user interface and API will be enabled.
• The API’s date format will be changed to the standard format.
  
  14 respondents commented on the contents of the reform in more detail. Twelve of them thought the plans were good. Two respondents were critical of the API key and hoped that it would be implemented as lightly as possible. This is also being planned.
  
  The survey also provided more detailed information on the significance and priority of individual functionalities. Three workshops held in March took an in-depth look into the themes of the survey. Additional information on the themes will also be collected in interviews with organisations during April. Survey respondents were also able to sign up to participate in these interviews.