Orthodox Calendar and Readings API

API Documentation

Start with the API Documentation and then experiment with the examples below.

Code Examples

Website administrators can use these APIs on either the front-end or back-end to embed the daily readings on the sites they maintain. Following are some simple examples of how to fetch the data from the api and incorporate it into a page using either PHP or Javascript.

PHP Example

	<?php
	// Get today's information
	$json = file_get_contents('https://orthocal.info/api/gregorian/');
	$day = json_decode($json);
	?>
	<!DOCTYPE html>
	<html>
	<head>
	<title>Daily Readings</title>
	</head>
	<body>
	<h1><?= $day->summary_title ?></h1>

	<h2>Scripture Readings</h2>
	<?php foreach ($day->readings as $reading): ?>
	<h3><?= $reading->display ?></h3>
	<?php foreach ($reading->passage as $verse): ?>
	<p>
	<sup><?= $verse->verse ?></sup>
	<?= $verse->content ?>
	</p>
	<?php endforeach; ?>
	<?php endforeach; ?>

	<h2>Commemorations</h2>
	<?php foreach ($day->stories as $story): ?>
	<h3><?= $story->title ?></h3>
	<?= $story->story ?>
	<?php endforeach; ?>
	</body>
	</html>

view raw example.php hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Browser-based Javascript Examples

HTML With jQuery Example

	<!doctype html>
	<html>
	<head>
	<meta charset="UTF-8">
	</head>
	<body>
	<h1 id="title"></h1>
	<p id="fast"></p>
	<p id="readings"></p>

	<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.6.3.min.js"></script>
	<script>
	$(document).ready(function() {
	$.ajax('https://orthocal.info/api/gregorian/').done(function (data) {
	$('#title').text(data.summary_title);
	$('#fast').text(data.fast_level_desc + ' — ' + data.fast_exception_desc);
	$('#readings').text(data.readings.map(r => r.display).join('; '))
	});
	});
	</script>
	</body>
	</html>

view raw sample.html hosted with ❤ by GitHub

ES6 Example

	<html>
	<body>
	<h1>Daily Readings</h1>
	<article id="readings">
	</article>
	</body>

	<script>
	async function load_readings() {
	// Use the client's date since the server is always set to Pacific Timezone
	const today = new Date()

	// JS months are zero-origin, so we have to add 1 to the month
	const url = `https://orthocal.info/api/gregorian/${today.getFullYear()}/${today.getMonth()+1}/${today.getDate()}/`

	const response = await fetch(url)
	if (response.ok) {
	const day = await response.json()

	// Get an abbreviated subset of the readings
	abbr_readings = day.abbreviated_reading_indices.map(index => day.readings[index])

	// Use a string template to generate new HTML and add it to the
	// readings article in the markup.
	document.querySelector('#readings').innerHTML = `
	<h2>${today.toDateString()}</h2>
	<h3>${day.summary_title}</h3>

	<h2>Scripture Readings</h2>
	${abbr_readings.map(reading => `
	<h3>${reading.display}</h3>
	<!-- There is no markup in the verses, so we wrap the whole thing in <p> tags -->
	<p>${reading.passage.map(verse => verse.content).join(' ')}</p>
	`).join('')}

	<h2>Commemorations</h2>
	${day.stories.map(story => `
	<h3>${story.title}</h3>
	<!-- Stories already have the html markup embedded, so we don't need <p> tags -->
	${story.story}
	`).join('')}
	`
	}
	}

	document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', load_readings)
	</script>
	</html>

view raw orthocal-example.html hosted with ❤ by GitHub

React.js Example

You can view the code for the previous version of this site that was built with React.js in the orthocal-client Github repository.