How to query this api to get all the encounters for a given location in a certain game?

[diogofd8]

Hello!
I've been trying to write a simple script to take two arguments: game-version, location and to return the full list of encounters in the following format:

<encounter_method="" >
    <pokemon species="" rate=""/>
</encounter_method>

However, my experience with API is zero, I'm a mere embedded systems programmer with no experience at all with web stuff. I tried seeking on google and even chatgpt but I couldn't find any leads that would get me somewhere apart from making random api requests and hitting a wall. I tried reading the documentation but I'm a fish out of water here. Could you help me out?

[Naramsim]

The closest you can do is using graphql and filter per generation

query searchForPokemonInFrench {
  pokemon_v2_pokemon(
    where: {
      pokemon_v2_encounters: {
        pokemon_v2_locationarea: { name: { _eq: "sinnoh-route-229-area" } }
      }
      _and: {
        pokemon_v2_pokemonspecy: {
          pokemon_v2_generation: { name: { _eq: "generation-i" } }
        }
      }
    }
  ) {
    id
    name
  }
}

Our data locations are linked to pokemon, but pokemon are tied to generations, not games. So right now it's impossible to know if you can find a Pidgey in pokemon Blue but not in pokemon Red

[diogofd8]

I'd have to do that for every pokemon every time I want a given area/route, correct? There's no way to search for pokemon in a given location, only for location in a given pokemon. So the only way to get all the pokemon for a certain location I'd have to make n queries for n pokemon, being n the total number of pokemon in the database. Am I interpreting it correctly?

[Naramsim]

I don't understand. Can you list your inputs and your outputs clearly?

The GraphQL above lists all Pokemon belonging to a specific generation that can be found in a certain location.

Input: generation, location

Output: pokemon

This is the output of the query above:

{
  "data": {
    "pokemon_v2_pokemon": [
      {
        "id": 16,
        "name": "pidgey"
      },
      {
        "id": 43,
        "name": "oddish"
      },
      {
        "id": 44,
        "name": "gloom"
      },
      {
        "id": 48,
        "name": "venonat"
      },
      {
        "id": 49,
        "name": "venomoth"
      },
      {
        "id": 69,
        "name": "bellsprout"
      },
      {
        "id": 70,
        "name": "weepinbell"
      },
      {
        "id": 118,
        "name": "goldeen"
      },
      {
        "id": 119,
        "name": "seaking"
      },
      {
        "id": 123,
        "name": "scyther"
      },
      {
        "id": 127,
        "name": "pinsir"
      },
      {
        "id": 129,
        "name": "magikarp"
      },
      {
        "id": 130,
        "name": "gyarados"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Learn more here on GraphQL: https://pokeapi.co/docs/graphql https://stackoverflow.com/a/52868182/3482533

[diogofd8]

Thank you for your guidance. I managed to understand the basic principle behind GraphQL and after loads of try and error I'm now somewhat able to navigate pokeAPI and get what I want from with using some coding.