.NET library for communicating with the Borger.dk web service.

The package can be installed via NuGet:

Either via the .NET CLI:

dotnet add package Skybrud.Integrations.BorgerDk

or the older NuGet Package Manager:

Install-Package Skybrud.Integrations.BorgerDk

The package is build against the following .NET versions:

• .NET Framework 4.5
• .NET Framework 4.6
• .NET Framework 4.7
• .NET Standard 2.0

Borger.dk currently has two different endpoints. The main endpoint for the articles at www.borger.dk, and then a secondary endpoint with articles targeting an English audience at lifeindenmark.borger.dk.

The endpoint are represented in this class by the BorgerDkEndpoint class and the two BorgerDkEndpoint.Default and BorgerDkEndpoint.LifeInDenmark` fields.

The BorgerDkHttpService class serves as the main component in wrapping the Borger.dk API/web service. You might create a new instance like this:

BorgerDkHttpService http = new BorgerDkHttpService(BorgerDkEndpoint.Default);

Borger.dk contains articles that live at a global level, meaning they are shared across Denmarks municipalities. Each article will consist of mostly global information, but may have some local content that describes a specific municipality.

When only looking at the article list, we don't look at the content, so for this part, the municipality is not relevant. As such, the article list can be retrieved as:

// Initialize a new HTTP service instance from the default endpoint
BorgerDkHttpService http = new BorgerDkHttpService(BorgerDkEndpoint.Default);

// Fetch the article list from the web service
BorgerDkArticleDescription[] articles = http.GetArticleList();

Console.WriteLine("Number of articles: " + articles.Length);
Console.WriteLine();

// Iterate through the articles
foreach (BorgerDkArticleDescription article in articles) {
    
    Console.WriteLine("ID:           " + article.Id);
    Console.WriteLine("Title:        " + article.Title);
    Console.WriteLine("URL:          " + article.Url);
    Console.WriteLine("Publish date: " + article.PublishDate);
    Console.WriteLine("Update date:  " + article.UpdateDate);
    Console.WriteLine();

}

The Borger.dk web services lets you look up the ID of an given article from it's website URL. Simialr to when getting the article list, we're not working with the article content, so we don't need to specify a municipality for this.

// Initialize a new HTTP service instance from the default endpoint
BorgerDkHttpService http = new BorgerDkHttpService(BorgerDkEndpoint.Default);

// Look up the URL in the web service
BorgerDkArticleShortDescription article = http.GetArticleIdFromUrl("https://www.borger.dk/miljoe-og-energi/Affald-og-genbrug/Affaldsordninger");

Console.WriteLine("ID:           " + article.Id);
Console.WriteLine("Title:        " + article.Title);

The GetArticleIdFromUrl method will return an instance of BorgerDkArticleShortDescription, which contains properties for the Id and Title of the article.

Looking up an article via it's ID returns the full article, including it's content. And as the content may contain elements that are specific to your given municipality, you should ideally specify one as the second parameter for the GetArticleFromId method.

The example below specified BorgerDkMunicipality.VejleKommune for Vejle Kommune. If no municipality in particular apply to your case, you may specify BorgerDkMunicipality.NoMunicipality instead.

// Initialize a new HTTP service instance from the default endpoint
BorgerDkHttpService http = new BorgerDkHttpService(BorgerDkEndpoint.Default);

// Look up the article from it's ID
BorgerDkArticle article = http.GetArticleFromId(486, BorgerDkMunicipality.VejleKommune);

Console.WriteLine("ID:           " + article.Id);
Console.WriteLine("Title:        " + article.Title);
Console.WriteLine("Title:        " + article.Header);
Console.WriteLine("Title:        " + article.PublishDate);
Console.WriteLine("Title:        " + article.UpdateDate);
Console.WriteLine();

// Iterate through the elements making up the content
foreach (BorgerDkElement element in article.Elements) {

    switch (element) {

        case BorgerDkTextElement text:
            Console.WriteLine(text.Id);
            Console.WriteLine(text.Title);
            Console.WriteLine(text.Content);
            Console.WriteLine();
            break;

        case BorgerDkBlockElement block:

            // Iterate through the micro articles of the main block element
            foreach (BorgerDkMicroArticle microArticle in block.MicroArticles) {
                Console.WriteLine(microArticle.Id);
                Console.WriteLine(microArticle.Title);
                Console.WriteLine(microArticle.Content);
                Console.WriteLine();
            }
            break;
        
    }

}

Articles typically consist of some info boxes (BorgerDkTextElement) and then a single block element (BorgerDkBlockElement) consisting of multiple micro articles (BorgerDkTextElement).

When trying to look up an article by a URL or ID that does not exist, the package will throw an exception of type BorgerDkNotFoundException.

You should also be aware that some articles are protected from export (typically articles for areas that are not handled by the individual municipalities, but by the state). If you try looking up such an article, an exception of type BorgerDkNotExportableException will be thrown.

The package contains a SOAP client for the communication with the Borger.dk web service. The client can be updated by running the following command:

svcutil.exe https://www.borger.dk/_vti_bin/borger/ArticleExport.svc?wsdl

Calling svcutil.exe with the above URL will generate the necessary classes for making object oriented calls to the web service.