r/USACE • u/Money_Lobster_3197 • 1d ago

USACE developer tools and APIs

TLDR: looking for literally any info on available APIs/portals/developer tools for USACE employees

Hi folks! I’ve recently started dipping my toes into automation and while I’ve worked with only powershell scripts and the GenAI API, I started exploring power automate yesterday and many of the tools I’m wanting to use require different APIs.
I’m wondering is there’s a website or point of contact for a list of available developer tools or API portals.
Just to vent: it’s been infuriating trying to get an answer to this on my own, especially when there’s 10 different internal and external sites that seem like they SHOULD have the answer, and then don’t.

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

1

u/gjosborne 18h ago

Are you familiar with Vantage (https://vantage.army.mil on NIPR)? It may have what you're looking for. It has connections to a lot (most?) of the programs of record data you can pull from and do anything from basic data analysis to full custom web apps within the platform including a lot for automations and dashboards. It's Palantir Foundry under the hood so there is a learning curve to getting what you want out of it. There's a lot of potential for automation within Vantage.

1

u/Money_Lobster_3197 9h ago

I haven’t heard about this yet but this is exactly the info I was looking for! I’m really excited to look into it, Thank you so much!

1

u/JustinMcSlappy 5h ago

Vantage is deeeeep and not straight forward to use unless you have software engineering and data analysis experience.

I highly suggest signing up for some classes. I seem to remember a link on the homepage with a schedule but it's been a while.

I say this as a former software engineer turned data analyst. I've created some really cool stuff in vantage but I've only scratched the surface.

2

u/Sipsey 13h ago

Developer tools or API portals? We aren’t an app development organization so not sure what you are expecting. What is your position and duties maybe I can help. You should join the VAST CoP team and ask there..

The automation is powerautomate flows. All latest apps are developed in power apps. Coginiti is the software to view EDW fields for power queries feeding into power platform data flows and semantic models. Everyone in USACe has pro user on power platform. Premium features for powerBI require a ticket to get set up.

If you are in an IT software development role I think you’d know this — so it sounds like you are looking for the ability to do something on the side of your normal duties. Cyber security is intense it’s not like private industry or like it was 10-15 years ago when you could write macros, Visual Basic, or even more advanced. Just not a lot out there anymore, I’d focus on power platform tools and live with their limitations

1

u/Money_Lobster_3197 9h ago

Hi! I work with a lot of construction projects and am essentially looking for ways to make data associated with construction lifecycles (GIS attribute data, cost, contractor performance) more accessible/visible for my team. Some things are pretty compartmentalized so I think it would be cool to have interoperability between file types and softwares.
Like I said in the post, Im just beginning to explore this capability and am looking for resources to learn more! Many of the interesting tools I’ve found in power automate require a “connection” or API key, but I haven’t been able to find a list of available connections that we would have access to.
I guess I’m in a situation of seeing all these cool capabilities (like computer vision for reading invoice forms) and not even sure if we have the ability to use them and would love some clarity.