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Using Cloud credits with Curated data calls

With Version 10 of Mathematica/Wolfram, there are now two ways to make curated data calls:

ElementData[#,"AtomicMass"]&/@Range[88]

and

ElementData[#]["AtomicMass"]&/@Range[88];

The difference between the two is subtle; the first (traditional) method returns answers with Head = Quantity (or some Number format in versions < 10) and the second form returns answers with Head = Entity. Entities are apparently new and possibly useful; however I noticed that the first call requires 0 cloud credits while the second requires 176 Cloud Credits.

Is there a reason why I should pay for the data as opposed to get it for free? Is the Entity Head worth racing through 37% of my credit allocation in one function call?

Heaven forbid if I had wanted atomic radii and ionization energies along with their masses.
POSTED BY: BoB LeSuer
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Kirk Klobe
Kirk Klobe
Posted 11 years ago

The "test your API" feature sounds great! It's good to hear you're actively looking for ways to help us better understand usage scenarios.

Perhaps some information on profiling and what to expect from deployment? For example, is a call to Timing[] in a web development session close to what deployed code will use? Maybe a Desktop-only feature that lets you perform limited profiling deployed code from the deploying account without consuming credits? Being on the Developer plan, I'm concerned about deploying examples to show off to the world; a non-trivial Instant API call I could imagine taking 4-6 credits, which doesn't even let me handle 2000 hits.

As far as Wolfram Alpha API calls go, perhaps a small indicator in a function's documentation to show that a call is required? To use the OP's example, looking at the documentation for ElementData[] gives me no indication that it will count against my 1,000 monthly API call allowance when deployed. Or maybe that would be a useful item to have on the Suggestion Bar in Desktop?

Thanks for listening to our feedback!
POSTED BY: Kirk Klobe

Thanks for the feedback Kirk!

Now that we have some good usage data, we have started work on a series of pages that will be accessible from the main Cloud Credits page.

Each page will describe several scenarios and the resources consumed. Please let me know what else would be useful. What about a "100 Cloud Credits can get you . . ." table showing a bunch of examples?

One item on our backlog is the ability to "test your API" and show how many Cloud Credits it might consume.

We really appreciate all the feedback and it does influence our work. Please keep sending us suggestions. Thank you!
POSTED BY: Clayton Voyles
Kirk Klobe
Kirk Klobe
Posted 11 years ago

I hope there will be some credit estimator tools released in the near future. It would be nice to know if 15% of your monthly API call allowance will be taken up with one service call once deployed.
POSTED BY: Kirk Klobe

Version 9 does not treat the second form usefully, so the new, Entity interpretation is used in WPC. 

In[1]:= ElementData[6,"AtomicMass"]
Out[1]= 12.0107 

In[2]:= ElementData[6]["AtomicMass"]
Out[2]= Carbon[AtomicMass]

ElementData and other functions will be billed consistently with other data-retrieval functions like EntityValue. For the time being these functions are not billing when used the v9 way, as a courtesy to users who have used these functions in the old ways in previous versions.

Please note that it will not cost Cloud Credits to make these calls in Mathematica 10, when released.
POSTED BY: EDITORIAL BOARD

That is interesting. On:

http://www.wolfram.com/cloud-credits/

I found that

Retrieving Knowledgebase data | 2 credits per call

which is consistent with your 176 Cloud Credits. You apply the ElementData request to Range[88], so 88 times. So that seems to make sense. It is a bit surprising that you do not get charged at all for 

ElementData[#,"AtomicMass"]&/@Range[88]

though.

Cheers, M.
POSTED BY: Marco Thiel
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