526ez | Transition to Benefits Reference Data in the Lighthouse API

[vhenry07]

Issue Description

The Benefits Reference Data API has transitioned from EVSS to Lighthouse. We can begin using the new API.

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Related tickets

#41302
#41046

Tasks

• Reference this slack thread with Nichole Harris. Update applications to move from EVSS to Lighthouse API. (There are 9 so we will need to prioritize and create tickets for subsequent work in last 2 sprints).

If you have not already requested a key, in order to get started building and testing with this API, submit a Lighthouse onboarding request to obtain a sandbox key.

Acceptance Criteria

• New API tested and implemented for required products

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[cnemeth]

Currently, we have EVSS::ReferenceData::Service endpoints for retrieving collections of

• Counties - Creates an object containing an array of country names
• States - Creates an object containing an array of state names
• Intake sites - Creates an object containing an array of intake site names

which have corresponding Lighthouse endpoints.

References

• vets-api/lib/evss/reference_data/service.rb
• Benefits Reference Data API

[cnemeth]

development branch

[NCHLiberty]

additionally, need to begin refreshing disabilities data used in 526 drop down choices as per this thread https://dsva.slack.com/archives/C5AGLBNRK/p1651168621582479

[saderagsdale]

@saderagsdale Ask when EVSS is going to terminate this service.

[saderagsdale]

@Mottie @michelpmcdonald this will be multiple tickets. @saderagsdale to make an epic.

[NCHLiberty]

@saderagsdale Ask when EVSS is going to terminate this service.

@saderagsdale Goal is to transition away from all of the evss services this year. You can help set the target date for this one. What works for you?

[kylesoskin]

Back-end: This should not be too difficult from what I can tell.

• Need @Mottie to identify which data sets from the BRD we use/need in 526 in the front end (or I COULD do this with some research, but he may know if the top of his head or already have a list)
• I can write back-end to get them and provide end-points to front-end to consume

Instead of hard-coding, just making a generic end-point that can get any and all data from the BRD (pass-through). We can use for all our needs and anyone else on the front-end can use too if needed.

This only allows for the front-end to get any existing BRD end-points, any diffs between EVSS/BRD has nothing to do with this, this is just code to allow front-end to pull/hit whatever is in BRD, what is in BRD vs EVSS is another topic and unrelated to the back-end work.

Front-end: After back-end is done and released can scope out and refine further tickets to make use of where needed and as needed.

[saderagsdale]

@kylesoskin Moving this to the sprint backlog while you're on leave.

[kylesoskin]

Awaiting changes from these two PRs to get approved.

• Lighthouse BRD passthrough wrapper for front end. vets-api#10728
• https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/devops/pull/12050

Once merged, backend should be able to get anything from the benefits reference data. @Mottie or other front-end-er will just need to make front-end changes to consume new vets-api back-end endpoint, but backend work should be done for now.

This probably should have been broken into 2 tickets so that I could close a backend portion ticket.

@saderagsdale

[kylesoskin]

this is confirmed working in prod

However there is an issue with the apikey being used in dev/standbox/staging.... but that is not an US issue. I am going to get it resolved regardless.

[saderagsdale]

Booyah!

[saderagsdale]

@saderagsdale FE work isn't blocked, move links to the user story.

[kylesoskin]

TODO (maintenance task/improvements):

• request and get dedicated api_key instead of using existing team's key
• put in MRs to apply new api_key They said we are fine to use existing key
• fix code portion of https://department-of-veterans-affairs.github.io/va-digital-services-platform-docs/api-reference/#/benefits_reference_data
• Support multiple api versions Going to ignore this fornow too until it is needed
• Maybe change from benefits_reference_data -> benefits-reference-data ? not going to do this, it is annoying that it is mismatched, but all the existing vets api methods are snake-cased, so keeping as is

[kylesoskin]

Code example error in swagger docs, does not happen with a local/newer version of swaggerui. So hoping this is a thing that will eventually just fix itself. Going to ignore for now, I cannot recreate locally. If we update to a newer swaggerui it should be fine... the current one is from 2017...