#obsidian > [!info] read more > [Developing Against Dataview - Dataview (blacksmithgu.github.io)](https://blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/resources/develop-against-dataview/) Dataview includes a high-level plugin-facing API as well as TypeScript definitions and a utility library; to install it, simply use: `npm install obsidian-dataview` You can use the `getAPI()` function to obtain the Dataview Plugin API; this returns a `DataviewApi` object which provides various utilities, including rendering dataviews, checking dataview's version, hooking into the dataview event life cycle, and querying dataview metadata. ```js import { getAPI } from "obsidian-dataview"; const api = getAPI(); ``` You can access various type utilities which let you check the types of objects and compare them via Values: ```js import { getAPI, Values } from "obsidian-dataview"; const field = getAPI(plugin.app)?.page('sample.md').field; if (!field) return; if (Values.isHtml(field)) // do something else if (Values.isLink(field)) // do something // ... ```