As some of you may already know, an API has been in development for use with our forums. The basic framework for this API is almost complete. At the moment, its functionality is:
- Validate user login details
- Retrieve current user profile details
- Check user access permissions
- Retrieve recent posts per board/category or for the entire forum.
- Retrieve Forum Totals
- Parse Users Online

So I'm asking you as the developer community what additional functionality you would like to see incorporated in this API? I've never been a big user of APIs myself so would appreciate any feedback you may have on how you would intend to use it.

Thanks

Users online, online in last 24 hours & other forum stats.

Inbox checking?

~Artemis

What is API?

omg this must sound stupid, whats API?

Posted By dog199200 on 26th Feb 08 at 3:42am

 

omg this must sound stupid, whats API?

You making fun of me or are you asking the same question?

nope, not making fun of you, i don't have a clue what it is...i did read your post till you said that lol...

Edit: is it the things that put forum data other places out of the forum../.thats what i'm guessing...

ok just checking ^_^,

Yeh I think so, not sure.

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+api&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Basically lets you access information from your vForums for use on a site elsewhere!

Posted By Paddy on 26th Feb 08 at 2:13am

 

Inbox checking?

~Artemis

The current setup will grab the total number of PMs & the number of unread PMs whilst it grabs the rest of your profile data. Would you need an interface for getting more detailed PM information?

Just a link to individual PMs and their subjects/senders would be cool, but that wouldn't be something that would make or break the API for me, so if it's too much of a server strain/hassle, don't worry about it.

~Artemis

um can you make it so that it will also show there ranks and avatar, well kind of making it add in there miniprofile, just with the basic stuff, not things like location and how long you been at the forum..also you could add something in that tell how many thread have been posted sence you lats logged in?

Posted By dog199200 on 26th Feb 08 at 11:02pm

 

um can you make it so that it will also show there ranks and avatar, well kind of making it add in there miniprofile, just with the basic stuff, not things like location and how long you been at the forum..also you could add something in that tell how many thread have been posted sence you lats logged in?

The first couple of things come into the profile settings/information that is being accessible!

Posted By Michael on 26th Feb 08 at 11:14pm

 

Posted By dog199200 on 26th Feb 08 at 11:02pm

 

um can you make it so that it will also show there ranks and avatar, well kind of making it add in there miniprofile, just with the basic stuff, not things like location and how long you been at the forum..also you could add something in that tell how many thread have been posted sence you lats logged in?

The first couple of things come into the profile settings/information that is being accessible!

On the current system you'd only be given the number of posts, it doesn't automatically convert that into a rank/group \w images. So adding the formatted rank would be a good idea.

It returns the rank color/stars, yes/no?

Here's to hoping it does, but again, not earth shattering if it doesn't.

~Artemis

Posted By Paddy on 26th Feb 08 at 11:30pm

 

It returns the rank color/stars, yes/no?

Here's to hoping it does, but again, not earth shattering if it doesn't.

~Artemis

At the moment, no. It only gives the raw post count and group IDs. However I will add the full formatted rank before it is released as I know it will be a lot easier than users having to work it out themselves.

um also i'm not sure if you already know this, but the login from another site that was made is messed up really bad and will need to be fixed.

http://www.freewebs.com/deluxeanimeforum/

The box thats above where it says: Stay Logged In For: is for the password and the one above Password is for the username, also as you can see the template is all messed up.

Edit: Also you might want to add a logout option, and an option of where they want there members to be redirected to when there members sign in, for example if there using a root site they can be sent back there or redirected to the forum

Things like redirection when logged in and logging out can be dealt with via individual developers. The idea of the API is to give them the information and tools they need for their site rather than to build their site for them.

---

I've added functionality for the forum totals, newest member and users online. Any other suggestions?

true, but just wondering, give or take how much longer till its setup?

Top x Posters?
Staff Members?
List of Staff Groups?

Posted By dog199200 on 5th Mar 08 at 8:44pm

 

true, but just wondering, give or take how much longer till its setup?

It's hard to give an exact time frame. I'm actually working on 4 different updates / features at the moment so it will depend on how long they take as to how much time I can spend working on the API.

@Wrighty: Do staff members & positions change often enough to need to be remote database driven?

Most probably not actually having thought about it.

How about using it for sending new registrations? So that you can register them an account at the forum when they signup for your blog or buy something from your shop?

Posted By Ross on 6th Mar 08 at 11:05am

 

How about using it for sending new registrations? So that you can register them an account at the forum when they signup for your blog or buy something from your shop?

That sounds sexy, I it.

Posted By Ross on 6th Mar 08 at 11:05am

 

How about using it for sending new registrations? So that you can register them an account at the forum when they signup for your blog or buy something from your shop?

Marvellous...

Quick question, did you say it would be possible to 'find out' if the person that views the page is logged in as someone? :-

Posted By Michael on 6th Mar 08 at 4:26pm

 

Posted By Ross on 6th Mar 08 at 11:05am

 

How about using it for sending new registrations? So that you can register them an account at the forum when they signup for your blog or buy something from your shop?

Marvellous...

Quick question, did you say it would be possible to 'find out' if the person that views the page is logged in as someone? :-

Because of cross-domain cookie policies it is not always possible to log users into both the website & forum at the same time (presuming the standard vforums sub-domain). However I will look at ways this could be made possible for users using the domain hosting functionality.

Posted By Ross on 6th Mar 08 at 11:05am

 

How about using it for sending new registrations? So that you can register them an account at the forum when they signup for your blog or buy something from your shop?

I love that idea. Theoretically, people could connect forums together with vForums, right?

Posted By Cryhavoc_ on 7th Mar 08 at 1:47pm

 

Posted By Ross on 6th Mar 08 at 11:05am

 

How about using it for sending new registrations? So that you can register them an account at the forum when they signup for your blog or buy something from your shop?

I love that idea. Theoretically, people could connect forums together with vForums, right?

Yes, they could.

Posted By Ross on 7th Mar 08 at 9:32am

 

Posted By Michael on 6th Mar 08 at 4:26pm

 

Posted By Ross on 6th Mar 08 at 11:05am

 

How about using it for sending new registrations? So that you can register them an account at the forum when they signup for your blog or buy something from your shop?

Marvellous...

Quick question, did you say it would be possible to 'find out' if the person that views the page is logged in as someone? :-

Because of cross-domain cookie policies it is not always possible to log users into both the website & forum at the same time (presuming the standard vforums sub-domain). However I will look at ways this could be made possible for users using the domain hosting functionality.

What I mean is:

x views a page (NOT on vForums)
You can work out what x's username is on vForums?

Posted By Michael on 7th Mar 08 at 5:03pm

 

Posted By Ross on 7th Mar 08 at 9:32am

 

Posted By Michael on 6th Mar 08 at 4:26pm

 

Marvellous...

Quick question, did you say it would be possible to 'find out' if the person that views the page is logged in as someone? :-

Because of cross-domain cookie policies it is not always possible to log users into both the website & forum at the same time (presuming the standard vforums sub-domain). However I will look at ways this could be made possible for users using the domain hosting functionality.

What I mean is:

x views a page (NOT on vForums)
You can work out what x's username is on vForums?

If they were to login to the website (not vForums) then you could validate if that's a valid login or not. However unless they login on the website then there is no way of getting their cookie information (such as their username). What I'm going to look into is making this possible for users of the domain hosting option as then both sites will have access to the same root domain and as such can share the cookies (to some extent)

heres something uou could add in, all your buddy list information, like it will show everyone on you buddy list and it will either say offline or online next to their display name.

So what's the update on this?

Posted By Cryhavoc_ on 10th Mar 08 at 7:07pm

 

So what's the update on this?

Frufrus site is now performing the first live test of the APIs registration facility. We've managed to find a couple of issues with it but it seems to now be working well now.

Presuming no major issues are found with this implementation then the API will move into an open beta testing phase, giving users the opportunity to try it out and give further feedback on what does and doen't work well.

Are we able to register users from external script?

That'd be handy, too... >.>

~Artemis

Posted By Paddy on 10th Mar 08 at 8:12pm

 

Are we able to register users from external script?

That'd be handy, too... >.>

~Artemis

Yeah, I was about to ask that. I'd like to save the data of people registering in an external MySQL DB, but at the same time I want to potentially have people resister on the main website, and have an account on the forum.

Posted By Paddy on 10th Mar 08 at 8:12pm

 

Are we able to register users from external script?

That'd be handy, too... >.>

~Artemis

Yes, you can send the required registration details via the API which will register a new account on the forum.