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I need to get all the question activity after some particular time. I am using the timeline API, like so:

      /questions/20032212/timeline?fromdate=1384705610&site=stackoverflow.com

But it returns no comments! Even though running the query with a much earlier date, EG:

      /questions/20032212/timeline?fromdate=1384700712&site=stackoverflow.com

shows a comment with a creation_date of 1384705710 -- which obviously is greater than the 1384705610 in my original request.

Can somebody shed some light on this behavior?
What is the best way to get question activity that occurs after a certain time?

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  • Oops..My bad. I didn't know I should have asked this in stackapps instead of stackoverflow. I saw few questions out there related to stackechange api so posted there..Will be careful next time.. Nov 19, 2013 at 23:38
  • @Brock Adams Can you please tell me how do I come to know when is this bug going to be fixed. Jan 22, 2014 at 13:36
  • The only way to know is if you hear from an SE developer. The developer that seems most involved with the API has been quiet since Oct 27 of last year. ... Try emailing SE and/or using the contact form. Jan 22, 2014 at 21:23
  • @BrockAdams Thanks a lot. I have used form twice but no response yet. Thanks anyway! Jan 23, 2014 at 4:18

1 Answer 1

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This is a bug. The timeline path seems to have several problems. More on these below.

The earlier date query returns the result you expect, but look at it in the document explorer:

Entry is a comment

Notice that the entry is a comment and that it has an Owning post.

Now if we look at the whole timeline (filtering out some user cruft), we see:

Owning posts???

Just two revision entries for that answer, when there should be three!

The revisions are dated: 1384705238 and 1384707944. The "vote_aggregate" is snapped to midnight, Nov 11th.

From the revisions page, we can see that the answer was first posted at 1384702265.

So the key dates look like this:

Unix time   Event
----------  --------------------------------
1384700712  Early query time
1384702265  Answer created
1384705238  First revision
1384705610  Later query time
1384705710  Comment in question
1384707944  Second revision


Now, when we look at your later query in the explorer (1384705610), we see:

later query results

  1. The later revision should show up (creation time 1384707944), but it doesn't!
  2. None of the comments show up! -- Presumably because their parent posts were initially created before the cut-off! This is a bug. At the very least, it should be disclosed in the documentation.


Summary, Multiple bugs:

  1. Answer creation event is not returned!!!
  2. Comments (¿and possibly other items?) are not returned when they should be. Apparently because the comment's owner was created before the From date.
  3. Results returned in garbled order, make no sense on visual inspection.
  4. The documentation says none of this.
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  • Thanks man!! I wish I could upvote this answer multiple sites..I will try to reach out to StackExchange API admins to see this bug ? Nov 20, 2013 at 5:18
  • This is the place to report API bugs, and the developers do respond to [bug] questions, at least some of the time. ... Your only other recourse is to use the contact form or support email. Wait a week, to give them a chance to respond to this Q, before doing that. Nov 20, 2013 at 19:43
  • Thanks @Brock.I already used the contact form and got a reply from SE team that devs will look into it. Nov 21, 2013 at 4:43

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