Questions tagged [documentation]

Question pertaining to the documentation provided with the API.

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109 votes
3 answers
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API Documentation and Help

Method List All API methods can be found at https://api.stackexchange.com/docs. Global Method Parameters All methods accept the following parameters: type=jsontext: responds with mime-type text/json. ...
32 votes
1 answer
10k views

Looking for a beginner's tutorial to using the API

I see the Stack Exchange API but I'm unable to understand it. I don't think there is any fundamental tutorial showing how to use Stack Overflow fully in the API documentation. I want some fundamental ...
Ranjit's user avatar
  • 423
10 votes
0 answers
275 views

Tell us that POST is required to write

While troubleshooting /posts/{id}/comments/add in order to answer Why am I getting a 404 when trying to post a comment?, it was noticed that the API path in question only responded to POST requests. ...
michaelb958--GoFundMonica's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
275 views

Accessing Authenticated User's Close/Delete History

I'm working on the PHP chatroom's cv-pls backlog UI. Many users and myself would like the ability to track which questions we have already handled though close/delete votes. To be able to do that I ...
kittycat's user avatar
  • 507
6 votes
1 answer
750 views

Please "release" and/or document API version 2.3

I was playing around a bit with Fiddler to capture traffic from the Stack Exchange iOS app. To my surprise, it uses version 2.3 of the Stack Exchange API: I noticed here that it has some extra ...
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 6,762
4 votes
1 answer
287 views

How do I parse the dates from the API?

I see that JSON returned by the API contains dates in the following format: "creation_date":1364546475 ^^^^^^^^^^ What's the meaning of it? How can I parse it to get the date in the ...
Ionică Bizău's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
348 views

How the /sites method is meant to be used

The /sites method is used to enumerate all sites in the network. If your [app] is meant to run against more than a single site (and many are) this method is how you should be discovering new sites in ...
7 votes
1 answer
123 views

What happened to the JSON documentation for the API?

Back in version 1.1 of the API, we used to be able to do: http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.1/questions?help ...which would return information about the method in JSON format. However, attempting to ...
Nathan Osman's user avatar
  • 23.3k
4 votes
1 answer
359 views

My filter is not returning any results. How to create a minimal filter?

I'm having trouble getting the SO API Filters to cooperate. I've gone over the documentation as well as similar questions like this and this. I'll use this call as an example since it successfully ...
ashleedawg's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
145 views

AND searching for tags?

I am using the search api to search for questions that are tagged with "tags" and not with "tags". However I have noticed that searching for tags is an OR search. The questions search for tags is an ...
johnwards's user avatar
  • 465
3 votes
2 answers
327 views

What am I allowed/not permitted to do with the API?

I have a site that will offer technical help and assistance for a certain niche of computer users. I can either host my own forums, or tie in with stack... but I want to be able to make money off it ...
makerofthings7's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
276 views

Is it really worth to (implicitly) discourage documentation of API/library usage nowadays already?

Update: Kevin provided an answer, which, while adding something of value to the three related questions together (by naming the originating concern eventually), actually does not apply to the ...
Steffen Opel's user avatar
  • 1,380
1 vote
1 answer
47 views

`types=main_site` in `/me/associated` gives `meta_site` accounts also

When I run /me/associated with main_site as a parameter in types, its gives meta_site accounts also (Meta Stack Exchange profile).
amit jha's user avatar
  • 842
20 votes
3 answers
146 views

Documentation or API method for `option_id` information, for the `/flags/options` API calls?

The Stack Exchange API has a couple of calls that return a list of flag_option objects. These objects contain a couple of properties that can be used to identify the flag you need. For example, when ...
Cerbrus's user avatar
  • 331
8 votes
0 answers
158 views

Incomplete information in API documentation

I am struggling a little bit with the Stack Exchange API since there seems to be no formal specification for the individual endpoints of the API. Example: Endpoint: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/...
Besi's user avatar
  • 533
5 votes
1 answer
169 views

Few typos in the documentation pages

https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/vectors When passing a vector, sepeate each id with a semicolon. For example, /users/1;2;3;4;5?site=somesite would fetch users with ids 1 through 5 on somesite. ...
Arulkumar's user avatar
  • 578
5 votes
1 answer
127 views

Typos on api.stackexchange.com/docs/js-lib

Under the Authentication section on https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/js-lib, there are a few typos (emphasis mine): scope (optional) – an array of scopes to request during authentication, valid ...
ᔕᖺᘎᕊ's user avatar
  • 4,365
5 votes
1 answer
733 views

Is it possible to authenticate a user through Stack Overflow API?

Is it possible to use the Stack Overflow API to authenticate a given user identity such as with Facebook, Twitter, or OpenID? If it's possible: Can you tell me the method (s) that make this happen?
Sebastian's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
118 views

Parameter `tagged` in `search/advanced` seems to use `AND` instead of `OR`

It seems that search/advanced has the same problem as in "The tagged parameter does not work with multiple tags" question. When I select c#; .net I only get results tagged both c# and .net: http://...
Andrey Shchekin's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
176 views

“Try It” URL has wrong URI

On API doc pages, the “link” link at the top-right of the “Try It” sections presents a URL with the wrong domain name: For example, on docs/similar, the URL displayed will be: https://api....
Brandon Kelly's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
90 views

Why is "body" missing from certain inbox items?

I have run into some confusion over the presence of the body attribute in an inbox-item returned by the /inbox method. When item_type is set to "careers_invitations", the body attribute appears to be ...
Nathan Osman's user avatar
  • 23.3k
2 votes
0 answers
76 views

Update Teams API documentation to reflect dependency on tier

The documentation says (emphasis mine): Starting with the release of Stack Overflow For Teams, the Stack Exchange API exposes read-only access to data stored in private Teams. This is slightly ...
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 6,762
2 votes
1 answer
96 views

Can the API Edit a Question, changing only one field?

The documentation for the edit question method (/questions/{id}/edit) is somewhat vague. Are all of the parameters required? For example, if the only field I want to change in the question is tags, ...
ashleedawg's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
168 views

How do I find all questions/answers per a tag?

Would also be good if I could also find the top questions/answers in a particular tag - i.e. questions tagged with Ruby or PHP. Per the docs the only thing I can see that will return questions in a ...
marcamillion's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
646 views

Can we have maximum length of string in API help pages?

For the type "string", I think there is some upper limit of character count. For example, post title : 200 characters post body : 30000 characters In the help page, currently like this "body": { ...
YOU's user avatar
  • 5,022
2 votes
1 answer
67 views

questions/{id} help page sort parameter description is inconsistence with others

The description of the Sort parameter in questions/{id} help page is inconsistent with those of other pages. On the questions/{id} help page: sort (optional): How a collection should be ...
YOU's user avatar
  • 5,022
2 votes
1 answer
152 views

Can you identify a user from the access_token?

I have the access_token after authentication from the user. At this point I don't know with which sites this user has registered. Is it possible to get user information like the display name or ...
aldrin's user avatar
  • 155
1 vote
1 answer
84 views

user 'about_me' field suggested_buffer_size is too small

the suggested_buffer_size of user.about_me is currently 3000. it is apparent that this is the server-side field length. the problem is that the text is stored server-side in markdown but when served ...
Sky Sanders's user avatar
  • 12.1k