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
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
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
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 ...
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
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to see which users upvoted a question?

I assume this information is tracked, since StackOverflow shows me the questions I have upvoted (when going to their question page, I can undo the upvote). I couldn't find any api call that gives this ...
Edan Maor's user avatar
  • 1,079
9 votes
1 answer
134 views

Typos in API documentation

From the /posts documentation: Most applications should use the question or answer specific methods, but /posts is available for those rare cases where any activity is of intereset. intereset => ...
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 6,762
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
7 votes
1 answer
680 views

Application Key and AccessToken are not working for Stack Exchange API? [duplicate]

I have followed the documentation and used explicit OAuth 2.0 flow for access_token generation. And I have gone through all 4 steps defined under explicit OAuth 2.0 flow with scope=no_expiry. Then I ...
Sanjiv's user avatar
  • 325
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
6 votes
1 answer
340 views

Where is the usage documentation?

I know this is probably a dumb question, but there's a bunch of documentation and I don't know what to do with this stuff. How do you use the API?
Jared's user avatar
  • 163
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
6 votes
0 answers
70 views

Docs say the API returns a user's age, but it doesn't (anymore)

The doc page says that the user object returns an age property (for those users that specified an age). But the API  no  longer  does.   (Plus spot checks of users that had age in ...
Brock Adams's user avatar
  • 12.9k
6 votes
0 answers
56 views

API docs for "stack overflow" still feature v1.0 docs

I guess I'd call this a doc bug. Currently the page http://api.stackoverflow.com redirects to http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.0/usage, which says at the top "Don't use 1.0, use 2.1". This URL ...
Leopd's user avatar
  • 161
5 votes
1 answer
73 views

Please make the site search on the API alphabetical

When I search, I want the sites to be alphabetical: Please can they be?
Tim's user avatar
  • 581
5 votes
1 answer
71 views

Which reputation events are private?

I've been reading the API documentation on retrieving a user's reputation history (docs/types/reputation-history) and Stack Overflow's description of how reputation is calculated. But, I can't find ...
Andrew's user avatar
  • 153
5 votes
1 answer
122 views

API docs titled "v2.0"; should be "v2.1"

The documentation is titled "StackExchange API v2.0"... this should be updated to "v2.1" as it's not readily obvious that version 2.1 has been published otherwise. https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
Alex Lockwood's user avatar
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
5 votes
1 answer
72 views

API documentation pages match some site names incorrectly

The bug is not in the API itself, but in the pages documenting its methods. To reproduce, follow the link http://api.stackexchange.com/docs/info#filter=default&site=math and observe that the page ...
How About a Nice Big Cup of's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
317 views

Is there an offline copy of the API documentation?

I'm trying to find a way to get all the information in the API in one printable PDF, complete with the examples given in the documentation. Is there anyway I can do this?
Sean Allred's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
154 views

Do the terms "key" and "access_token" refer to the same thing?

I'm trying to get my head around all the limits and throttles but some terminology is confusing me: If an application does not have an access_token, then the application shares an IP based quota ...
hippietrail's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
160 views

API Help's CSS is missing

The API Help page's CSS file, located at http://sstatic.net/so/all.css, is current returning 404 for me: <div id="header"><h1>Server Error</h1></div> <div id="content"> ...
Yi Jiang's user avatar
  • 819
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
35 views

Typo in API filter documentation

When using unsafe filters, the API returns the highest fidelity data is can reasonably access for the given request. should be When using unsafe filters, the API returns the highest fidelity data ...
hippietrail's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
88 views

Enumerated types documentation in 1.1 API

I'm starting to implement requesting question and user activity in my framework, but the new 1.1 API documentation doesn't seem to indicate what the possible return values are for the fields any more. ...
Dave DeLong's user avatar
  • 5,264
5 votes
1 answer
138 views

Two minor typos in the API help

In http://api.stackoverflow.com/0.8/help /users/{id}/answers Gets answer summary informatino for the user with 'id'. and in the Returns section of http://api.stackoverflow.com/0.8/help/method?method=...
mikej's user avatar
  • 185
5 votes
0 answers
120 views

"What is meta" should be rephrased

Stackapps.com/help/whats-meta tells that there is "Meta Stack Apps". However there isn't. Stack Apps is its own meta and meta is used to ask meta questions here.
nicael's user avatar
  • 406
4 votes
2 answers
223 views

How to get a post title for a given post ID, even if that post ID is an answer and not a question?

I'm trying to beautify the reputation audit. If I want to show the post title for a reputation change event, however, I have a problem -- I don't know if the post ID is relative to a question or an ...
badp's user avatar
  • 955
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
4 votes
1 answer
51 views

Typo in the docs for /me

The doc says: Returns the user associated with the passed auth_token. This method returns a user. It should say "access_token" instead of "auth_token".
Adam Lear's user avatar
  • 358
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
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
4 votes
1 answer
108 views

Is there an RSS feed or question that has API changes?

Is there someplace that we can find notifications of API changes? I noticed today that a new property has been added to user along with a couple new method (and maybe other changes). Is there an ...
Dan McClain's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
81 views

"Try it" facility suffers a double-encoding bug

As you can clearly see from the above, the ampersand in the site name in the "Try It" section of the API method documentation has been double-encoded. This affects any site with an ampersand in the ...
michaelb958--GoFundMonica's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
93 views

Documentation sorted by return type

Right now the documentation is pretty terribly organized. For example, consider the things under the "Users" heading: /users => returns Users /users/{ids} => returns Users /users/{ids}/answers => ...
Dave DeLong's user avatar
  • 5,264
4 votes
2 answers
108 views

Possible bug in the help page?

There are some weird dot things in this help page: api.stackoverflow.com/0.8/help/method?method=users/{id}/badges {Dead link to missing image: http://files.quickmediasolutions.com/stackbug.png} ...
Nathan Osman's user avatar
  • 23.3k
4 votes
1 answer
115 views

Confirmation on sort, order and min/max

I'd like confirmation, if possible, that the following chart of sort types is correct: sort |orderable|min/max |min/max type ------------------------------------------ activity | yes | ...
ColinD's user avatar
  • 369
4 votes
2 answers
93 views

Document fields that may be not be included in responses

I'd like to see documentation on what fields may not be included in responses or, alternatively, which fields are guaranteed to be included. Currently it's a little confusing because some fields may ...
ColinD's user avatar
  • 369
4 votes
1 answer
52 views

Stylistic error on the JavaScript SDK documentation page

There is a small stylistic error on the JavaScript SDK documentation page. Your application must have the client side OAuth flow enabled, and must not have disabled the desktop application redirect ...
Octavian Helm'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
4 votes
0 answers
37 views

Link to applied_count leads to a 404

To Reproduce Run an API query on tag-synonyms, you will get a result that includes something like this: Issue(s) Click on the applied_count link and you get redirected to this page which is a 404. It ...
jmac's user avatar
  • 141
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
3 votes
1 answer
4k views

HTTP 400 "Bad Request" while using "access_token" in request Url

I registered an app, obtained a key and I have implemented the implicit OAuth 2.0 flow in a Windows 8 desktop app (as per the documentation available here). After receiving and storing the access ...
indyfromoz's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
37 views

Clickable link in "Try It" section of some doc pages

In the "Try It" section of some doc pages, the link is not present. It is present in the below image Its not present in the below image
amit jha's user avatar
  • 842
3 votes
1 answer
313 views

API Time zone difference problem

I am writing a .NET application with the Stack Exchange API (using the Stacky library) and I am using it to ask the server for some questions that occured in the last hour. However, I and the server ...
Seth Carnegie's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
76 views

How many ids is 'too many'?

This answer mentions limit on amount of ids included in queries like /users/{id}/mentioned, but I can't find actual amount mentioned anywhere. Now, I could run binary search and find out, but I ...
Nikita Rybak's user avatar
  • 1,271
3 votes
1 answer
175 views

Getting Question data using stack.PHP fails after a certain number of requests

I am trying to build an RSS feed that includes any/all questions that I have answered, and been accepted as the correct answer. I am running into an issue where I'm sending too many requests and ...
jondavidjohn'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