Questions tagged [faq]

These questions are the most frequently asked and answered questions on Stack Apps.

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14 votes
1 answer
683 views

I only need a key, what do I do?

I'm told by others and read in Looking for a beginner's tutorial to using the API that I need "To Get A Key!" but when I then visit https://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register I'm stil ...
rene's user avatar
  • 2,482
14 votes
1 answer
231 views

What's the etiquette for answers/comments on an app "question"?

Since everything I list below could be acceptable when there is so much to discuss, is there an accepted etiquette to what "answers" should address in relation to app "questions"? ...
patridge's user avatar
  • 435
7 votes
0 answers
319 views

Guidelines on app and library thumbnails

We now have better, user-friendlier display for apps and libraries and scripts: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/02/stack-exchange-api-1-1-and-improved-app-gallery/ We infer a number of things ...
Jeff Atwood's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
617 views

Separate Request Quotas for Authorized [app]s

Imagine, if you will, you have a popular [app] hosted on a cloud computing service which is also used by a number of other [app]s. If this service forces clients to share IPs (and they all do, in ...
Kevin Montrose'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 ...
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Request Throttling Limits

What are permissible requests "speeds?" The API will cut you off if you make more than 30 requests over 5 seconds to any single endpoint (currently 30 requests per second, https://api....
Kevin Montrose's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
526 views

Platforms Supported by the API and Response Compression

What platforms are supported for use with the Stack Exchange API? In short, anything that can make a GET request to the API servers and supports JSON/JSONP & GZIP. (JavaScript, Python, PHP, Java, ...
Kevin Montrose's user avatar
21 votes
5 answers
1k views

Conscientious use of the API

What constitutes abuse? Making an undue number of requests in a short span of time, or regularly exceeding a request quota during "normal" use. Guidelines for polling We realize that a great ...
Kevin Montrose's user avatar
48 votes
0 answers
7k views

How API Keys Work (FAQ)

What are the API request limits? A single IP address can only make a certain number of API requests per day, depending on the presence of a valid API key. Default API daily limits: Key: 10,000 No Key:...
90 votes
3 answers
30k views

How to list your application/library/wrapper/script here

If you've created an application, script, or library for use on the Stack Exchange network, that's fantastic! Now publicize it by creating a question with the correct tag: app https://stackapps.com/...
140 votes
3 answers
30k views

API "Hello World" code

The Stack Exchange API is based on HTTP and URLs, just like the web page you're browsing now. Except instead of HTML, the responses are all in JSON. Let's say we wanted to call the /info method: https:...
109 votes
3 answers
23k views

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. ...