Is there an API to upload images to SE's imgur installation?

Question

Is there an API for uploading images to the StackExchange-specific imgur installation? I could use the main imgur site, but they don't keep the images indefinitely.

Use case: It would be advantageous to be able to rasterize graphics and upload them from Mathematica directly, especially since Mathematica-related questions/answers often need illustrations, and graphics are so tightly integrated into the Mathematica dev environment.

Answer 1

No, this is not available.

Something like it may be available in the V3.0 timeframe, but I can't commit to that at this time.

Answer 2

While this is not available I don't think SE can do much to prevent it. I don't have any easily readable code to give you code example, but the theory is following:

The upload request:

To upload images to Stack Exchange, you must send following POST request to https://__HOST__/upload/image:

fkey: we'll talk about this token later
source: web/computer

filename: the file data binary file, source must be computer
upload-url: url of target image, source must be web

The fkey token:

If you're logged in, the fkey token is in a hidden input field:

<input id="fkey" type="hidden" value="..." name="fkey">

If not, it can be parsed out of StackExchange.init() call:

preg_match("~StackExchange\.init\(([^;]+)\);~s", $html, $m)
$data = json_decode($m[1], true);

That's it. You don't even have to be logged on.

Answer 3

Please note: this does not work anymore since Mobile app infrastructure has been decommissioned.

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There is sort of a workaround which my Broken Image Repairer script is already using. You do need an access token that is tied to one of the official Stack Exchange mobile apps, e.g. by using a proxy like mitmproxy to inspect traffic between the app on your smartphone and the API server.

You'll need to make a POST call to https://mobile.stackexchange.com/1/image/upload and supply the following parameters (as application/x-www-form-urlencoded):

• access_token
• key (the iOS app uses kJ1geZUa*oJVMN229qwESg((, the Android app r0aEx)wmOcRhhPMdffXeUQ(()
• image_mime_type: image/png, image/jpeg or image/gif (other image types are not supported)
• image_name: just a random string, doesn't really matter
• filter: vqc7J (I have no idea which fields these correspond to, since this call is not documented)
• image_data: the image data, encoded as Base64

If the upload succeeds, you'll get the URL back (the response is in the usual API style, a root object with an items array; there'll be a single item with a url property).