All Questions
188 questions
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.
...
32
votes
1
answer
11k
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 ...
- 423
20
votes
3
answers
159
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 ...
- 331
18
votes
1
answer
278
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 ...
- 507
14
votes
1
answer
304
views
Can we have some sort of notification system?
It seems like the only way to get notified of certain events is to poll the site continuously. And as per the current policy, it seems like there should be at least a 2 minute delay between requests.
...
- 23.3k
12
votes
1
answer
362
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
280
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. ...
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 ...
- 1,079
9
votes
1
answer
141
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 => ...
- 6,885
8
votes
0
answers
165
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/...
- 533
7
votes
4
answers
352
views
please add a key fields to stackauth results
While it is a step in the right direction, the /sites return is missing a vital component: a key field.
All of the data currently in /sites is the arbitrary data that can change.
We need a constant ...
- 12.1k
7
votes
1
answer
683
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 ...
- 325
7
votes
1
answer
125
views
Can we have the display_name field in the /me/associated route?
I'm reading the Authentication documentation and I've noticed that the /me/associated route returns fields like user_id, badges, reputation but not the display_name, even specifying a custom Filter.
...
- 7,995
7
votes
1
answer
127
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 ...
- 23.3k
6
votes
1
answer
350
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?
- 163
6
votes
1
answer
1k
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 ...
- 6,885
6
votes
2
answers
473
views
Is there a Stack Exchange icon available?
StackAuth /sites route provides all the site's icons except for the one of the Stack Exchange master site.
Could you please provide it in some way (a static SVG would be good)?
- 7,995
6
votes
1
answer
76
views
Can we have a flag for sites with mature content?
To my horror today, I discovered that StackMobile was happily serving up content from the newest Stack Exchange site. (StackMobile has a cron job that runs daily, updating the list of sites using the ...
- 23.3k
6
votes
1
answer
130
views
/users/tags should contain scores
I am implementing some simple JavaScript/bookmarklet based apps that show some reputation info, including the score in the User's top tags (roughly based on this previous bookmarklet of mine).
Now I ...
6
votes
0
answers
72
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 ...
- 13k
6
votes
0
answers
58
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 ...
- 161
5
votes
1
answer
105
views
Self-mined Badge Progress via 2.0+ API
Badge Progress as a topic has had many questions, and some closed. Before downvoting or closing, please consider how this question might be different.
First, what's the the latest official answer of ...
5
votes
1
answer
78
views
Please make the site search on the API alphabetical
When I search, I want the sites to be alphabetical:
Please can they be?
- 581
5
votes
1
answer
75
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 ...
- 153
5
votes
1
answer
125
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
- 373
5
votes
1
answer
734
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?
- 51
5
votes
1
answer
78
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 ...
5
votes
1
answer
320
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?
- 823
5
votes
1
answer
165
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 ...
- 882
5
votes
2
answers
161
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">
...
- 819
5
votes
1
answer
180
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.
...
- 578
5
votes
1
answer
130
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 ...
- 4,385
5
votes
1
answer
37
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 ...
- 882
5
votes
1
answer
92
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.
...
- 5,264
5
votes
1
answer
142
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=...
- 185
5
votes
1
answer
149
views
Include Full Post Details In /users/{id}/timeline
I have a feature request. I'm trying to pull the recent activity about a user from the API. So I'm parsing /users/{id}/timeline. But that only gives me meta-information about the activity. So then,...
- 151
5
votes
0
answers
124
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.
- 426
4
votes
2
answers
178
views
Get a user's "interesting tags"
The current implementation of the API does not provide a way for us to fetch a user's "interesting tags". The /users/{id}/tags unfortunately returns all tags a user has participated in, which I'm not ...
- 1,522
4
votes
2
answers
227
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 ...
- 945
4
votes
1
answer
185
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....
- 165
4
votes
1
answer
52
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".
- 358
4
votes
1
answer
101
views
Creation of an API 'about' method for the application key being passed
Hi there!
Because the API uses a key, I'd like to ask if a request can be created so that, on application start (and, during runtime), you can ask whether your key is valid, and get back information ...
4
votes
1
answer
410
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 ...
- 256
4
votes
1
answer
288
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 ...
- 343
4
votes
3
answers
148
views
StackAuth feature requests
Would it be possible to have a hash of a sites icon so that you only have to download when it's changed. Or is this already implemented with HTTP cache or something like that (if it is could someone ...
- 3,118
4
votes
1
answer
110
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 ...
- 253
4
votes
2
answers
155
views
Please provide a mechanism for retrieving random questions
A lot of ideas I've had for Stack apps have been of the "question of the day" variety. It would be nice if there was a way to retrieve one or more random questions.
/questions/random/
The max ...
- 3,313
4
votes
1
answer
82
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 ...
4
votes
2
answers
95
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 => ...
- 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}
...
- 23.3k