All Questions
236 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
31
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Draft Specification for API v2.0
We've started working on the next version of the Stack Exchange API.
The current draft specification is available, and we'd like to hear your feedback!
The headlining feature for this release is ...
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
18
votes
0
answers
119
views
Add a dedicated bot login to Stack Apps
When dealing with chat bots, especially those like SmokeDetector, you'll often want to log in directly from the code. The problem? There's no easy way to do this, especially now that Open ID is being ...
- 329
16
votes
1
answer
450
views
Bug in the StackExchange Api ? getting "could not parse proxy url" when user not logged in
I think I may have stumbled upon a bug in the Stack Exchange JS API
I'm having a problem getting its authentication to work properly, and I just discovered that the same problem exist in the official ...
- 301
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Unable to get access token
I am trying to get a non-expiry access token, like so:
https://stackexchange.com/oauth?scope=no_expiry&redirect_uri={{some_uri}}&client_id={{some_value}}
I am repeatedly getting the error:
...
- 185
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
853
views
Getting "application not configured for implicit grants" error trying to setup website
I had a developer setup StackExchange auth for a site last year and that still works fine. I have cloned that site and am in the process of changing out all of the relevant names and keys to the new ...
- 193
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
2
answers
554
views
Getting unauthorized_error when using OAuth2.0
I want to create a simple desktop application which connects to my account and shows some information in the status bar. I've been trying to authenticate using OAuth2.0 but I'm getting stuck and I ...
- 183
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How can I quickly get an access token for personal use?
Registering your application or script gets you a higher daily quota and is fairly simply; a step by step guide is documented here: I only need a key, what do I do?
However, what if I do want an ...
- 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
1
answer
719
views
OAuth procedure for standalone user?
Background:
I will be using the Stack Exchange API to make queries to stack overflow for a list of questions along with their details for a particular month etc for analysis purposes.
So this would be ...
- 173
7
votes
1
answer
550
views
No website (yet), how to register?
I just started developing a Stack Overflow client, and wanted to add authentication. I found out I needed to register for that and wasn't sure if it was okay to register your app when it is not yet ...
- 123
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
261
views
DSS: Facilitating API authentication for desktop apps
desktop-stack-serv
Auth server for desktop applications authenticating with the Stack Exchange API.
What?
The Stack Exchange API enables applications to get data about Stack Exchange sites or
users....
- 483
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
135
views
Does a closed and/or deleted Stack Apps post still provide access to the API?
Registering your application as a Stack Apps app is necessary in order to obtain a higher request quota, authentication and write access to the API.
What happens if the question is closed because of ...
- 6,885
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
1
answer
9k
views
'The target origin provided does not match the recipient window's origin' message when trying to use localhost
I am trying to experiment with the Stack Overflow API on my localhost and am struggling to get the authentication to complete. Here is my application JavaScript code (note that I am using IBM ...
- 161
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
434
views
Resurfacing bug: "could not parse proxy url" error message
According to this question, the "could not parse proxy url" bug was solved more than 2 years ago.
However, when using the client-side OAuth flow, the aforementioned error message appears when ...
- 161
6
votes
0
answers
239
views
localhost API key receives Curl error when retrieving access token
I have registered two apps -- one that will redirect to my website and the other that will redirect to a localhost server that I have running so I don't have to test my code on the site. I have ...
- 171
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
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
119
views
Access token keeps being invalidated
For Stack Overflow Extras (SOX), a few users and myself have seen our access tokens being invalidated very often without any apparent reason.
We aren't requesting new tokens (which would invalidate ...
- 4,385
5
votes
1
answer
198
views
Is there a way to specify how long I want an access token to be valid for?
I am following the explicit authentication path. I am not passing no_expiry as part of the scope.
After the final POST step, I receive back an expires value of 86399 (just shy of a full day).
It ...
- 417
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
2k
views
Desktop login URL: WebBrowser hangs (.NET) - JavaScript endless-loop
I am using .NET 4 and trying to use the desktop authentication via the web-browser control (WPF and/or WinForms; StackApp NNTP bridge for accessing StackExchange forums (like StackOverflow)).
It seems ...
- 191
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
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
483
views
Refresh expired acess token basics
I'm trying to learn how to implement an OAuth flow in an Android app using a simple app with the Stack Exchange API.
Using WebView, I'm able to retrieve an access token and store it in my shared ...
- 165
4
votes
1
answer
288
views
Can not request info after OAuth
I am following The implicit OAuth 2.0 flow Guide:
My client ID is 4709 while key is RoZwtHUrhMP088oVGCMlxA((
I appended my URL as:
https://stackexchange.com/oauth/dialog?client_id=4709&scope=...
- 165