Getting WordPress / JetPack Subscriber Counts via the API... the hard way

By on   600 words
The Logo for WordPress

People can subscribe to receive my blog via email. This is managed by the JetPack plugin. I want to be able to display something like "Join 1,234 subscribers and receive updates via email". So, how do I get the subscriber count from the API? As documented in the JetPack HTTP API, it is possible to […]

Continue reading →

Please don't give away your Twitter API keys to Cloudinary

By on   2 comments 650 words, read ~168 times.
Hi Terence, We don't have a way for customers to configure this on their own currently. Our team will handle the configurations for you. Here are the details needed for us to do the required changes: API Key and Secret. Access Token and Secret.Best Regards

My CDN just asked me for all my Twitter API keys... WTF? This would give them complete access to my app's Twitter account, the ability to send and receive messages, and anything else that my API key allows. Giving them - or anyone - the entire set of credentials would be a very bad idea. […]

Continue reading →

Combining 3 transport APIs for one info screen

By on   2 comments 750 words, read ~226 times.
An eInk screen which is displaying the times until the next bus, what delays there are on the tube, and then a bunch of train departure times.

Last year, I blogged about how I turned an old eReader into an Information Screen. I've since updated the display to show me three different sets of transport information. At a glance, I can see the next bus, whether there are delays on the Elizabeth Line, and if my regular trains are running. Here's how […]

Continue reading →

Getting Started with Mastodon's Conversations API

By on   1 comment 1,500 words, read ~906 times.
A threaded conversation. You can see the order in which people have replied to each other - and what posts they are referencing.

The social network service "Mastodon" allows people to publish posts. People can reply to those posts. Other people can reply to those replies - and so on. What does that look like in the API? Here's a quick guide to the concepts you need to know - and some code to help you visualise conversations. […]

Continue reading →

Searching online for books in local libraries

By on   3 comments 500 words
List of items matching the search "Song of Achilles" - includes two versions of the book, an audio book, and other work by the author.

This is a mixture of lament and how-to guide. Suppose you've reviewed lots of books. It's pretty easy to generate a link to let people buy the book at Amazon or any other online store. But how do you link to a user's local library? You can't. There is no "search every library in the […]

Continue reading →

What's your API's "Time To 200"?

By on   3 comments 300 words, read ~11,383 times.

M'colleague Charles has introduced me to the most spectacular phrase - "Time To 200". That's a measurement of the length of time it takes a new user to go from signing up to your API to getting their first HTTP 200 response. Think about the last time you started using a new API... Fill in […]

Continue reading →

Are APIs Elitist?

By on   1 comment 450 words, read ~1,258 times.
Binary code displayed on a screen.

(This post written partly to tease my delightful colleague Charles, but also as a way of thinking about user needs.) During a recent Open Data Café, one of the guests made an entirely reasonable point. An API only method of getting data is elitist. Already having my assumptions tested - are APIs elitist? food for […]

Continue reading →

How to track down the original owners of stolen Twitter accounts

By on   2 comments 400 words, read ~691 times.
The Twitter logo drawn in circles.

Recently, one of the accounts I follow on Twitter was hijacked. It was turned into a PS5 giveaway scam. The people who hijacked the account changed the name, avatar, and deleted all the previous Tweets. Here's how I found who the original owner was, and managed to contact them. A Twitter account has a screen […]

Continue reading →

Disintermediate The State

By on   1 comment 700 words, read ~141 times.
The "That's a paddling" meme - saying "Renew your goose tax? That's an API!"

As part of my MSc, I'm being asked to think about "digital disruption" - so here are some personal thoughts about the future of transactions with the state. The UK Government has a lot of APIs to let computers communicate with each other. Most of them are department-to-department. For example, the Ministry of Birds wants […]

Continue reading →

WordPress's undocumented stats API

By on   2 comments 350 words, read ~220 times.
WordPress console showing a JSON output.

This blog runs on WordPress. Using their JetPack plugin, I get fairly detailed stats on views and visitors. But, bizarrely, the API is undocumented. Well, sort of... Let me explain: Just Show Me The Code Here's the API call to get a year's worth of data about your blog. https://public-api.wordpress.com/rest/v1.1/sites/shkspr.mobi::blog/stats/visits ?unit=day &date=2021-01-03 &quantity=365 &stat_fields=views%2Cvisitors' Replace […]

Continue reading →

␃␄