[wp-hackers] Help with the API on WordPress.org?

DD32 wordpress at dd32.id.au
Fri Jan 2 00:29:47 GMT 2009 

Also, For future reference, I've stored my reply of the API here:
http://dd32.id.au/wordpressorg-plugin-information-api-docs/

2009/1/2 DD32 <wordpress at dd32.id.au>

> Happy new year to you too :)
>
> Alright, Lets see now, First things that spring to my mind:
>  * I was going to do the *exact* same thing as you are doing now, But i
> quickly stoped, for 1 reason, Google doesnt like Screen scrapers, Google
> block you off after 2-3 similar repeditive searches, do it enough times
> (like the plugin search) and you'll get blocked very quickly, Google's good
> at detecting this.
>
>  * So, Lets use one of the available Google API's! ...Then you realise the
> only ones available only return the first 10 results with no further
> listing.. and that plugins may appear multiple times in that listing..
> (Maybe it was 50... but eitherway, it really reduced the number of viable
> results)
>
> Also, mdawaffe was looking into fixing up the .org searching using a proper
> search engine functionality (Currently bbPress's searching just doesnt cut
> it), I'm not sure if its been released yet, But i believe its in the works.
>
> So for the time being, I'd advise you to not waste your time on a Google
> search option, Yahoo might be possible, They actually have API's they like
> you using.. and since .org will hopefully get a better search functionality
> in the near future, It might not be worth your time (& the extra requests
> which would need to happen for it)
>
> Ok, Now onto the actual API, Theres no docs available, but there'll be
> something within the month hopefully, I've been talking to someone who's
> going to document it for himself, and release it, Its not that complex
> really at all
>
> However, Since its not that complex, There isnt a function to send a list
> of slugs and get a list of details back, Only a function to return those
> details for a single plugin -- Mainly because there was no need for that
> kind of functionality in the requirements at the time.. :)
>
> Some basic documentation:
> *Actions:*
> query_plugins
> plugin_information
> hot_tags
>
> *query_plugins*
>
> Accepts an object with a property of either:
> a: *browse* - A bbPress View to "browse", eg, "popular" =
> http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/browse/popular/
> b: *search* - The term to search for
> c: *tag* - Browse by a tag
> d: *author* - Browse by an author (Note: .org has a few plugins to extend
> the author search to include contributors/etc)
>
> Other properties which the object can have:
> *page* - the page of the results (duh..)
> *per_page* - the number of results per page
> *fields* - This is a bit.. odd.. an array of which fields to return, the
> API has defaults for requests, but it can be overridden from the client,
> send an array with the field as the key, and true|false as the value to
> return or not, The fields are: *'description', 'sections', 'tested'
> ,'requires', 'rating', 'downloaded', 'downloadlink', 'last_updated' ,
> 'homepage', 'tags'*
>
> *return array of objects:*
> An array of the same object that *plugin_information* returns
>
> *plugin_information*
> Takes an object with the property:
> *slug* - The slug of the plugin to return the info for
> *fields* - once again, Optional, Same deal as in the previous action, just
> its got different defautls (ie. this one will return all the sections of the
> readme, whilst the previous will only return the short description)
>
> *return object:*
> *name* - The plugins name*
> *
> *slug* - the plugins slug
> *version* - The latest version
> *author* - The Author of the plugin - If a URL is available for the
> author, This will be a link
> The following fields are optional, And are returned based on the *fields*param
> *requires* - The required WordPress version
> *tested* - The highest tested compatible WordPress version
> *rating* - returns the % rating (ie, 10%, 100%) as a number.  (This is
> displayed on .org as a 1-5 scale)
>   *num_ratings* - If *ratings* is requsted, this will be returned as well,
> Its the number of people that have rated the plugin
> *downloads* - the number of times the plugin has been downloaded
> *last_updated* - the date that the plugin was last updated, Excludes the
> time
> *homepage* - The URL of the plugin
> *description* - The short description of the plugin(s)
> *sections* - An array of readme sections, ie. array( 'faq' => 'FAQ... blah
> blah my plugin is great.. blah blah', 'installing' => 'fgfg.... If no readme
> sections are found, It returns  array('description' => (*description field
> here from above)* )
> *downloadlink* - The Download Link for the plugin (Theres a bug in this at
> present, Any version with a space in the URL returns the wrong URL:
> http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8610
> *tags* - an array of array( 'tag_slug' => 'Tag Name, 'slug2' => 'Pretty
> Butterflies')*
>
> *
> *
> *
> *hot_tags*
> Takes an object of:
> *number* - The number of tags to return, Defaults to 100
>
> *return array of objects: *(key will be tag slug)
> *name* - The tags name
> *slug* - The tags slug
> *count* - The number of plugins
>
> Final note, The API may also return an error object in the case of an
> error, It'll be an object with a single property:
> *error* - A Error string, ie. "Slug not provided" or "action not
> implemented"
>
>
> 2009/1/2 Mike Schinkel <mikeschinkel at gmail.com>
>
>> Hi All (especially DD32):
>>
>> Happy New Year.
>>
>> I need help understanding how to call the API on WordPress.org.
>>
>>  What am I trying to do?  I love the new plugin install option found in
>> v2.7's admin console but I find the plugin search results are not very
>> good
>> so I'm working on a plugin that will use Google Search results to order
>> the
>> search results.  I've got it all working except for the fact that the
>> search
>> results returned by requesting results from the API on WordPress.org doing
>> even include some of the top search results from Google using the same
>> term.
>>
>>
>> I'm using the following Google search for the keyword "Category" (i.e. if
>> I'm looking for plugins related to categories.) Note how I'm search
>> for "*WordPress
>> Category Plug*", limiting to just http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/,
>> omitting http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/ and requesting 100
>> results:
>>
>>   -
>>
>> http://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress+category+plugins+site:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/+-site:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/&num=100
>>
>> The "equivalent" search on WordPress.org is here:
>>
>>   - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=category
>>
>>  For example, the Top 10 results on Google are:
>>
>>   1. Category Page
>>   2. Category Cloud Widget
>>   3. Category Icons
>>   4. Front Page Excluded Categories
>>   5. Category Posts Widget
>>   6. My Category Order
>>   7. Category Order
>>   8. Advanced Category Excluder
>>   9. Collapsing Categories
>>   10. Enhanced Categories
>>
>>  And the Top 10 results on WordPress.org (which appear to be the same as
>> returned by the API are):
>>
>>   1. Simple Tags
>>   2. WP-Cumulus
>>   3. Search Everything
>>   4. Event Calendar 3
>>   5. WP Security Scan
>>   6. Admin Management Xtended
>>   7. Sidebar Widgets
>>   8. DMSGuestbook
>>   9. Wordpress Download Monitor
>>   10. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
>>
>>  Hopefully it is not a stretch for me to assert that the Google search
>> results are far more applicable than the WordPress.org search results?
>>
>> What my code currently does is grab the Google search results and
>> correlate
>> them to the WordPress.org API results which are ultimately returned from
>> the
>> *plugins_api()* function found in */wp-admin/includes/plugin-install.php*.
>> The API call ultimately looks like this:
>>
>> $request = wp_remote_post('http://api.wordpress.org/plugins/info/1.0/',
>>                          array( 'body' => array('action' => $action,
>> 'request' => serialize($args))) );
>>
>> I correlate the two result sets because the WordPress.org API results have
>> the metadata needed for the 2.7 admin console plugin search results such
>> as
>> rating and version and Google search results has the desired order.  But
>> as
>> stated I've found that many of the top search results from Google don't
>> even
>> show up in WordPress.org's search results.  A serious bummer. :-(
>>
>> So what I'm hoping is to find an API function that would let me in a
>> single
>> POST send a list of plugin slugs and have it return me the same array of
>> plugin info and metadata for those identified plugins that is currently
>> being returned by the aforementioned line from plugins_api().  I know the
>> link to the API Docs at http://api.wordpress.org/plugins/info/1.0/ says
>> "*If
>> only I had written some...Sorry -DD32*" but I'm hoping we can start
>> documenting here on the list? :-)  Minimally if someone could pastebin the
>> code for the API then I could figure it out myself.
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>  -Mike Schinkel
>> http://mikeschinkel.com
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>>
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