[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #54989: Download stats API returning unexpected results

[WordPress Trac]

#54989: Download stats API returning unexpected results
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 Reporter:  pyves         |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:
Component:  HTTP API      |     Version:
 Severity:  normal        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                |     Focuses:
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Changes (by pyves):

 * status:  closed => reopened
 * resolution:  invalid =>


Comment:

 Requesting data for a plugin slug that does not exist is not necessarily
 intentional.

 As an example, I'm looking at badges provided by Shields.io
 (https://github.com/badges/shields). We support one that displays the
 number of WordPress plugin downloads (e.g.
 https://img.shields.io/wordpress/plugin/dd/bbpress). When building the
 badge URL, users may make a typo or a mistake when copy-pasting the slug
 from somewhere. After all, they're only human.

 As the Wordpress API isn't returning a 404, an empty response, or a 0
 download result, we've got no way of telling whether the returned data is
 trustworthy. As pointed out, it may be fake or nonsense in a non-explicit
 manner. We could have surfaced the user mistake by displaying a badge
 stating "plugin not found", like we do for dozens of other services we
 integrate with. Instead we've got little choice but to render a healthy-
 looking badge, which is misleading and a poor user experience.

 Worth noting that only the downloads stats API seems to behave like this.
 All other Wordpress endpoints I've checked do something more sensible when
 an erroneous plugin/theme slug is provided:
 - https://api.wordpress.org/stats/plugin/1.0/qdsdqsd returns an empty
 array.
 - https://api.wordpress.org/plugins/info/1.0/ebufskjfskdf returns a 404
 with a helpful error message.
 - https://api.wordpress.org/translations/plugins/1.0/?slug=eqfhuesffkhdsk
 returns an object with a single empty array.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54989#comment:2>
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