The Check In API is here. We're really excited to see what everyone out there is going to build with it!
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
Gowalla aspires to connect real people with real places. Our goal has always been for people to go out and explore both locally and around the world.
As such, the Check In API is primarily intended for use by applications and services designed for mobile devices. Thoughtful uses of the API by applications and services designed for location-aware browsers on the desktop are also permitted. We encourage developers to use the following guidelines when creating applications that use Gowalla’s Check In API.
* Encourage users of your application to check in at places they are actually located. * Avoid incentives or game mechanics that reward checking in from distant locations. * Never “auto check-in” a person without their explicit permission. This is seriously uncool. * Encourage social interaction over bot-like behavior. * Rapid, repeated check-ins with the intent to automate the location and swapping of items will not be tolerated. * Go easy on the API. Cache data where you can, respond to error messages, and be thoughtful about your user experience. * Applications that disregard the guidelines above risk violation of Gowalla’s Terms of Service and may have their API access suspended without warning.
So keep cool, my babies.
---
Checking in with the Check In API is pretty straightforward:
1. Send an authorization request including a `scope` parameter of `read-write` 2. Fetch an OAuth token, again passing a `scope` parameter of `read-write` 3. Send a POST request to `/checkins` 3a. Optionally, display the HTML returned in the checkin response to let the user know if they were awarded any pins, received a bonus, and if any friends are near where their checkin.
You can find detailed documentation on the checkin API page:
One thing that would nice would be the ability to check-in using the spot URL. My reasoning being that most API calls return spot URLs instead of the actual spot ID, which leaves me with the choice of either parsing out the ID from the URL or making an extra API call to resolve the ID.
On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Adam Keys <adamkk...@gmail.com> wrote: > The Check In API is here. We're really excited to see what everyone out there is going to build with it!
> IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
> Gowalla aspires to connect real people with real places. Our goal has always been for people to go out and explore both locally and around the world.
> As such, the Check In API is primarily intended for use by applications and services designed for mobile devices. Thoughtful uses of the API by applications and services designed for location-aware browsers on the desktop are also permitted. We encourage developers to use the following guidelines when creating applications that use Gowalla’s Check In API.
> * Encourage users of your application to check in at places they are actually located. > * Avoid incentives or game mechanics that reward checking in from distant locations. > * Never “auto check-in” a person without their explicit permission. This is seriously uncool. > * Encourage social interaction over bot-like behavior. > * Rapid, repeated check-ins with the intent to automate the location and swapping of items will not be tolerated. > * Go easy on the API. Cache data where you can, respond to error messages, and be thoughtful about your user experience. > * Applications that disregard the guidelines above risk violation of Gowalla’s Terms of Service and may have their API access suspended without warning.
> So keep cool, my babies.
> ---
> Checking in with the Check In API is pretty straightforward:
> 1. Send an authorization request including a `scope` parameter of `read-write` > 2. Fetch an OAuth token, again passing a `scope` parameter of `read-write` > 3. Send a POST request to `/checkins` > 3a. Optionally, display the HTML returned in the checkin response to let the user know if they were awarded any pins, received a bonus, and if any friends are near where their checkin.
> You can find detailed documentation on the checkin API page:
Another thing I've noticed: When using the testing endpoint, the HTML returned seems to always be for Austin Java, which is kind of confusing. I though I had screwed something up in my app, but I''m passing the right spot id.
On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Adam Keys <adamkk...@gmail.com> wrote: > The Check In API is here. We're really excited to see what everyone out there is going to build with it!
> IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
> Gowalla aspires to connect real people with real places. Our goal has always been for people to go out and explore both locally and around the world.
> As such, the Check In API is primarily intended for use by applications and services designed for mobile devices. Thoughtful uses of the API by applications and services designed for location-aware browsers on the desktop are also permitted. We encourage developers to use the following guidelines when creating applications that use Gowalla’s Check In API.
> * Encourage users of your application to check in at places they are actually located. > * Avoid incentives or game mechanics that reward checking in from distant locations. > * Never “auto check-in” a person without their explicit permission. This is seriously uncool. > * Encourage social interaction over bot-like behavior. > * Rapid, repeated check-ins with the intent to automate the location and swapping of items will not be tolerated. > * Go easy on the API. Cache data where you can, respond to error messages, and be thoughtful about your user experience. > * Applications that disregard the guidelines above risk violation of Gowalla’s Terms of Service and may have their API access suspended without warning.
> So keep cool, my babies.
> ---
> Checking in with the Check In API is pretty straightforward:
> 1. Send an authorization request including a `scope` parameter of `read-write` > 2. Fetch an OAuth token, again passing a `scope` parameter of `read-write` > 3. Send a POST request to `/checkins` > 3a. Optionally, display the HTML returned in the checkin response to let the user know if they were awarded any pins, received a bonus, and if any friends are near where their checkin.
> You can find detailed documentation on the checkin API page:
That's correct. The test endpoint returns a canned set of rewards we often use for testing.
The idea behind the test endpoint is that it makes it simpler to figure out if you're passing the right parameters and if you can correctly display the detail HTML. It isn't supposed to behave _exactly_ like a real checkin would, just close enough to know whether your code works.
> Another thing I've noticed: When using the testing endpoint, the HTML > returned seems to always be for Austin Java, which is kind of > confusing. I though I had screwed something up in my app, but I''m > passing the right spot id.
> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Adam Keys <adamkk...@gmail.com> wrote: >> The Check In API is here. We're really excited to see what everyone out there is going to build with it!
>> IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
>> Gowalla aspires to connect real people with real places. Our goal has always been for people to go out and explore both locally and around the world.
>> As such, the Check In API is primarily intended for use by applications and services designed for mobile devices. Thoughtful uses of the API by applications and services designed for location-aware browsers on the desktop are also permitted. We encourage developers to use the following guidelines when creating applications that use Gowalla’s Check In API.
>> * Encourage users of your application to check in at places they are actually located. >> * Avoid incentives or game mechanics that reward checking in from distant locations. >> * Never “auto check-in” a person without their explicit permission. This is seriously uncool. >> * Encourage social interaction over bot-like behavior. >> * Rapid, repeated check-ins with the intent to automate the location and swapping of items will not be tolerated. >> * Go easy on the API. Cache data where you can, respond to error messages, and be thoughtful about your user experience. >> * Applications that disregard the guidelines above risk violation of Gowalla’s Terms of Service and may have their API access suspended without warning.
>> So keep cool, my babies.
>> ---
>> Checking in with the Check In API is pretty straightforward:
>> 1. Send an authorization request including a `scope` parameter of `read-write` >> 2. Fetch an OAuth token, again passing a `scope` parameter of `read-write` >> 3. Send a POST request to `/checkins` >> 3a. Optionally, display the HTML returned in the checkin response to let the user know if they were awarded any pins, received a bonus, and if any friends are near where their checkin.
>> You can find detailed documentation on the checkin API page:
When you search for spots, the URL to use when checking into that spot is returned as checkin_url. Always use that URL when you're creating a checkin.
This principle holds true for the entire Gowalla API. There are lots of places where we return URLs instead of IDs; the idea here is that you just follow whatever we give you and things should work. This saves you from having to parse IDs and generate URLs and it gives us a little flexibility to move things around without breaking your apps.
That said, if there is some response where a URL to some data would be useful but its not there, let us know and we'll probably add it pretty quickly.
> One thing that would nice would be the ability to check-in using the > spot URL. My reasoning being that most API calls return spot URLs > instead of the actual spot ID, which leaves me with the choice of > either parsing out the ID from the URL or making an extra API call to > resolve the ID.
> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Adam Keys <adamkk...@gmail.com> wrote: >> The Check In API is here. We're really excited to see what everyone out there is going to build with it!
>> IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
>> Gowalla aspires to connect real people with real places. Our goal has always been for people to go out and explore both locally and around the world.
>> As such, the Check In API is primarily intended for use by applications and services designed for mobile devices. Thoughtful uses of the API by applications and services designed for location-aware browsers on the desktop are also permitted. We encourage developers to use the following guidelines when creating applications that use Gowalla’s Check In API.
>> * Encourage users of your application to check in at places they are actually located. >> * Avoid incentives or game mechanics that reward checking in from distant locations. >> * Never “auto check-in” a person without their explicit permission. This is seriously uncool. >> * Encourage social interaction over bot-like behavior. >> * Rapid, repeated check-ins with the intent to automate the location and swapping of items will not be tolerated. >> * Go easy on the API. Cache data where you can, respond to error messages, and be thoughtful about your user experience. >> * Applications that disregard the guidelines above risk violation of Gowalla’s Terms of Service and may have their API access suspended without warning.
>> So keep cool, my babies.
>> ---
>> Checking in with the Check In API is pretty straightforward:
>> 1. Send an authorization request including a `scope` parameter of `read-write` >> 2. Fetch an OAuth token, again passing a `scope` parameter of `read-write` >> 3. Send a POST request to `/checkins` >> 3a. Optionally, display the HTML returned in the checkin response to let the user know if they were awarded any pins, received a bonus, and if any friends are near where their checkin.
>> You can find detailed documentation on the checkin API page:
> When you search for spots, the URL to use when checking into that spot is returned as checkin_url. Always use that URL when you're creating a checkin.
> This principle holds true for the entire Gowalla API. There are lots of places where we return URLs instead of IDs; the idea here is that you just follow whatever we give you and things should work. This saves you from having to parse IDs and generate URLs and it gives us a little flexibility to move things around without breaking your apps.
> That said, if there is some response where a URL to some data would be useful but its not there, let us know and we'll probably add it pretty quickly.
> On Aug 6, 2010, at 11:48 AM, noah wrote:
>> Awesome! I'm so excited this is here!
>> One thing that would nice would be the ability to check-in using the >> spot URL. My reasoning being that most API calls return spot URLs >> instead of the actual spot ID, which leaves me with the choice of >> either parsing out the ID from the URL or making an extra API call to >> resolve the ID.
>> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Adam Keys <adamkk...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> The Check In API is here. We're really excited to see what everyone out there is going to build with it!
>>> IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
>>> Gowalla aspires to connect real people with real places. Our goal has always been for people to go out and explore both locally and around the world.
>>> As such, the Check In API is primarily intended for use by applications and services designed for mobile devices. Thoughtful uses of the API by applications and services designed for location-aware browsers on the desktop are also permitted. We encourage developers to use the following guidelines when creating applications that use Gowalla’s Check In API.
>>> * Encourage users of your application to check in at places they are actually located. >>> * Avoid incentives or game mechanics that reward checking in from distant locations. >>> * Never “auto check-in” a person without their explicit permission. This is seriously uncool. >>> * Encourage social interaction over bot-like behavior. >>> * Rapid, repeated check-ins with the intent to automate the location and swapping of items will not be tolerated. >>> * Go easy on the API. Cache data where you can, respond to error messages, and be thoughtful about your user experience. >>> * Applications that disregard the guidelines above risk violation of Gowalla’s Terms of Service and may have their API access suspended without warning.
>>> So keep cool, my babies.
>>> ---
>>> Checking in with the Check In API is pretty straightforward:
>>> 1. Send an authorization request including a `scope` parameter of `read-write` >>> 2. Fetch an OAuth token, again passing a `scope` parameter of `read-write` >>> 3. Send a POST request to `/checkins` >>> 3a. Optionally, display the HTML returned in the checkin response to let the user know if they were awarded any pins, received a bonus, and if any friends are near where their checkin.
>>> You can find detailed documentation on the checkin API page:
