Feedback on proposed API changes

[jboutelle]

Hey SlideShare API users!

We're plotting to fill some gaps in our API. There's three proposed
changes:
1) fetching private slideshows of a user (with auth)
2) modifying slideshow information (title, description, tags,privacy)
(with auth)
3) supporting delete (with auth)

Please let me know
a) If these features will be useful to you
b) Any feedback on the proposed design for these features (given below
my signature)

There's a couple more proposed changes on the horizon as well:
4) providing access to our search functionality via the API
5) providing richer fetching of slideshows using tags (sort order, tag
intersection, stuff like that).
If you have strong opinions on that stuff it's also an excellent time
to speak up.

Regards,
-Jon Boutelle
CTO, SlideShare

PROPOSED NEW API FEATURES
1. Retrieving SlideShows for a given user (auth optional, only needed
if private slideshow)

Request Type: HTTP GET
URL: http://www.slideshare.net/api/1/get_slideshow_by_user

Required Parameters:

api_key
ts
hash
username_for

Optional parameters (Useful for pagination)
Offset : The offset from which we retrieve slideshows
Limit : How many slideshows to retrieve
username: (auth parameter) <<NEW
password: (auth parameter) <<NEW

Response XML Format (if API call is successful):
<User>{Name goes here}</User>
<count>{Total number of slideshows for given user}</count>
<Slideshow>
<EmbedCode>{embed code goes here}</EmbedCode>
<Thumbnail>{url for thumbnail goes here}</Thumbnail>
<Title>{title goes here}</Title>
<Description>{description goes here}</Description>
<Status>0, 1, 2, or 3</Status>
<StatusDescription>{queued, processing, ready, or failed}</
StatusDescription>
<Permalink>{Permanent link for the slideshow}</Permalink>
<Views>{Number of views for the slideshow}</Views>
<Make_SlideShow_Private>{Y or N}</Make_SlideShow_Private> <<<NEW
<Generate_Secret_URL>{Y or N}</Generate_Secret_URL> <<<NEW
<Allow_Embeds>Y or N</AllowEmbeds> <<<NEW
<Share_With_Contacts>Y or N</Share_With_Contacts> <<<NEW
</Slideshow>
{repeat SlideShow element as many times as is necessary}
</User>
Status can be 0 (queued), 1 (processing), 2 (ready), or 3 (failed).

Response XML Format (if API call failed):
<SlideShareServiceError>
<Message id={various numbers go here}>{various messages go here}</
Message>
</SlideShareServiceError>
The message in a SlideShareService error will be one of the following:

1 Failed API validation
2 Failed User authentication (gives this error if the slideshow was
private and you didn't provide authentication, or provided the wrong
authentication) <<<NEW
10 User Not Found



2)

PROPOSED NEW FUNCTION
Request Type: HTTP POST
URL: http://www.slideshare.net/api/1/edit_slideshow (auth needed)

Required Parameters
api_key
ts
hash
slideshow_id

Optional Parameters
title (text)
description (text)
tags (text)
make_slideshow_private (should be Y if you want to upload the
slideshow privately. If this is not set, following tags will not be
considered)
generate_secret_url (Generate a secret URL for the slideshow. Requires
make_slideshow_private to be Y)
allow_embeds (Sets if other websites should be allowed to embed the
slideshow. Requires make_slideshow_private to be Y)
share_with_contacts (Sets if your contacts on Slideshare can view the
slideshow. Requires make_slideshow_private to be Y)


3) Delete Function
PROPOSED NEW FUNCTION
Request Type: HTTP DELETE
URL: http://www.slideshare.net/api/1/delete_slideshow (auth needed)

Required Parameters
api_key
ts
hash

[Ross Boucher]

Search would be great, and potentially really useful to us in 280
Slides, in particular if you added the ability to get the PPT file
from the slideshare presentation (if its available of course).

I don't think we're really the target for the other new features, so I
don't really have a comment.

-Ross

[Kosso]

Hi good stuff.

(but I appear to be getting some 500 errors this morning)

One question though : I had asked a few weeks ago I the Creative Commons lisence (if set) could be added to the XML output of the API calls.  This would be incredibly useful.


Ceers,
Kosso  : Phreadz.

2008/8/4 jboutelle <jonathan...@gmail.com>

--
-------------------------------------------------------
Phreadz : Founder: http://phreadz.com
Phreadz Blog : http://phreadz.blogspot.com
Personal Blog: http://kosso.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kosso

[Enrico Foschi]

Hi, good stuff, but I can't get it working because of continuous
internal server (500) errors :(

Any ETA for the fix?

Thanks,
Enrico

> URL:http://www.slideshare.net/api/1/edit_slideshow(auth needed)

>
> Required Parameters
> api_key
> ts
> hash
> slideshow_id
>
> Optional Parameters
> title (text)
> description (text)
> tags (text)
> make_slideshow_private (should be Y if you want to upload the
> slideshow privately. If this is not set, following tags will not be
> considered)
> generate_secret_url (Generate a secret URL for the slideshow. Requires
> make_slideshow_private to be Y)
> allow_embeds (Sets if other websites should be allowed to embed the
> slideshow. Requires make_slideshow_private to be Y)
> share_with_contacts (Sets if your contacts on Slideshare can view the
> slideshow. Requires make_slideshow_private to be Y)
>
> 3) Delete Function
> PROPOSED NEW FUNCTION
> Request Type: HTTP DELETE

> URL:http://www.slideshare.net/api/1/delete_slideshow(auth needed)

[jboutelle]

Good idea on creative commons ... makes a lot of sense for mashups!
-Jon

On Aug 5, 3:49 am, Kosso <kos...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi good stuff.
>
> (but I appear to be getting some 500 errors this morning)
>
> One question though : I had asked a few weeks ago I the Creative Commons
> lisence (if set) could be added to the XML output of the API calls.  This
> would be incredibly useful.
>
> Ceers,
> Kosso  : Phreadz.
>

> 2008/8/4 jboutelle <jonathanboute...@gmail.com>

> > URL:http://www.slideshare.net/api/1/edit_slideshow(auth needed)

>
> > Required Parameters
> > api_key
> > ts
> > hash
> > slideshow_id
>
> > Optional Parameters
> > title (text)
> > description (text)
> > tags (text)
> > make_slideshow_private (should be Y if you want to upload the
> > slideshow privately. If this is not set, following tags will not be
> > considered)
> > generate_secret_url (Generate a secret URL for the slideshow. Requires
> > make_slideshow_private to be Y)
> > allow_embeds (Sets if other websites should be allowed to embed the
> > slideshow. Requires make_slideshow_private to be Y)
> > share_with_contacts (Sets if your contacts on Slideshare can view the
> > slideshow. Requires make_slideshow_private to be Y)
>
> > 3) Delete Function
> > PROPOSED NEW FUNCTION
> > Request Type: HTTP DELETE

> > URL:http://www.slideshare.net/api/1/delete_slideshow(auth needed)