Output API - Speeding up XML calls

[David Carpenter]

We're introducing a new parameter to the Output API which we hope will
dramatically decrease query times for your requests.

This applies to calls of the type:
http://feeds.plings.net/xml.activity.php/....
i.e. when requesting all activities as opposed to requesting
information on a single activity.

On 'all activities' calls to the API, we currently calculate and
return a count of all 'linked activities' for each activity in the
feed by default. This can result in slow response times from our
servers.

Our intention is to disable this default behaviour on September 19th
2010, BUT to allow this behaviour IF you pass us a parameter
requesting it (this is likely to be 'includeLinkedActivityCount', but
look out for further announcements).

In the meantime you can request 'ignoreLinkedActivityCount' to prevent
us calculating and sending you the linked activities count.

We expect this will be of particular use to anyone requesting large
data sets.

Example:
http://feeds.plings.net/xml.activity.php/0/la/00BS?APIKey=<your-key-here>
Returns all activities in Stockport (00BS) for today and includes
e.g. <linkedActivities>14</linkedActivities>
in the returned data

and:
http://feeds.plings.net/xml.activity.php/0/la/00BS?APIKey=<your-key-here>&ignoreLinkedActivityCount
does not!

We would like to hear from you if you think the change in the default
behaviour will affect you. We'd also like to hear from you if this
change helps or hinders you in anyway.

All the best
David