Detefct the Reuse of an Existing Link

[paultorben]

I have the PHP API example working, and creating new links - however
I've noticed that it always creates a new link for the same set of
data, where I'd really like it to return the same (previously created)
link if the same set of data is submitted - so perhaps I'm not
understanding how this is supposed to be used.

Any suggestions? Is there a method to detect if a link has already
been created for a particular combination of passed-in data?

Thanks in advance!

Torben

[Jonathan Strauss]

Hi Torben,

The short answer is yes, you can use the Data APIs (http://groups.google.com/group/awesm-api/web/api-documentation) to query for the existence of an awesm_url with your specified criteria.

However, awe.sm is intentionally designed to generate a unique awe.sm link for each call to the Create APIs. This is because our links are meant to map 1-1 to a specific share action (i.e. a given tweet, Facebook post, email, etc) and the metadata captured in the link, included created_at timestamp, is meant to represent the metadata of that share action. So for example, if the same user sends out 3 identical tweets at 8 hour intervals, each of those tweets should receive its own unique awe.sm link that would have all the same metadata (i.e. share_type=twitter, create_type={Tool Used}, user_id=twitter:{Numerical Twitter ID of the User}) except for the created_at timestamp which would differentiate when the tweets (and accompanying unique awe.sm links) were shared.

Finally, we recognize that there are valid use-cases when you want to use awe.sm-powered tracking but can't generate a unique link per action (e.g. because you want to pre-populate a link for users to copy a la thenextweb.com). So, our v2 Create APIs will include a /url/static endpoint that will return you an awesm_url matching your criteria if it already exists or create a new one if it doesn't.

Please let me know if you'd like to discuss your use-case in any more specifics. We're happy to provide sample code where we have it.

Best,
-jonathan

--
Jonathan Strauss, Co-Founder
http://snowballfactory.com

Campaign tracking for social media - http://awe.sm
A smarter way to update Facebook from Twitter - http://tweetpo.st
Sharecount button for Facebook - http://www.fbshare.me

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[Jonathan Strauss [Staff]]

We are now ready to start testing the static API with select external
developers. Please email me at jona...@awe.sm if you're interested in
trying it out.

Best,
-jonathan

--
Jonathan Strauss, Co-Founder

http://awe.sm

Blog: http://jonathanhstrauss.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhstrauss


On Sep 17, 7:28 am, Jonathan Strauss <jonat...@snowballfactory.com>
wrote:

> Hi Torben,
>
> The short answer is yes, you can use the Data APIs (http://groups.google.com/group/awesm-api/web/api-documentation) to query for the existence of an awesm_url with your specified criteria.
>
> However, awe.sm is intentionally designed to generate a unique awe.sm link for each call to the Create APIs. This is because our links are meant to map 1-1 to a specific share action (i.e. a given tweet, Facebook post, email, etc) and the metadata captured in the link, included created_at timestamp, is meant to represent the metadata of that share action. So for example, if the same user sends out 3 identical tweets at 8 hour intervals, each of those tweets should receive its own unique awe.sm link that would have all the same metadata (i.e. share_type=twitter, create_type={Tool Used}, user_id=twitter:{Numerical Twitter ID of the User}) except for the created_at timestamp which would differentiate when the tweets (and accompanying unique awe.sm links) were shared.
>
> Finally, we recognize that there are valid use-cases when you want to use awe.sm-powered tracking but can't generate a unique link per action (e.g. because you want to pre-populate a link for users to copy a la thenextweb.com). So, our v2 Create APIs will include a /url/static endpoint that will return you an awesm_url matching your criteria if it already exists or create a new one if it doesn't.
>
> Please let me know if you'd like to discuss your use-case in any more specifics. We're happy to provide sample code where we have it.
>
> Best,
> -jonathan
>
> --

> Jonathan Strauss, Co-Founderhttp://snowballfactory.com
>
> Campaign tracking for social media -http://awe.sm
> A smarter way to update Facebook from Twitter -http://tweetpo.st
> Sharecount button for Facebook -http://www.fbshare.me