IcoMoon API Please!
Your service is the best I have seen about font icons, really!
However, it is disappointing to see that you don't provide any API.
You could offer a REST API that allows to a third-party application to redirect the user to IcoMoon with a custom selection of icons directly uploaded to IcoMoon.
Another useful tools could be to provide cloud sessions, for example in addition to the "Download Fonts" button, have something like "Share Fonts" and the user would get a URL to share with friends or with a a third-party application.
You would then offer another API that allows to download the resulting ZIP file using the above URL, with no human intervention.
I'm willing to pay for such an API. The objective is not to avoid using the IcoMoon website for end-users, but to ease their transition from the IcoMoon website and a third-party application.
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The current inconvenience of not having any API:
I'm editing themes for WordPress, and the users are able to upload custom font-icons from the backend interface. The end-users can upload a ZIP file provided by the IcoMoon website and my theme will automatically unzip and retrieve the fonts files, my theme will automatically retrieve the list of icons and will display them as a visual list so the users can insert them in the theme anywhere via a single click.
CURRENTLY:
When end-users want to add or remove any icon from their custom selection on their site, they need to
1) Go to the IcoMoon website
2) Re-upload their selection
3) Add/Remove icons
4) Click on "Download Fonts",
5) Go back to the theme's backend
6) Upload the newly downloaded ZIP file containing the new set of fonts.
HOW IT COULD BE WITH AN API:
1) Be automatically redirected to the IcoMoon website from the theme backend
2) Instantly see their selection automatically
3) Add/Remove icons
3) Click "Go back to %CUSTOM_NAME%"
4) See their new icons appearing on their site
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ABSOLUTELY NEEDED API:
A) Possibility to UPLOAD a custom set of icons and get a "Share" URL in return.
B) Possibility to DOWNLOAD a set of icons from a "Share" URL.
DESIRED ADDITIONAL API:
C) Possibility to display a custom button next to "Download Fonts" with href="%CUSTOM_URL%?share=..." where %CUSTOM_URL% is a custom URL, and "?share=..." is the "Share URL" allowing to download the current set of icons via an API call (see B above).
You could add quota policies for the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD calls, much like Google does with its Google Maps API. For example, 10 free download per "Share URL", and we must have a valid API key previously registered with IcoMoon.
Again I'm willing to pay for an API key allowing the above actions, if it's reasonably priced, like $20/year OK.
This would GREATLY extend IcoMoon's popularity and bring new users to IcoMoon, as more application will interact with IcoMoon and redirect users to the IcoMoon website for the icons sets editing process!
To make sure that the "icons sets editing process" is not outsourced and that your service is not only used as a fonts generator tool, you could ignore API "A" above.
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To conclude:
You must ABSOLUTELY implement a "Share" concept where a single, easy-to-copy/past URL, can be used for both end-users to
- save their selection,
- share it with friends,
- share it with a third-party application,
- and which can also be used by the third-party application to download the ZIP file.
Download of ZIP file via API can be secured by API key; limited to once per "Share URL"; monitored for abuse; API key can be provided on a per-request basis; or even paid. Anything you want but PLEASE move forward with your great service, or a competitor will.
Regards,
Anthony
charl...@gmail.com
I'm wondering if icomoon would mind if I embed their site inside my own framework?
-hoping for a response here .. else I suppose it's "better to ask forgiveness than permission" :)