What's happening with the API and Smugmug.

AdamN

Firstly I want to say that I love smugmug and the idea of a public API. But lately I've started to feel that some issues must be resolved and quickly if Smugmug wants to have continued support from independent developers. I don't mean to flame or be rude and I think that most people here agrees with me.

1. LOCK DOWN THE API 1.2.1. The situation now is unmanageable for developers with you guys changing things on a whim, breaking stuff for us. 1.2.1 is good enough, so let it go!!! I can only speak for myself, but I'm not touching my code until you guys are done, it's to much work and testing. (Not entirely true but still...)

2. What's happening with the API in general, what are your plans etc. The silence in the API blog is stunning...

I do understand that you have lots and lots of things on your mind but these are small things to be asked for.
Also, when did you guys change the writing about the developer accounts, It used to be a lifetime account didn't it. Now only one year?

Best regards and no harm intended!

/Adam

darryl

AdamN wrote:

Also, when did you guys change the writing about the developer accounts, It used to be a lifetime account didn't it. Now only one year?

This apparently changed on March 2:

http://wiki.smugmug.net/pages/diffpages.action?pageId=196649&originalId=8062112

I suppose it's fair, since somebody could just *claim* to be writing a SmugMug app to try and get a free lifetime Pro account, which is pretty shady.

devbobo

G'day Adam,

So here's where the API is at.

Not long after I joined SmugMug I took over development of the API from Don and started work on 1.2.1, adding all the methods that I wanted previously as an api developer...in doing so I pretty much doubled the functionality of the API.

A few months after that we decided to implement OAuth, due to the amount of work that we required, we decided to implement that as 1.2.2.

After 1.2.2 was released, we were in a situation where we basically had two api versions that weren't documented and our documentation had always been pretty sketchy. I started toying with the idea of automatic api documentation, and after a few emails from SmugMug library developers...I decided that implementing a reflection type interface was a good idea. After several months development (in between other projects), this was rolled out a few months ago and you can see it in action on our 1.2.2 documentation.

So once the stat methods are rewritten, I'll be starting work on version 1.2.3. At this point, the scope is ...

- some optimisation/rework of some responses for more consistency
- adding print related stuff
- implementing new stuff for some big upcoming releases

I also have to implement the OAuth 1.0a spec.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

David

Andy

darryl wrote:

This apparently changed on March 2:

http://wiki.smugmug.net/pages/diffpages.action?pageId=196649&originalId=8062112

I suppose it's fair, since somebody could just *claim* to be writing a SmugMug app to try and get a free lifetime Pro account, which is pretty shady.

Yes. Basically, we'll give the API Developer a free account for a year- if the app takes off and the developer continues to maintain it, we'll comp for life

We had some folks that made 'apps' (yes, quotes intentional) and we never heard from them again...

AdamN

Ok then...
So that means that 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 will soon be feature complete?
That would be GREAT news!
I do understand about the account thing, and of course that was a loophole that needed closing!

That only leaves one thing which could've shed some light on all my questions, the blog. It would be really nice to be able to follow you work and thougts and would help alleviate a lot of frustration from my self and I suspect a few others.