DDI Compendium API

[Hellzon]

Apologies if I'm in the wrong forum, but here goes:

The Gaming in Code Blog, run by a DDI software dev, just posted a walkthrough of how to set up querystrings when linking to the DDI Compendium. It's almost Hebrew to me (not quite), but it lets you set up a kind of external search engine for the Compendium.

Good news for Asmor if he ever starts updating his database stuff again, and for the Obsidian Portal guy who already replied to the blog post.

 

[kenmarable]

I had noticed the compendium was all querystring based but hadn't taken the time to break it all down. That's awesome that one of the devs broke it down for us.

I just hope WotC sees this as a value add for DDI and not a threat to back door into their system. To the technically uneducated, it can easily look like the latter. But allowing other parties to use a clear public API actually makes the compendium that much more useful and a DDI subscription more valuable.

 

[scrubkai]

I just hope WotC sees this as a value add for DDI and not a threat to back door into their system. To the technically uneducated, it can easily look like the latter. But allowing other parties to use a clear public API actually makes the compendium that much more useful and a DDI subscription more valuable.

Why would anyone how bothers to look at this see this as a threat?

The code they lay out accesses the publicly accessible version of the compendium. You have to sign in to get any more info. So there's no chance of anyone being able to skip the subscription info with just the little code that they produced....

Now if they were to put in the code that gets you into the subscription info, well that is where they could get in trouble.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Why would anyone how bothers to look at this see this as a threat?

Why would anyone pull past PDFs because they had already been pirated?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

oops, I did not know that the authentication goes after the headline search in the demo version

 

[Festivus]

Probably too early for me to get really excited, but my first thought was "Cool, now it might be possible to query the compendium for monsters, and import them directly into Maptool."

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Probably too early for me to get really excited, but my first thought was "Cool, now it might be possible to query the compendium for monsters, and import them directly into Maptool."

Well it is, if map tools gets a client that can do it or if it has a script language that can call a dll.
Obviously I know little or nothing about maptools but it occured to me where does this leave the VTT.
Just had a quick read through the DDI EULA and I see nothing preventing creating a software component to interrogate the site.

Check out the thread http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/255711-some-early-d-di-information.html it seems that they are encouraging third party addons to the existing tools

 

[kenmarable]

Why would anyone how bothers to look at this see this as a threat?

The code they lay out accesses the publicly accessible version of the compendium. You have to sign in to get any more info. So there's no chance of anyone being able to skip the subscription info with just the little code that they produced....

Now if they were to put in the code that gets you into the subscription info, well that is where they could get in trouble.

Sorry, I didn't want to derail things with that, but I did say "To the technically uneducated" for precisely that reason. Anyone who does bother to look at it will see the definite benefit and realize the threat is non-existent. However, the gap between developers and management can sometimes be large enough that decisions can be quite uninformed (just Google about the AP flipping our over sites linking to their articles for an example).

But not to derail further, it seems clear from this thread that WotC does thankfully "get it", and are working to make DDI extendable by 3rd parties. So my comment was just "I can see this going either way", and thankfully another thread just today shows that my worry isn't founded.

Why would anyone pull past PDFs because they had already been pirated?

Hey, don't start with that. I'm not going to be responsible for indirectly opening that door!

 

[Asmor]

Good news for Asmor if he ever starts updating his database stuff again, and for the Obsidian Portal guy who already replied to the blog post.

Actually, part (though not all) of the reason I decided to stop updating my databases was because I had a suspicion something like this was coming down the line...

Not positive, but I think this may mean that I can completely get out of the business of keeping my own database and just use theirs, which would thus be updated whenever the compendium was. Can't wait for the next part in the series:

In part two I will go over calling the web service directly to get the data.

Probably too early for me to get really excited, but my first thought was "Cool, now it might be possible to query the compendium for monsters, and import them directly into Maptool."

It's possible right now, actually. I mean, it could be programmed. I'm not sure how, not that familiar with mixing web-based and non-web-based applications. But definitely possible.

They've just given you everything you need to search for the link to a specific monster. Right now, if you open a monster from the compendium in a new tab and save the resultant HTML my monster maker can import that.

If I knew how to log you in and get that HTML directly, I could import a monster from directly within Monster Maker. Someone else with more experience in the actual goings-on of HTTP could do that right now.

 

[Scribble]

SO did they basically open the door for a slew of 3pp encounter builders and such?