tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48773180852271828272024-03-13T11:33:45.821+01:00OKAPI NewsSubscribe to receive updates on new features of OKAPI.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-48911982908860954912015-09-23T20:54:00.001+02:002015-09-23T20:54:21.326+02:00Somewhat delayed OKAPI news!<p>It has been a while since the last post has been published here. OKAPI is as "alive" as it has ever been, but the blog is not being updated regularilly, sorry about that!</p>
<p>Here's what has changed in the last two years (!) - sinrce version 896 up to 1116 (7622a48):</p>
<ul>
<li><b>OKAPI Project home page</b> has moved from <a href='https://code.google.com/p/opencaching-api/'>Google Code</a> to <a href='https://github.com/opencaching/okapi'>GitHub</a>. Since we're using Git now, our SVN-like revision numbers are no longer "real" revision numbers. However, for readability and backward compatibility, we're keeping the "legacy" version sequencing intact. The only difference is that we're now calling them "OKAPI version numbers" instead of "OKAPI revisions". Two new fields has been added to the <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/apisrv/installation.html'>services/apisrv/installation</a> method: <b>okapi_version_number</b> and <b>git_revision</b>.</li>
<li>New fields in the <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html'>geocache method</a>: <b>short_description</b> and <b>short_descriptions</b>.
<li>New <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/save_personal_notes.html'>save_personal_notes</a> method has been added. Also, the <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/gpx.html'>GPX formatter</a> now may take the <b>my_notes=gc:personal_note</b> parameter.</li>
<li>New <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/ggz.html'>GGZ formatter</a> has been added. You can also use it with the older <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/garmin.html'>garmin formatter</a> by providing the <b>caches_format</b> parameter.
<li>The <a href='http://www.opencaching.org.uk/'>http://www.opencaching.org.uk/</a> has been removed from the official list OKAPI installations. It still works, but it has not been updated in years, and we cannot get in touch with its admin.</li>
<li>New OC+OKAPI installation is "live": <a href='http://www.opencaching.ro/'>http://www.opencaching.ro/</a>.</li>
<li>New <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html'>search</a> parameters supported: <b>powertrail_only</b> and <b>powertrail_ids</b> (only on some OC sites).
<li>Basic support for user-supplied "custom" coordinates (only on some OC sites): See <b>location_source</b> parameter of <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/nearest.html'>nearest</a> and <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/bbox.html'>bbox</a> methods, <b>location_source_prefix</b> of <a href='http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/gpx.html'>GPX formatter</a>, and new <b>user-coords</b> alt_wpts type.</li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-67684989042660939272013-10-31T21:32:00.000+01:002013-10-31T21:36:24.520+01:00The attrs module and other new features<p>Some of the new OKAPI features added over the last months (r776-r896):</p>
<ul>
<li>Introducing the new <b>attrs</b> module.</li>
<ul>
<li>It allows you to retrieve attribute names and descriptions along with basic icons (provided by the local OC server).</li>
<ul>
<li>See the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/attrs/attribute.html">attribute</a> method for the full list of available data fields.</li>
<li>List all available attributes with the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/attrs/attribute_index.html">attribute_index</a> method.</li>
</ul>
<li>OKAPI uses global attribute IDs called <b>A-codes</b> to reference attributes. Attribute names and descriptions are also global (we store them in our repository). You're welcome to send us translations for your language.</li>
<li>By "global" we mean that they are shared between all OKAPI installations. A single A-code refers to exactly the same attribute on OCPL, OCDE or any other installation.</li>
</ul>
<li>New fields in the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache</a> method: <b>gc_code</b>, <b>hint2</b>, <b>hints2</b>, <b>attr_acodes</b>, <b>protection_areas</b>.</li>
<li>The <b>hint</b> and <b>hints</b> fields of the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache</a> method are now deprecated (<a href="http://code.google.com/p/opencaching-api/issues/detail?id=261">why?</a>).</li>
<li>The <b>attrs</b> parameter of the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/gpx.html">gpx formatter</a> can now support multiple options (instead of just one). Also, two new values for this parameter were added: <b>gc:attrs</b> and <b>gc_ocde:attrs</b>.</li>
<li>New <b>protection_areas</b> parameter was added to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/gpx.html">gpx formatter</a>.</li>
<li><b>oc_team_entry</b> field added to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/logs/entry.html">logs/entry</a> family of methods.</li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-36702780811236258472013-04-30T10:36:00.000+02:002013-05-07T17:56:18.674+02:00Welcome, OKAPI Germany!Finally, after almost two years since its launch, OKAPI has been installed on Opencaching.DE! We encourage the developers of all existing OKAPI applications to add this new node to their apps.<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.opencaching.de/okapi/">http://www.opencaching.de/okapi/</a></li>
</ul>
Also, there were many new features added since the beginning of this year (r776):<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>You can now <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/logs/submit.html">submit</a> <b>Will attend</b> and <b>Attended</b> log entries (for the Event caches).</li>
<li>Added the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/mark.html">mark</a> method (for marking the caches as <b>watched</b> or <b>ignored</b>).</li>
<li>Added <b>attribution_append </b>parameter to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache</a> method.</li>
<li>Added <b>log_fields </b>parameter to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache</a> method.</li>
<li>Added <b>descrefs:thumblinks</b> option to the <b>images </b>parameter of the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/gpx.html">gpx formatter</a> method.</li>
<li>Added many new fields to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache</a> method:</li>
<ul>
<li><b>willattends</b>,</li>
<li><b>trip_time</b>,</li>
<li><b>trip_distance</b>,</li>
<li><b>preview_image</b>,</li>
<li><b>attribution_note</b>,</li>
<li><b>country</b>,</li>
<li><b>state</b>,</li>
<li><b>is_watched</b>,</li>
<li><b>is_ignored</b>.</li>
</ul>
<li>Added <b>type </b>and <b>type_name </b>keys to the descriptions of additional waypoints returned in the <b>alt_wpts </b>field of the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache</a> method.</li>
<li>Added <b>watched_only </b>parameter to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html">searching methods</a>.</li>
<li>Added new fields to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/logs/entry.html">log entry</a> method: <b>was_recommended</b>, <b>images</b>, <b>internal_id</b>.</li>
<li>Added <b>comment_format </b>parameter to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/logs/submit.html">submit</a> method.</li>
<li>Fixed some minor bugs and clarified documentation in all the existing methods.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-45254807352641521252012-12-08T14:31:00.000+01:002012-12-08T14:31:28.021+01:00OKAPI BrowserRecently, we published a simple project called <a href="https://github.com/wrygiel/okapi-browser">OKAPI Browser</a>.<br />
<br />
It is open-source, written in C#.NET and WPF platform. You can fork it, play with it, submit you patches, or you can simply <a href="http://usosphp.mimuw.edu.pl/~rygielski/okapi-browser/">run the Installer for Windows</a>.
<br />
<br />
Being made crude and fast, it is <b>not</b> as stable as we'd like, but it still might be a handy tool for some of you (i.e. when you want to test a method which requires OAuth).
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://raw.github.com/wrygiel/okapi-browser/master/extras/screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="OKAPI Browser - screenshot" border="0" height="236" src="https://raw.github.com/wrygiel/okapi-browser/master/extras/screenshot.png" title="OKAPI Browser - screenshot" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Also, there were some minor changes made to OKAPI last month (r518):
<br />
<ul>
<li>A new <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/save.html">caches/search/save</a> method was added.</li>
<li>Three new parameters were added to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html">searching methods</a>: <b>with_trackables_only</b>, <b>ftf_hunter</b> and <b>set_and</b>.</li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-20930119397843956372012-11-10T10:56:00.000+01:002012-11-10T11:20:47.727+01:00November update<p>What changed since June (r495):</p>
<ul>
<li><b>size2 </b>and <b>oxsize </b>fields added to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache description</a> (and the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/replicate/changelog.html">replicate</a> module).</li>
<li><b>size2 </b>parameter added to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html">searching methods</a>.</li>
<li><b>size </b><a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">fields</a> and <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">search filters</a> are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecation">deprecated</a>, developers should use <b>size2</b> instead. The deprecated fields and parameters will continue to work, but you should avoid them. <a href="http://code.google.com/p/opencaching-api/issues/detail?id=155">More information</a>.</li>
<li><b><b>xmlmap2</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/introduction.html#common-formatting" style="font-weight: normal;">output format</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> added, </span><b>xmlmap</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> format is now deprecated. </span><a href="http://code.google.com/p/opencaching-api/issues/detail?id=128" style="font-weight: normal;">More information</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></b></li>
<li><b>needs_maintenance </b>parameter added to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/logs/submit.html">submit</a> method.</li>
<li><b>exclude_ignored</b> <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html">search filter</a> added.</li>
<li><b>rating </b><a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html">search filter</a> now supports the "|X" suffix.</li>
<li><b>owner_uuid </b><a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html">search filter</a> now supports the "-" prefix.</li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-82662089636474595582012-07-15T16:44:00.000+02:002012-07-15T20:13:29.884+02:00New features in JuneFeatures added last month (r404):<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>Added <span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>is_not_found </b></span>field to the <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache objects</a>.</li>
<li>Added some new features to use when <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/logs/submit.html">submitting a new log entry</a>: <b>on_duplicate </b>to prevent duplicate log entries, <b>recommend</b> allows users to recommend the geocache, <b>needs_maintenance </b>allows them to notify that the cache needs maintenance.</li>
<li>Added some new statistics fields to <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/users/user.html">user objects</a>: <b>cache_found</b>, <b>caches_notfound</b>, <b>caches_hidden</b>, <b>rcmds_given</b>.</li>
<li>New <b>interactivity </b>option gives you some more control when <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/oauth/authorize.html">authorizing your users</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-78338050335194473462012-06-10T22:31:00.000+02:002012-07-15T16:45:31.643+02:00Welcome, Opencaching Netherlands!OKAPI have been installed on a new OC server:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.opencaching.nl/okapi/">http://www.opencaching.nl/okapi/</a></li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-34418552181667229932012-05-31T00:19:00.001+02:002012-05-31T00:24:47.795+02:00New features in MayKey changes this month (r344):<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>New (parsable) <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/introduction.html#errors">HTTP 4xx error responses</a>. Useful for OAuth Consumers.</li>
<li><a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/by_urls.html">services/caches/search/by_urls</a> method added.</li>
</ul>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-39668888588847820852012-04-19T09:40:00.008+02:002012-04-19T09:58:12.902+02:00OKAPI usage statsIt's been 8 months since <a href="http://code.google.com/p/opencaching-api/">OKAPI Project</a> has started. It is still a <b>very young</b> project, but the list of OKAPI applications is slowly (but steadily) growing. Here are some current stats (for <a href="http://opencaching.pl/">OpenCaching.PL</a> site only):<br />
<ul><li>A total of <b>66 apps</b> were registered.</li>
<ul><li><b>23</b> of these are "alive" (they make requests on a regular basis).</li>
<li><b>7</b> of these make use of <b>Level 3</b> Authentication.</li>
</ul><li><b>392 distinct users</b> have authorized at least one application with OAuth.</li>
<ul><li>A total of <b>711 </b>log entries (by <b>82</b> users) have been submitted using <b>2</b> external apps.</li>
<li>An accurate number of all OKAPI users cannot be determined, because some of them use applications with <b>Level 1</b> Authentication only.</li>
</ul><li>On average, OKAPI receives <b>13000 requests per week</b>.</li>
</ul><h2 style='margin: 1em 0'>Performance tips</h2><h3>Search with one request, not two</h3><p>Usually, you should use <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/shortcuts/search_and_retrieve.html">search_and_retrieve</a> method for searching geocaches with OKAPI. This is usually <b>much faster</b> than calling <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/nearest.html">nearest</a> method first, and then <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocaches.html">geocaches</a> method with the result of the previous one (unless you cache the results and retrieve only new ones, which is a good technique).</p><h3>About web scraping</h3><p>This report does not include requests made with <b>web scraping</b> technique, and we know some of you make such. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping">Web scraping</a> (parsing HTML from web pages) is both <b>unsafe and slow</b>:</p><ul><li>Your web-scraping applications will probably stop working every time we change something in site design or structure (and we do that sometimes). Whereas OKAPI methods are meant to be permanently <b>backward-compatible</b>, so you don't have to worry about that.</li>
<li>With web-scraping, you have to download a lot of unnecessary data (headers, menus etc.). OKAPI lets you choose <b>precisely</b> which data you want, resulting in both <b>much faster</b> server response time and <b>much smaller download</b>.</li>
<li>In general, OKAPI methods offer <b>more parameters</b> and they work faster than their HTML caunterparts.</li>
<li>If you already use web scraping, then upgrading to OKAPI should be a relatively simple task. Give it a try!</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-55402853690040594902012-04-15T09:25:00.003+02:002012-04-15T09:28:13.429+02:00New features: is_found/mark_foundNew in OKAPI (r332):<br />
<ul><li>Added <b>is_found</b> field to <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache objects</a>.</li>
<li>Added <b>mark_found</b> parameter to <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/gpx.html">GPX formatter</a>.</li>
</ul>You can work with both of these using simple Level 1 Authentication. Useful when you want to mark found caches on your maps.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4877318085227182827.post-11071285672763843082012-04-08T09:07:00.009+02:002012-04-08T11:36:05.015+02:00Started OKAPI News BlogWelcome, OKAPI developers!<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>We will start this blog with listing all features added in the<b> last three monts</b> (if you haven't browsed OKAPI documentation pages thoroughly, you might have skipped some):</div><div><ul><li>Added <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/garmin.html">Garmin cache list formatter</a>, designed to work specifically with Garmin GPS devices. Currently it allows to download a Garmin-compatible ZIP file with cache descriptions <b>and photos</b>.</li>
<li><a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/formatters/gpx.html">GPX files</a> now may include information on <b>trackables </b>and <b>recommendations</b> (as do <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache objects</a>).</li>
<li>Added <b>my_notes </b>field to <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache objects</a> (Level 3). It can be used to access user's <b>personal notes</b> on the cache.</li>
<li>Added <b>alt_wpts </b>field to <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache objects</a> - <b>alternate waypoints</b> which might be useful when searching for the cache.</li>
<li>Added <b>distance </b>and <b>bearing </b>fields to <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/geocache.html">geocache objects</a>. Useful if you're not sure how to calculate them yourself.</li>
<li>Added pagination and ordering to <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/caches/search/all.html">cache searching methods</a>.</li>
<li>Added pagination to cache's <a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/logs/logs.html">log entries list</a>.</li>
<li><b><span style="color: red;">(!)</span></b> Added<a href="http://opencaching.pl/okapi/services/replicate/changelog.html"> the replicate module</a>. It allows you to replicate (and easily keep up-to-date) <b>the entire database of caches and log entries</b>.</li>
</ul>All of these features are available in the newest OKAPI revision (r323). Keep in mind, that not all installations have the newest version of OKAPI installed.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com