Unofficial Bitcoin Talk Forums API

[Logik]

Sorry, posts are currently only viewable by requesting a topic/page combination. Did you need a way of accessing a post via its BitcoinTalk message id (like when you link to an individual post)? Or would any id do?

[1714077443]

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[1714077443]

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[1714077443]

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[AuctionBot]

Any idea of how you're going to handle the CAPTCHA for sending PMs?

[dansmith]

Sorry, posts are currently only viewable by requesting a topic/page combination. Did you need a way of accessing a post via its BitcoinTalk message id (like when you link to an individual post)? Or would any id do?

Any ID would do.
I want new posts displayed in RSS feed style.
So my script will remember the total amount of posts in a thread. Then when the total changes, the script fetches the last post.

Actually, as I was writing this, I realised that I can achieve this by taking the page and calculating the amount of posts I want to discard by matching the amount of {} pairs. Then I can proceed to fetch the posts I need.

Have you got any tool ready for the end-user?
Ideally I want a tool that integrates with Thunderbird. In such case my script parses your API then converts new posts to RSS and acts as a local RSS server which sends new posts to TB.

[Logik]

OK I can expose the database id for a post. Will do that tonight and post back here.

You're aware of the existing API endpoints built into the forum yeah? They are reasonably limited but there is some support for new posts

For example here is the endpoint for this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=154131&action=.xml - that's in XML. You can RSS an entire board but I'm not sure if you can RSS a particular thread.. for example here is RSS for the main board https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?&action=.xml;board=1;type=rss. Is what you're saying that you need an RSS feed for an individual thread? Someone else actually asked about that the other day on here. Was that you?

Thanks for pointing out about the Captcha; I've never actually encountered that. I assume it triggers when you have sent a certain number of them?

[theymos]

There's a CAPTCHA for PMs when you have less than 10 posts.

[AuctionBot]

Thanks for clearing that up Theymos.

Also, I had no idea about the XML endpoints. It doesn't seem to work on a thread-by-thread basis. It would make scraping a hell of a lot easier.

[AuctionBot]

Looking at this thread: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=25009.0

It seems you can only get a number of recent posts from particular sub-forums or categories. Shame.

[dansmith]

Logik,
thank you for working on your API.

For example here is the endpoint for this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=154131&action=.xml - that's in XML.

Actually the URL seems like an XML list for the whole Meta board, not this thread.

Is what you're saying that you need an RSS feed for an individual thread? Someone else actually asked about that the other day on here. Was that you?

Yes, I need an RSS feed for a specific thread.
No, I did not ask you about that earlier.

[Logik]

Logik,
thank you for working on your API.

For example here is the endpoint for this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=154131&action=.xml - that's in XML.

Actually the URL seems like an XML list for the whole Meta board, not this thread.

Is what you're saying that you need an RSS feed for an individual thread? Someone else actually asked about that the other day on here. Was that you?

Yes, I need an RSS feed for a specific thread.
No, I did not ask you about that earlier.

Hmm you're right about the link I posted. SMF developers confuse me: they implement a nice API for boards and not for topics..

I added post ids to the end points. Anyway I had an idea about how to implement RSS for threads, I might try it out tomorrow. My idea was to have a bot account subscribe via email to the thread, then have an email hook that receives the email notification and then updates the database which the RSS feed points to. I just don't know how scaleable that would be. I wonder if there is a subscription limit.

[dansmith]

Logik, before you go any further, just wanted to let you know that I've found a nice workaround:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=154131;sa=recent;limit=255;action=.xml;type=rss

Will give 255 recent feeds for the board. Then I will add a Thunderbird filter to filter out only the topics I need.
I guess it will work for now. If I set my TB to check the feed, every 30 mins., it is unlikely that more than 255 new posts will be made in that board within 30 mins and so it is unlikely that those 255 posts within 30 mins will drown the post that I need.

The drawback (maybe) is additional strain on the server.

[Logik]

Yeah thats the closest we can get I suppose. I need to make a generic way to 'listen' to threads anyway. I'm going to test out the email approach soon.

[dansmith]

@theymos,
May I suggest that my workaround in #30 be displayed prominently for those who sign up for the forum?
Maybe put it into their first Welcome PM message.

I remember my own frustration with keeping track of multiple threads.
Now I have 20+ threads that I'm watching sitting nicely in my Thunderbird.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Is it possible to get a particular message?

[whiskers75]

Is it possible to get a particular message?

ATM, you just have to go through the threads to find it.

(If I'm right, quote me - TradeFortress is ignoring me right now)
Edit: here:

Sorry, posts are currently only viewable by requesting a topic/page combination. Did you need a way of accessing a post via its BitcoinTalk message id (like when you link to an individual post)? Or would any id do?

Quote me!

[dexX7]

Great! Good work!

I'm still wondering, if there is any way to get "recent posts by user" in a more parsable format.

So far I was unable to add wap2 or xml to the list of user posts, but I never found out, if I just used the wrong syntax or if this is not possible. Any hint would be appreciated.

[kikkoman99]

I know this is a very old topic but is there any official documentation for a BCT API since this post or is what is linked in this thread the most up to date? Thanks!

[mprep]

I know this is a very old topic but is there any official documentation for a BCT API since this post or is what is linked in this thread the most up to date? Thanks!

There is no official Bitcointalk API.