NationStates API (nationdata/regiondata)

[Eluvatar]

When I use the https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/api.cgi?nation=Babylatia with PHP, I get an error with the '&' in 'Law & Order' because it is not '&'.

Showing us the code would help.

As far as I can see, it is '&' in what NS returns.

[Aurum Rider]

It has likely that this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it.
As I understand it, through the NSAPI you can only call one entry of census data using censusscore-n (I.E in one call you can ask for insurance, but need another call entirely for rudeness). In addition to this, could a "censusdump" shard for nations be added that dumps all of the nation's census data tagged by the industry ID?
The reason for this being, that if I want to show a chart with all of a nation's census data to give an overall look at how the nation is doing, I have to make 71 API calls, which will launch me right over the rate limit.

[Eluvatar]

It has likely that this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it.
As I understand it, through the NSAPI you can only call one entry of census data using censusscore-n (I.E in one call you can ask for insurance, but need another call entirely for rudeness). In addition to this, could a "censusdump" shard for nations be added that dumps all of the nation's census data tagged by the industry ID?
The reason for this being, that if I want to show a chart with all of a nation's census data to give an overall look at how the nation is doing, I have to make 71 API calls, which will launch me right over the rate limit.

Incorrect, you can combine shards, i.e.

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/api ... susscore-4

[Ermarian]

Could you do the same for multiple nations? When I am comparing several nations or keeping tabs on my puppets, it's inconvenient to have to make a dozen requests and throttle them, rather than combine them into a single request. I suspect it would also save a lot of overhead on the server side.

The XML schema might cause some issues, since <NATION> is seemingly a root element. Serving data on multiple nations would require some <NATIONS> super-element, I guess.

[Eluvatar]

Could you do the same for multiple nations? When I am comparing several nations or keeping tabs on my puppets, it's inconvenient to have to make a dozen requests and throttle them, rather than combine them into a single request. I suspect it would also save a lot of overhead on the server side.

The XML schema might cause some issues, since <NATION> is seemingly a root element. Serving data on multiple nations would require some <NATIONS> super-element, I guess.

This has been asked about before. [violet] was interested in implementing multi-nation requests for certain shards, but was focusing on (I believe) the new TG system at the time. [violet] asked to be reminded if it didn't get done. I too would find such a feature interesting.

I've found that in certain circumstances, the Compare page is faster (rules-compliance wise) if you care about just one census. I would of course advise using template-overall=none to reduce the load on the server to just the compare page and nothing else (like recent forum topics).

[HMS Unicorn]

I would also be interested in this feature. As Elu mentioned, frequently I end up using the Compare page as a rule-compliant substitute for a multiple-nation API call.

[Eluvatar]

One might remember from earlier comments in this topic that there exist google docs that use the NS API, some (but not all) of which I wrote the code for.

I remembered today that I never did figure out a way to get them to set a User-Agent in googlescript, so I looked into that again. Apparently it's not possible yet, and they will always set the User-Agent "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; GoogleDocs; script; +http://docs.google.com)".

Is there any alternative way of identifying the particular google document (script) making the request which can be applied instead? (i.e. documentid=0AjUCYljFPq3CdEtwc19aNTZJMWs ... @gmail.com or similar)

NB: They don't generally use the API that much: at most a hundred to two hundred requests when someone clicks a button, but usually far far less.

[[violet]]

This has been asked about before. [violet] was interested in implementing multi-nation requests for certain shards, but was focusing on (I believe) the new TG system at the time. [violet] asked to be reminded if it didn't get done. I too would find such a feature interesting.

Can you outline some usage cases for me?

In general, loading a nation is the slowest part of what we do, so it makes sense in terms of ratelimits to have one API call limited to one nation load. Otherwise, the ratelimits aren't really helping us. But there could be some cases where it's doable.

[[violet]]

Is there any alternative way of identifying the particular google document (script) making the request which can be applied instead?

If you can't set the UserAgent, putting something informative in the URL's query string is definitely better than nothing.

[Eluvatar]

This has been asked about before. [violet] was interested in implementing multi-nation requests for certain shards, but was focusing on (I believe) the new TG system at the time. [violet] asked to be reminded if it didn't get done. I too would find such a feature interesting.

Can you outline some usage cases for me?

In general, loading a nation is the slowest part of what we do, so it makes sense in terms of ratelimits to have one API call limited to one nation load. Otherwise, the ratelimits aren't really helping us. But there could be some cases where it's doable.

The way I tend to use the API in new code I write right now, it would only be helpful in that I could get information faster.

In the past though I would have been interested in a way to get, say, the endorsement and influence information for the nations paid attention to by the TNP Security Council Alerts System in one simultaneous request, as opposed to 28 odd sequential requests. (Note: before the great influence flattening in feeders and sinkers, the top 25 nations by influence was a significantly different list from the top 25s by endorsements given or received, so the alerts system paid attention to significantly more nations, sometimes more than 50. Not anymore.)

I should be clear that while I think this would be nifty, this isn't a request I would 'vote for' if I had limited votes. I, personally, would be more interested in event IDs being added to the national and regional happenings, tags being added to the regions.xml dumps, or telegram meta-templates or other ways of sharing templates between nations.

[Eluvatar]

Is there any alternative way of identifying the particular google document (script) making the request which can be applied instead?

If you can't set the UserAgent, putting something informative in the URL's query string is definitely better than nothing.

I'm updating all the active gdocs I have edit privileges in to add the below to all API request URLs:

Code: Select all

"&gdoc="+SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getId()+"&useremail="+Session.getUser().getUserLoginId()

[Sseroffa]

I can't tell if this is by design, or a bug, so I thought I should note it. The new nation shards for factbooks and dispatches do not work for dead nations. This is despite the fact you can see these dispatches from the exfactbook page.

[Sseroffa]

Also another notable absence. There is no way to fetch which dispatches are pinned to a region's WFE.

[Frisbeeteria]

I can't tell if this is by design, or a bug, so I thought I should note it. The new nation shards for factbooks and dispatches do not work for dead nations. This is despite the fact you can see these dispatches from the exfactbook page.

I suspect it's the way they're stored by design. Until very recently, even mods couldn't see exfactbooks except via the page=exfactbooks links. I'm sure it could be fixed, but I'm not sure of the value for the time involved.

[Sseroffa]

I can't tell if this is by design, or a bug, so I thought I should note it. The new nation shards for factbooks and dispatches do not work for dead nations. This is despite the fact you can see these dispatches from the exfactbook page.

I suspect it's the way they're stored by design. Until very recently, even mods couldn't see exfactbooks except via the page=exfactbooks links. I'm sure it could be fixed, but I'm not sure of the value for the time involved.

Statistically speaking, it will not take long before most factbooks are exfactbooks. Most nations just do not stay around long.

[Frisbeeteria]

Statistically speaking, it will not take long before most factbooks are exfactbooks

Understood and agreed, but what is the value of an ex-factbook to anyone other than the creator? I understand that some people are driven to back up everything that's ever been posted, but apart from that mystifying drive, I can't see a value in referencing the factbooks ever again. There's a manual method if there's a genuine need, but I'm missing the reason for an API-driven request.

There is no way to fetch which dispatches are pinned to a region's WFE.

That one I can see as potentially having value. A pinned dispatch belonging to a CTE nation perhaps needs to be actively linked. Is that your only concern?

[Sseroffa]

I don't have any particular concerns, I don't play NS anymore. I thought the admins might care about being aware of two potential oversights. I don't really have any additional comments to make.

[Nuemark]

I second this.

Poll data is now available via Region and World shards!

World shard example

In the example above the "q=poll;pollid=6538"
If a poll is deleted from the WFE can it be retrieved if the ID is known?

[Nephmir]

I'd like to import a list of regions by order of update time into excel. How would I go about doing this with the daily dumps? I can't seem to open the file, but I can save it.

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

The daily dump should be in order of last update, IIRC, but it's just downloaded in a file format that's not supported by much. Personal, I convert it to a .zip and open in excel, but I'm sure there's other solutions. You're probably best off just asking google how to deal with the ... .gz, right? ....filetype.

[Nephmir]

'tis alright, I just used excel to analyze the RSS feeds and created the list from the embassy shard for... a region with a lot of founderless region embassies... instead. A few hundred regions will suffice, saves the filtering out the good ones from the bad ones.

Appreciate the response, though.

[Nephmir]

I've been retrieving data from the API using an XML Filter. However I've noticed that there's no data for the number of endorsements on a nation other than the delegate. Is this intentional?

[Sseroffa]

I've been retrieving data from the API using an XML Filter. However I've noticed that there's no data for the number of endorsements on a nation other than the delegate. Is this intentional?

You can already get this information. Grab the list of endorsements a nations has (it's one of the nation shards) , and then just count the number of nation names listed. Pretty simple.

The daily dump should be in order of last update, IIRC, but it's just downloaded in a file format that's not supported by much. Personal, I convert it to a .zip and open in excel, but I'm sure there's other solutions. You're probably best off just asking google how to deal with the ... .gz, right? ....filetype.

.gz is a gzipped-compressed file, which is fairly common, and 7z and other archive tools can handle it with no problems. Gzip compression was designed specifically to compress text and does so extremely well.

[Ballotonia]

I've been retrieving data from the API using an XML Filter. However I've noticed that there's no data for the number of endorsements on a nation other than the delegate. Is this intentional?

Such a number isn't provided by the API. It provides a list of endorsers. So, this sounds to me like a problem with your XML filter.

Ballotonia

[Nephmir]

I've been retrieving data from the API using an XML Filter. However I've noticed that there's no data for the number of endorsements on a nation other than the delegate. Is this intentional?

You can already get this information. Grab the list of endorsements a nations has (it's one of the nation shards) , and then just count the number of nation names listed. Pretty simple.

The daily dump should be in order of last update, IIRC, but it's just downloaded in a file format that's not supported by much. Personal, I convert it to a .zip and open in excel, but I'm sure there's other solutions. You're probably best off just asking google how to deal with the ... .gz, right? ....filetype.

.gz is a gzipped-compressed file, which is fairly common, and 7z and other archive tools can handle it with no problems. Gzip compression was designed specifically to compress text and does so extremely well.

Oh yes, I see. It involves an extra step in the filter to first retrieve the names of the endorsers, and then I suppose I have to get it to give me the value of the endorsers as a number. I could probably do that in excel.

Thanks.