NationStates API (nationdata/regiondata)

[Trotterdam]

The standard nation API call appears to occasionally deliver a different response than a call to the motto shard, specifically, when it comes to certain special characters:

https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/ap ... opireistan
> It's pronounced /'apôrt-is-tō-pirī-stan/.

https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/ap ... an&q=motto
> It's pronounced /'apôrt-is-tō-pirī-stan/.

An interesting bit of trivia, but a standards-compliant XML parser should parse those both into the same string? I suppose it's an inconvenience if you're using regexps or a homebrew XML parser instead of a properly standards-compliant one.

Wait, no, that's incorrect. I checked the actual exact bytes for the latter link, which turns out to be "/'apôrt-is-tō-pirī-stan/". In other words, the server is double-encoding the string: first transforming "ō" to "ō" (which is correct), but then re-transforming "&" to "&" (which is incorrect, and will cause XML parsers to think the ampersand is "actually supposed to be there" instead of a character entity reference). Interestingly, the first link performs neither transformation (transmitting the string directly in UTF-8), so there's somehow two different steps that get added between the two.

I'm more also concerned over certain other parts of the API encoding characters in what appears to be JSON instead of XML, which is definitely not standards-compliant, and which I reported six years ago and still hasn't been fixed.

[Notanam]

Right now, the officers shard of the region API doesn't return the governor if they are not otherwise an RO. Since the governor is presented as an RO on the site, could they be added to the shard (with possibly some indicator that said nation is the governor)?

This would also allow for a way to access the name of the governor position of a region through API, which if I recall correctly doesn't currently exist.

[Merni]

Right now, the officers shard of the region API doesn't return the governor if they are not otherwise an RO. Since the governor is presented as an RO on the site, could they be added to the shard (with possibly some indicator that said nation is the governor)?

This would also allow for a way to access the name of the governor position of a region through API, which if I recall correctly doesn't currently exist.

Additionally, the "governor" shard of the region API, which does exist (and returns the name of the governor), is still undocumented.

[Imperium Anglorum]

Is there a list of the response codes that the API returns on errors? I'm aware only of 429 and 404.

[Trotterdam]

Is there a list of the response codes that the API returns on errors? I'm aware only of 429 and 404.

I don't think there's a concrete list, since any error that can happen on normal HTTP requests can also happen on the API, including some errors that are caused by CloudFlare if the request never even reaches the real server.

The only error codes that I'm aware of as being caused by the API itself as an actual response to the user's query, instead of indicating that the query failed to be processed at all, are 404 (if you attempt to query a nation that doesn't exist, including one that was deleted just seconds ago by the moderators - notably does not indicate that the query itself was malformed), 429 (if you run afoul of the ratelimit), 403 (if you supply a wrong password to a private shard/command, not applicable to public shards), and 409 (if you attempt to log in in too rapid succession, likewise only relevant to private shards/commands).

[Great Schwanien]

Sorry, if this has been asked before, but, as far I can see, the API only supports XML. Are there plans for adding JSON support?

[United Calanworie]

Plans? Yes. In progress? Eeehhhhh.

[Imperium Anglorum]

Is there a shard which would tell someone the type of telegram given a secret key and telegram ID?