NationStates API (nationdata/regiondata)

by **Darcania** » Fri Nov 24, 2017 9:15 pm

Just letting you know that Mynamemynamemyname shows up on the members WA shard despite having been ejected sixteen days ago.

by **Minoa** » Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:35 pm

The State of Minoa is planning to develop a macOS bash script to keep my nations alive (using the ping command) when I am busy, and I wish to enquire if I need an API key, or if it is just for telegrams.

by **HMS Unicorn** » Sat Nov 25, 2017 10:16 pm

Minoa wrote:The State of Minoa is planning to develop a macOS bash script to keep my nations alive (using the ping command) when I am busy, and I wish to enquire if I need an API key, or if it is just for telegrams.

The API key is only for telegrams. You don't need one for what you describe.

by **Minoa** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:51 pm

We have been running into problems when trying to develop the KeepAlive Bash script: it appears that the X-Password field is mis-reading passwords with special characters, such as !, € or spaces, causing a 403 error. This is despite the fact that it works fine via the browser.

It is bad enough that passwords now need special characters to be reasonably strong.

member · by **Eluvatar** » Thu Dec 21, 2017 4:41 pm

It's very possible that the character encoding issues are happening at the bash-curl interface layer, not the HTTP layer. I will nonetheless try and experiment with special character using passwords over X-Password to look into whether there's a bug on our end, however.

by **Minoa** » Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:54 am

Eluvatar wrote:It's very possible that the character encoding issues are happening at the bash-curl interface layer, not the HTTP layer. I will nonetheless try and experiment with special character using passwords over X-Password to look into whether there's a bug on our end, however.

In any case, there should be a way to force Bash or Curl to accept special characters “as-is”.

by **Imperium Anglorum** » Mon Dec 25, 2017 7:39 am

Imperium Anglorum wrote:Also, would it be possible to have an API query which tells us what kind of telegram is being sent? Something like:

Code: Select all
https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/api.cgi?a=infoTG&tgid=(TGID)&key=(Secret Key)

Returning information on the telegram itself, like the delivery data, by whom the telegram was blocked, and what kind of telegram is being sent (recruitment, campaign, unmarked).

Want to bump this back up.

by **Auralia** » Mon Dec 25, 2017 8:29 am

Imperium Anglorum wrote:
Imperium Anglorum wrote:Also, would it be possible to have an API query which tells us what kind of telegram is being sent? Something like:

Code: Select all
https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/api.cgi?a=infoTG&tgid=(TGID)&key=(Secret Key)

Returning information on the telegram itself, like the delivery data, by whom the telegram was blocked, and what kind of telegram is being sent (recruitment, campaign, unmarked).

Want to bump this back up.

I'd appreciate something like this as well.

by **Agadar** » Mon Dec 25, 2017 7:07 pm

Imperium Anglorum wrote:
Imperium Anglorum wrote:Also, would it be possible to have an API query which tells us what kind of telegram is being sent? Something like:

Code: Select all
https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/api.cgi?a=infoTG&tgid=(TGID)&key=(Secret Key)

Returning information on the telegram itself, like the delivery data, by whom the telegram was blocked, and what kind of telegram is being sent (recruitment, campaign, unmarked).

Want to bump this back up.

Once again I agree a feature like this would be a great addition.

by **Darcania** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:10 pm

Imperium Anglorum wrote:Also, would it be possible to have an API query which tells us what kind of telegram is being sent? Something like:

Code: Select all
https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/api.cgi?a=infoTG&tgid=(TGID)&key=(Secret Key)

Returning information on the telegram itself, like the delivery data, by whom the telegram was blocked, and what kind of telegram is being sent (recruitment, campaign, unmarked).

I would love this.

by **Werreales** » Tue Jan 02, 2018 4:51 pm

Would it be possible to add an extra parameter dispatchregion for the dispatchlist world shard that queries dispatches of nations pertaining to the same region?

by **Minoa** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 12:27 pm

Minoa wrote:
Eluvatar wrote:It's very possible that the character encoding issues are happening at the bash-curl interface layer, not the HTTP layer. I will nonetheless try and experiment with special character using passwords over X-Password to look into whether there's a bug on our end, however.

In any case, there should be a way to force Bash or Curl to accept special characters “as-is”.

Follow-up: a decision was made today to use X-autologin instead, thus the (abridged) API call reads:

Code: Select all: curl -H "X-Autologin: (Autologin)" -A "KeepAlive script by Minoa on NationStates (https://www.nationstates.net/nation=minoa) - please contact me at (Email) if the script is malfunctioning" "https://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/api.cgi?nation=(nation)&q=ping"

~~Can anyone confirm any circumstances, other than password change, that will cause X-Autologin to change values?~~

Edit: Looks like the documentation answers it now.

by **Agadar** » Wed Jan 24, 2018 3:00 am

Will it ever be possible to create or update dispatches via the API?

EDIT: On a similar note, it does not seem possible to retrieve a dispatch directly via its ID, forcing me to make a work-around for getting a dispatch's contents when I retrieve its ID via regional happenings. Any chance something like that will be added?

by **Caelapes** » Wed Feb 07, 2018 10:09 pm

I'm getting an XML parse error when getting data for banner "t11":

This page contains the following errors:
error on line 5 at column 21: xmlParseEntityRef: no name

The XML output is:

Code: Select all: <WORLD> <BANNERS> <BANNER id="t11"> <NAME>Oversight</NAME> <VALIDITY></VALIDITY></BANNER></BANNERS></WORLD>

member · by **Eluvatar** » Wed Feb 07, 2018 10:48 pm

The actual output is:

Code: Select all: <WORLD> <BANNERS> <BANNER id="t11"> <NAME>Oversight</NAME> <VALIDITY>Fund Law & Order in a low-tech nation</VALIDITY> </BANNER></BANNERS> </WORLD>

Your XML parser is unhappy because of the unescaped ampersand. There's a couple ways to fix this so I will consult with more a more senior administrator.

by **Caelapes** » Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:11 pm

Eluvatar wrote:The actual output is:

Code: Select all
<WORLD> <BANNERS> <BANNER id="t11"> <NAME>Oversight</NAME> <VALIDITY>Fund Law & Order in a low-tech nation</VALIDITY> </BANNER></BANNERS> </WORLD>

Your XML parser is unhappy because of the unescaped ampersand. There's a couple ways to fix this so I will consult with more a more senior administrator.

Much appreciated.

My attempts to gather a list of extant banners has resulted in a list of 257 banners with the following IDs:

Assuming it's not a secret, is this all of them or am I missing some?

Also - I had some issues with issue 721:

Code: Select all: <ISSUE id="721"> <TITLE>A Lack of Comma Sense</TITLE> <TEXT>After your highest-ranking legislative aide dedicated her new memoir to ‘my parents, Leader and Maxx’, unreputable news sources, the Whale Gazette and the Tchaikovsky Times have been harassing your office incessantly about nepotism in your administration. An assortment of advisers have met with you over some bamboo soup to discuss this serial issue.</TEXT> <AUTHOR>a_humanist_science</AUTHOR> <EDITOR>luna_amore</EDITOR> <PIC1>z9</PIC1> <PIC2>tv5</PIC2> <OPTION id="0">“The serial comma avoids ambiguous meanings,” says ghostwriter Willie Gorbachev, while picking the bay leaves from among the shoots. “Had there been a comma after ‘Leader’ but before ‘and,’ the intended meaning of the sentence would have been obvious. Hopefully, you can see why our government needs to create and maintain a mandatory style guide. The point being is that this initiative should be funded right away! After all, it’s best to write safe.”</OPTION> <OPTION id="1">“The serial comma can just as easily add ambiguous meaning, and just takes up space unnecessarily,” replies photographer Carter Morris as he tries to shoot the leaves before he eats. “Don’t you find its usage to be not correct? And are you ready to convince the taxpayer of the extra expense they will be taking on? Because that’s what you will have to do.”</OPTION> <OPTION id="2">Your Pear Phone suddenly starts vibrating as you receive the following text: imho we dont ned ne govt stile gide or grmmer or cursvie... mind ur own busnss... we type how we type... mabe the govt shud lern our way... idk idc whatevs ttyl</OPTION> <OPTION id="3">“Punctuation is but a way for the elites to once again restrain the exchange of free ideas,” begins noted windba “in order to further hold down oppress and smother and stamp out the honest working men and women of this country into a state of utter and complete impotence,” he continues, “so that the entitled and ruthless would be leaders of this world could sit in their castles built on the backs and labor of the commoner,” he continues further, “and smugly judge and spit on them in distain but to that I say no we shall not take on your shackles and chains of punctuation as we will not be bullied into constrained or controlled or ignoble speech...” showing no sign of stopping, he is gently nudged out the door by your guards and surprising no one continues as he leaves.</OPTION> </ISSUE>

in particular, option 3. Any idea what went wrong there? And is (and presumably or ) the only HTML that we can expect to encounter in issue text? I'm trying to anticipate these so I can convert it to Markdown formatting.

member · by **Eluvatar** » Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:17 pm

What's the problem with option 3, exactly?

by **Trotterdam** » Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:45 pm

Caelapes wrote:My attempts to gather a list of extant banners has resulted in a list of 257 banners with the following IDs:
Code: Select all
_0 _1 _2 _3 _4 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 b10 b11 b12 b13 b14 b15 b16 b17 b18 b19 b20 b21 b22 b23 b24 b25 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 c8 c9 c10 c11 c12 c13 c14 c15 c16 c17 c18 c19 c20 c21 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 eg1 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 g1 g2 g3 h1 h2 i1 i2 i3 i4 i5 i6 i7 i8 i9 i10 i11 i12 i13 i14 i15 i16 i17 i18 i19 i20 i21 i22 i23 i24 i25 i26 k1 k2 k3 k4 l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 l10 l11 l12 l13 l14 l16 l17 l18 l19 l20 l21 l22 l23 l24 l25 l26 l28 l29 l30 l31 l32 l33 l34 l35 l36 l37 l38 l39 l40 l41 l42 l43 l44 l45 m1 m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 o1 o2 o3 o4 o5 o6 o8 o9 o10 p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11 p12 p13 p14 p15 p16 p17 p18 p19 p20 p21 p22 p23 p24 p25 p26 q1 r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 r7 r8 r9 r10 r11 s1 s2 s3 t1 t2 t4 t5 t6 t8 t9 t10 t11 t12 t13 t14 t15 t16 t17 t18 t19 t20 t21 t22 t23 t24 t25 t26 t27 tv1 u1 u2 v1 w1 w2 w3 wa1 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 z1 z2

Assuming it's not a secret, is this all of them or am I missing some?

You are missing eg2. I believe that's it.

Caelapes wrote:in particular, option 3.

I'm pretty sure those are supposed to be em dashes. It's probably confusion over whether the text is in Unicode (em dash is U+2014, UTF-8 encoding E2 80 94) or Windows-1252 (codepoint 97), the latter of which is an unofficial extension to ISO-8859-1 (which is often considered the "default" character encoding by computers) that was more or less made official because everyone kept using it anyway.

This could all be avoided by using HTML character entities, but then your script would have to recognize them.

Caelapes wrote:Any idea what went wrong there? And is (and presumably or ) the only HTML that we can expect to encounter in issue text? I'm trying to anticipate these so I can convert it to Markdown formatting.

There's at least and , too.

by **Walrusvylon** » Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:05 am

Is there a way I could access the trends data for my nation in a way that I could then plot the data with matplotlib in Python?

member · by **Eluvatar** » Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:31 pm

Walrusvylon wrote:Is there a way I could access the trends data for my nation in a way that I could then plot the data with matplotlib in Python?

Yes though you'd have to convert that to something matplotlib will understand.

by **Imperium Anglorum** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:35 pm

Agadar wrote:Will it ever be possible to create or update dispatches via the API?

EDIT: On a similar note, it does not seem possible to retrieve a dispatch directly via its ID, forcing me to make a work-around for getting a dispatch's contents when I retrieve its ID via regional happenings. Any chance something like that will be added?

^ This.

by **The Qadaan** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:19 pm

how would i make the news broadcast box at the bottom of my posts???

Explain xkcd · by **Leppikania** » Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:59 pm

When my script tells me that an address is unavailable, is that a problem with my script or with the server? In other words, should I report it when it happens?

member · by **Eluvatar** » Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:11 pm

More details would help answer this question.

by **Trotterdam** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 3:01 am

If the exact same URL request sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, then the problem is probably with the server, or maybe your internet connection, rather than your script (unless you're a really sloppy programmer). Though server errors of the "wait a minute and try again" variety are probably not worth reporting. That kind of stuff just happens.

If the script has never worked, or certain types of uses for the script consistently fail to work while other uses do work, then you're probably doing something wrong.

NationStates API (nationdata/regiondata)

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