Wolfram Community has no API, unlike StackExchange , but as Sander Huisman showed that just means we need to be a bit more creative (read hacky).
To that effect, I built a ServiceConnection using a framework I wrote up ~6 months ago and have been hacking away with ever since.
Installation
I’ve loaded the connection onto my paclet server so you can load it like this:
PacletInstall["ServiceConnection_WolframCommunity",
"Site"->"http://www.wolframcloud.com/objects/b3m2a1.paclets/PacletServer"
]
(*Out:*)
Connecting to the “API”
Connect as usual:
$so=ServiceConnect["WolframCommunity"]
(*Out:*)
And it’s ready to go.
Requests:
Currently I only have a few requests:
$so["Requests"]
(*Out:*)
{"Authentication","DiscussionInfo","Discussions","ID","Information","Name","People","PersonInfo","RawRequests","RequestData","RequestParameters"}
Discussions
That "Discussions" request is adapted almost directly from the one Sander showed:
disc=$so["Discussions"]
(*Out:*)
People
But I’ve added a people searcher:
peep=$so["People", "Page"->1,"Tab"->"B"]
(*Out:*)
PersonInfo
And I can extract my data:
me=peep[[2, "ID"]]
(*Out:*)
1186443
$so["PersonInfo", "ID"->me]
(*Out:*)
Or someone else’s:
$so["PersonInfo", "ID"->78216]
(*Out:*)
And that’s pretty much all I have for now, but I can add features on request.
RequestParameters
You can check the available parameters to a command using the "RequestParameters" I stick in all of my paclets:
$so["RequestParameters", "r"->"Discussions"]
(*Out:*)
<|"Parameters"->{"GroupType","DiscussionType","SortBy","PageSize","Page"},"Required"->{"GroupType","DiscussionType","SortBy","PageSize","Page"}|>
Although this is currently broken for the "People"
$so["RequestParameters", "r"->"People"]
(*Out:*)
<|"Parameters"->{"p_p_id","p_p_lifecycle","p_p_state","p_p_mode","p_p_col_id","p_p_col_pos","p_p_col_count","_people_WAR_peopleportlet_tabs1","_people_WAR_peopleportlet_orderVar","_people_WAR_peopleportlet_delta","_people_WAR_peopleportlet_keywords","_people_WAR_peopleportlet_advancedSearch","_people_WAR_peopleportlet_andOperator","_people_WAR_peopleportlet_cur"},"Required"->{}|>
The parameters for that are actually:
{
"PortletID",
"PortletLifecycle",
"PortletState",
"PortletMode",
"PortletColumnID",
"PortletColumnPosition",
"PortletColumnCount",
"Tab",
"SortBy",
"PageSize",
"KeyWords",
"AdvancedSearch",
"AndOperator",
"Page"
}
But there’s an internal detail my introspection code doesn’t account for yet, so you see the nasty looking actual parameter names.
Performance
One final detail: this service connection is slooooooooooow .
But unfortunately there’s nothing to do about that because Wolfram Community is sloooooooooooooooooooooooow . Something’s probably misconfigured in the underlying API or framework. Or maybe it’s just a bad framework to begin with.
In any case this:
URLRead["http://community.wolfram.com", "StatusCode"]//AbsoluteTiming
(*Out:*)
{3.924212`,200}
Is really unacceptable for a modern website.
And this:
URLRead["http://community.wolfram.com/people", "StatusCode"]//AbsoluteTiming
(*Out:*)
{12.649381`,200}
Is just ridiculous.
Until Wolfram Community joins the modern era performance wise, the ServiceConnection will be creaky.
