Tumblr hasunveileda new API for 3rd party app developers, along with adevelopment center.
Explaining the new features in this v2 API, Tumblr said it has focused on features which have received larger adoption, rather than providing a complete feature set in this API. Some of the features include:
Further, Tumblr has consolidated API access toapi.tumblr.comin order to make things easier for developers and also keep track of the traffic and balance it using DNS and other mechanisms. This is a much appreciated move, considering that the previous API differentiated between read and write operations, and pushed different activity onto different domains.
Additionally, it has also unveiled two primary concepts in its URI, namely/blogand/user,hoping that the developers can now get a clearer picture on how the various parts of Tumblr work.
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The APIdocumentationhas been rewritten so as to provide a brief explanation of every detail in an easily readable format. However, Tumblr said that developers should be able to easily dive in and play around with the API, without the need for poring over the documentation.
Inspired byFacebookand Foursquare, Tumblr has also eliminated XML support from the API and is currently working on its JSON implementation for developers. Furthermore, the API now allows for the composing of simple URLs instead of being completely “RESTful”. That is, developers can now easily compose URLs as per their needs. Hence,http://api.tumblr.com/v2/blog/thenextweb.tumblr.com/avatarwill return the avatar in its default size andhttp://api.tumblr.com/v2/blog/thenextweb.tumblr.com/avatar/512will return the same avatar in 512px.
Finally, developers using the new API will need to adhere toOAuth version 1.0aprotocol to access all non-public data with support for OAuth 2 coming in the future; non-authenticated access will require an API key from now on, so that Tumblr can calculate API usage without relying alone on IP addresses and eliminate any misuse.
Story byVikas SN
Vikas SN is the Indian Editor at The Next Web and is based out of Bangalore, India. He is extremely interested in Indian startups and shiny(show all)Vikas SNis the Indian Editor at The Next Web and is based out of Bangalore, India. He is extremely interested in Indian startups andshiny gadgets. You can follow him onTwitter,Google+or contact him via email at vikas@thenextweb.com
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