I did a quick forum search for API and the recurring comment is “no WME API” and “waze wont release it”.
Why don’t we all get together and build one. I think the collective knowledge and testing of the programmers here could map (no pun intended) the code pretty well.
I already own
Thoughts?
Would this be a public or invitation only API documentation? I believe that the major concern would be how to prevent easier access to potential “point farming” actions while still making it useful for those who want to make up for the lack of core WME functionality that scripts attempt to address.
I was going to based it off of a CMS so i can lock it down as hard as you want. I figured Id have links to the scripts on their respective sites for easy access.
I can make the API part an invite only thing… however you want it done.
I’m not sure making it invite-only would work, or even be appropriate.
Why I don’t think it’d work:
Anyone with sufficient clue to be able to take a bit of API documentation and turn it into a point-farming script is probably quite capable of reading through the publically available source code of the existing scripts, or poking around the innards of WME via the JS debug console, and getting the information they need right there. Having everything documented in one place may make it a bit easier for someone to be pointed in the right (wrong?) direction, however I don’t think not having the API publically documented would be much of a barrier to the majority of people who get it into their heads to try script-based farming.
Why I don’t think it’d be appropriate:
If we start off with the assumption that someone asking for access to the API might only be interested in using it for point farming, mass-edit sabotage etc, then presumably we’d only allow access to the API to people who’ve already proven themselves as genuine script writers. However, we’re the people who least need access to API documentation, as we’ve already figured out most of it for ourselves - the people who would most benefit from a helping hand up are those newcomers to the crazy world of WME scripting who haven’t yet experienced the delights of picking their way through the semi-obfuscated native code trying to work out how a particular function does what it does. Yet, without any prior portfolio of work they can point to and say “here’s proof I’m not a farmer/saboteur, please let me in”, we’d have no way to differentiate between their request for access and the request from A.N.Other unknown user who’s motives aren’t so pure and innocent.
Think about it like this - if we’d had an API documentation site set up this time last year, how many of the previously unheard of users who’ve released some rather useful scripts in the past year would we have granted access to? Probably none of them. How many of them, without access to any form of API assistance (*) would then have still gone on to release their scripts? Maybe all of them still would, but I know from my own experience that without the occasional helping hand from other coders I might have given up on some of the stuff I was trying to do.
(*) presumably if we did gather all our collected API knowledge in a restricted access site, we’d then also have to adopt a rule whereby we would no longer answer questions on the API outside of the API site - no more openly shared snippets of information in forum posts, no more PMs pointing people in the right direction etc.