Hi, I've seen references in some forum posts about a new API being released soon. Is there a new release? Or are those comments referring to the current version?
My understanding is that there is a new/updated version of the API in development. @jslack has made several references to its development on the forum recently, in particular with regards to rate limiting that was recently implemented. See this thread in particular for some information: http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/api-developers-3017/prevent-api-key-misuse-1482561/. As of a few weeks ago, it sounds like it's still in-progress and hopefully coming "soon."
Yes, we have been working on that. There are currently other major development roadblocks that have gotten in the way (to make the site faster!!!!). API code changes and infrastructure changes are coming, to (hopefully) make the API better, and more efficient. We will likely roll the API v2 syntax stuff into a separate update, after the infastructure changes.
Will keep you guys up to date. Trying to get this out as soon as possible.
Thanks @jslack, one useful feature (that would alleviate a lot of headaches on your end) is a batch API. For example, right now updating the extended metadata for a bulk load of games requires issuing 1 request per game (to get fields like concepts, themes, franchises, etc.). On an initial load of all games that's 44,000 requests spread so that it doesn't go over the rate limiting (about 1 request per 2 seconds) meaning it will take about 30 hours to update all the metadata for a dump of games. Subsequent delta updates (i.e. games changed since yesterday) are much smaller but the initial load is killer.
It would be so much more efficient to issue a request to batch requests (i.e. issue 20+ requests at once) and get a response containing all responses for each request--this is a feature most modern API providers allow. Or even better, in my case, just allow every field on the /games/ endpoint (and all endpoints, for that matter) and allow us to limit fields like we do now. The only reason I have to issue separate requests is because I don't get every field I need on /games.
Also, it would be helpful to return the current rate limit in the HTTP response headers (ala X-Rate-Limit).
@subkamran: Exactly. Before the rate limit my iOS app had to make a request for every game when refreshing a list to keep their info complete. After the limit I had to change it to use the /games/ endpoint, and now my users have to deal with incomplete data until they manually refresh their games.
Having all fields from /game/ in the /games/ endpoint would be really great.
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