API Documentation

Introduction

The BackType API allows you to develop applications that leverage our dataset and interact with our website. All requests to the BackType API are HTTP GET and POST requests. The API is available for non-commercial use and each user is limited to 1000 requests per day. The API is provided free of charge, but its use is subject to our Terms of Use. Please contact us if you would like that limit extended or if you would like to request any additional functionality.

Commercial Use

Currently, our API is available for non-commercial use. If you would like to use our API in a commercial application, please contact us. Provide as much detail as you can about your proposed application and how you would like our business relationship to work. We will review your proposal and get back to you as soon as possible.

Wire Format

All BackType API responses are available in two data formats: JSON and XML. To specify an output format, request the appropriate extension.

Authentication

Please login and re-visit this page to obtain your API key. If you aren't yet registered for BackType, click here to sign up.

All requests require the following parameters:

Parameter	Required	Description
key	Yes	API key

Response

JSON responses are in the following format:

• totalresults – Number of results
• startindex – Index of the starting result
• itemsperpage – Number of results per page
• comments[]
  • url – Permalink for comment on BackType
  • comment
    • url – Permalink for the comment
    • content – The comment in either plaintext or HTML
    • date – The date the comment was published, in GMT e.g. 2008-10-01 06:21:43
  • blog
    • url – The blog's URL
    • title – The title of the blog
  • post
    • url – The blog post's URL
    • title – The title of the blog post
  • author
    • name – The name published with the comment
    • url – The author's URL
    • user
      • name – Username
    • profile
      • name – The user's name published on their profile
      • url – The user's website published on their profile
      • description – The user's description on their profile
      • image – The path to a user's profile picture
  • sharer
    • url
    • user
      • name – Username
    • profile
      • name – The user's name published on their profile
      • url – The user's website published on their profile
      • description – The user's description on their profile
      • image – The path to a user's profile picture
• stats
  • data[]
    • total – The number of mentions
    • date – The date for the interval
  • blog_ids – The internal blog IDs specified as filters (comma delimited)
  • url_ids – The internal author url IDs specified as filters (comma delimited)
  • top_blogs[]
    • id – The internal ID of the blog
    • url – The blog's URL
    • title – The title of the blog
  • top_urls[]
    • id – The internal ID of the author's URL
    • name – The name of the author
    • url – The author's URL
• followers[]
  • user
    • name – Username
  • profile
    • name – The user's name published on their profile
    • url – The user's website published on their profile
    • description – The user's description on their profile
    • image – The path to a user's profile picture
• following[]
  • urls[]
    • name
    • url
  • users[]
    • user
      • name – Username
    • profile
      • name – The user's name published on their profile
      • url – The user's website published on their profile
      • description – The user's description on their profile
      • image – The path to a user's profile picture
• profile
  • name – The user's name published on their profile
  • url – The user's website published on their profile
  • description – The user's description on their profile
  • image – The path to a user's profile picture

Callbacks

The callback property can be used to wrap the output to a function call using the JSON format:

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/comments.json?callback=foo&key=key

Images

The image property can be used to fetch user profile pictures in mini, thumbnail, preview, or original sizes:

GET http://www.backtype.com/go/image/p/{m,t,p,o}/image.jpg

Pagination

All requests outlined below (except retrieving a user's profile) support the following parameter for pagination:

Parameter	Default	Required	Description
page	1	No	The page number (there are 25 results per page)
itemsperpage	25	No	The number of items per page (must be between 10-100)

Comments Search

Search all the comments on BackType for a given string.

Parameter	Default	Required	Description
q		Yes	The query string you want to search comments for
start		No	Search for comments made after this date YYYY/MM/DD
end		No	Search for comments made before this date YYYY/MM/DD

GET http://api.backtype.com/comments/search.json?q=backtype&key=key

Comments Search Stats

Retrieve stats for a given query on BackType. BackType Trends was built using this method.

Parameter	Default	Required	Description
q		Yes	The query string you want to search comments for
start	2008/09/01	No	Include stats for comments made after this date YYYY/MM/DD – stats can not be retrieved before 2008/09/01
end	Now	No	Include stats for comments made before this date YYYY/MM/DD
period	0	No	Group mentions by day, week, month, or year (0, 1, 2, or 3, respectively)
blog_ids		No	Comma delimited list of internal blog IDs
url_ids		No	Comma delimited list of internal author url IDs
top_blogs	0	No	Whether or not you would like a list of internal blog IDs of the top blogs contributing to mentions
top_urls	0	No	Whether or not you would like a list of internal author url IDs of the top authors contributing to mentions

GET http://api.backtype.com/comments/search/stats.json?q=backtype&key=key

Comments by Author URL

Retrieve comments written by a particular author.

GET http://api.backtype.com/url/url/comments.json?key=key

Comments by BackType User

Retrieve comments claimed by a BackType user.

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/comments.json?key=key

Comments Shared by BackType User

Retrieve comments shared by a BackType user.

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/shared.json?key=key

Home Feed Comments

Retrieve comments written by authors followed by a BackType user.

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/home/comments.json?key=key

Home Feed Shared Comments

Retrieve comments shared by users followed by a particular BackType user.

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/home/shared.json?key=key

User Followers

Retrieve users following a particular BackType user.

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/followers.json?key=key

User Following

Retrieve users being followed by a particular BackType user.

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/following.json?key=key

User Profile

Retrieve a BackType user's profile.

GET http://api.backtype.com/user/user/profile.json?key=key

Post Comments

Retrieve excerpts of comments for a post.

Parameter	Required	Description
url	Yes	The post url to return comments for

GET http://api.backtype.com/post/comments.json?url=http://blog.backtype.com/2008/10/backtype-on-friendfeed/&key=key

Post Stats

Retrieve stats for a post.

Parameter	Required	Description
url	Yes	The post url to return stats for

GET http://api.backtype.com/post/stats.json?url=http://blog.backtype.com/2008/10/backtype-on-friendfeed/&key=key

Blog ID

Retrieve a blog's internal BackType ID. To be used as a filter for the comment stats method.

Parameter	Required	Description
url	Yes	The blog url to return an internal ID for

GET http://api.backtype.com/blog/id.json?url=http://blog.backtype.com&key=key

URL ID

Retrieve an author url's internal BackType ID. To be used as a filter for the comment stats method.

Parameter	Required	Description
url	Yes	The author url to return an internal ID for

GET http://api.backtype.com/url/id.json?url=http://www.techcrunch.com&key=key