Biostar API

This is the documentation for Biostar API. If you have additional questions, or believe you have encountered a bug, don't hesitate to post a question on Biostar.

General

All API responses are JSON.

Some API responses are cached. Polling for changes should be done sparingly in any case, and polling at a rate faster than once a minute (for semantically identical requests) is considered abusive.

A number of methods in the Biostar API accept dates as parameters and return dates as properties, the format of these dates is documented above. As a general rule, full dates use ISO 8601 and timestamps are in unix epoch time.

Methods

Traffic

GET /api/traffic/

Number of post views over the last 60 min filtered by unique IPs.

Fields in response

• date: the current date, ISO 8601 format.
• post_views_last_60_min: number of post views over the last 60 min filtered by unique IPs.
• timestamp: the current date, unix epoch time format.

Example

/api/traffic/

{
    "date": "2014-05-29T14:59:55.788069",
    "post_views_last_60_min": 850,
    "timestamp": 1401375595
}

User

GET /api/user/{uid}/

General info about a user.

Parameters

• uid: the identifier of the user.

Fields in response

• date_joined: the date the user joined the website, ISO 8601 format.
• id: the identifier of the user, a number.
• joined_days_ago: the date the user joined the website, as the number of days ago.
• last_login: the date of the last login of the user, ISO 8601 format.
• name: the name of the user.
• vote_count: the number of votes given by the user.

Example

/api/user/23/

    "date_joined": "2010-01-18T21:43:55.253000+00:00",
    "id": 23,
    "joined_days_ago": 1614,
    "last_login": "2011-11-08T19:37:21.753000+00:00",
    "name": "Giovanni M Dall'Olio",
    "vote_count": 37
}

Post

GET /api/post/{id}/

General info about a post.

Parameters

• id: the identifier of the post, a number.

Fields in response

• answer_count: number of answers.
• author: author name.
• author_id: author's identifier, a number.
• book_count: number of bookmarks.
• comment_count: number of comments.
• creation_date: creation date, ISO 8601 format.
• has_accepted: true if the question has an accepted answer, boolean.
• id: identifier of the post, a number.
• lastedit_date: date of last edit, ISO 8601 format.
• lastedit_user_id: user who last edited this post.
• parent_id: identifier of the parent post.
• rank: rank, a number.
• reply_count: number of replies.
• root_id: identifier of the root post.
• status: status message.
• status_id: status' identifier, a number.
• subs_count: number of subscribers following this post.
• tag_val: tags.
• thread_score: thread's score.
• title: title.
• type: type of post.
• type_id: type's identifier for this post.
• url: url.
• view_count: number of views.
• vote_count: number of votes.
• xhtml: content.

Example /api/post/25/

{
    "answer_count": 2,
    "author": "Gue Su",
    "author_id": 18,
    "book_count": 0,
    "comment_count": 0,
    "creation_date": "2009-12-01T20:57:35.300000+00:00",
    "has_accepted": false,
    "id": 25,
    "lastedit_date": "2009-12-01T20:57:35.300000+00:00",
    "lastedit_user_id": 18,
    "parent_id": 24,
    "rank": 0.0,
    "reply_count": 0,
    "root_id": 24,
    "status": "Open",
    "status_id": 1,
    "subs_count": 0,
    "tag_val": "",
    "thread_score": 0,
    "title": "A: How To Set Shrimp Parameters For Best Sensitivity With 35Bp Colorspace Data?",
    "type": "Answer",
    "type_id": 1,
    "url": "http://localhost:8080/p/24/#25",
    "view_count": 0,
    "vote_count": 2,
    "xhtml": "
I just read the SHRiMP manual again, but I think that their explanation about -M option may not be enough to answer your question. I usually use the \"seed\" mode by using -s, -n, and -w and the option -M is a new feature of the version 1.3.1, which I have never tried before.

\n\n
I recommend for you to use the \"seed\" mode--the default would be good, but please adjust the -s option if you want more sensitivity. Always fast speed compensates sensitivity and the -M option seems to exist for this purpose.

\n\n
Hope my message to be helpful for your project.

\n"
}

Vote

GET /api/vote/{id}/

General info about a vote.

Parameters

• id: the identifier of the vote, a number.

Fields in response

• author: author name.
• author_id: author's identifier, a number.
• date: date of the vote, ISO 8601 format.
• id: identifier of the vote, a number.
• post_id: identifier of the voted post.
• type: type of vote.
• type_id: type's identifier for this vote.

Example /api/vote/21/

{
    "author": "Zhaorong",
    "author_id": 14,
    "date": "2014-04-29T15:02:17.740000+00:00",
    "id": 21,
    "post_id": 26,
    "type": "Upvote",
    "type_id": 0
}

Statistics on the Nth day

GET /api/stats/day/{day}/

Statistics as of the Nth day after day-0 (the day of the first ever post).

Parameters

• day: number of days after day-0, a number.

Fields in response

• answers : total number of answers as of the given day.
• comments: total number of comments as of the given day.
• date: date, ISO 8601 format.
• new_posts: number of new posts in the given day.
• new_users: number of new users in the given day.
• new_votes: number of new votes in the given day.
• questions: total number of questions as of the given day.
• timestamp: date, unix epoch time format.
• toplevel: total number of toplevel post as of the given day.
• users: total number of users as of the given day.
• votes: total number of votes as of the given day.

Example

/api/stats/day/5/

{
    "answers": 6,
    "comments": 0,
    "date": "2009-10-05T00:00:00",
    "new_posts": [
        10,
        11,
        12
    ],
    "new_users": [
        10,
        11
    ],
    "new_votes": [],
    "questions": 6,
    "timestamp": 1254700800,
    "toplevel": 6,
    "users": 10,
    "votes": 0
}

Statistics on a date

GET /api/stats/date/{year}/{month}/{day}/

Statistics as of the given date.

Parameters

• year: a number, 4 digits.
• month: a number, 2 digits.
• day: a number, 2 digits.

Fields in response

• answers: total number of answers as of the given date.
• comments: total number of comments as of the given date.
• date: date, ISO 8601 format.
• new_posts: number of new posts in the given date.
• new_users: number of new users in the given date.
• new_votes: number of new votes in the given date.
• questions: total number of questions as of the given date.
• timestamp: date, unix epoch time format.
• toplevel: total number of toplevel post as of the given date.
• users: total number of users as of the given date.
• votes: total number of votes as of the given date.

Example /api/stats/date/2009/10/06/

{
    "answers": 9,
    "comments": 0,
    "date": "2009-10-06T00:00:00",
    "new_posts": [
        13,
        14,
        15,
        16
    ],
    "new_users": [
        12,
        13
    ],
    "new_votes": [],
    "questions": 7,
    "timestamp": 1254787200,
    "toplevel": 7,
    "users": 12,
    "votes": 0
}

Tags List

POST /api/tags/list/

Return a list of tags with corresponding counts of posts. Can also pass down a time range.

Parameters

• data: a file listing the tags, with
• months: 6

Given

curl -X POST -F "tags=@/Users/natay/Desktop/apps/biostar-central/tags.txt" http://localhost:8000/api/tags/list/?trange=year

Returns

{
    "tag1": {
        "answer_count": 0,
        "comment_count": 0,
        "total": 21
    },
    "tag2": {
        "answer_count": 0,
        "comment_count": 0,
        "total": 20
    }
}