7 ms·

Twitch.js

46 points by memorable 4y ago

keithwhor 4y ago
If people are interested in this, we automatically host Twitch chat apps for you on Autocode and provide a simple, stateless API to work with Twitch chat. We host the chat infra for you, you just write serverless functions to handle webhooks / etc. Here’s an open source app you can fork (install) immediately that gets you up and running in about a minute; https://autocode.com/twitch/apps/basic-twitch-example/ https://autocode.com/twitch/apps/basic-twitch-example/ And here’s the API Reference: https://autocode.com/twitch/api/ https://autocode.com/twitch/api/
numlock86 4y ago
> interacts with Twitch's IRC So yet again another API without any of the features except chat. Sigh. Seriously, these IRC "APIs" barely bring anything to the table. Call it "YATICA" for "Yet Another Twitch IRC Client API" or something like that. Twitch.js suggests an API for Twitch, which this isn't. I am getting super tired of it.
- sillysaurusx 4y ago
  You ok? It’s just a code library. If you want someone to talk to, you can DM me on Twitter. I hope you have a nice week.
  - numlock86 4y ago
    The point is that this isn't a Twitch API as the name suggests. Imagine an API for Microsoft Teams, but all it can do is ... well, chat with people. Your wouldn't call that Teams.js either, would you? At least I hope so ...
    - Kaze404 4y ago
      I would
- cupofpython 4y ago
  tired enough of it to make your own?
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  This complaint seems a bit arbitrary. Twitch chat is the main interactive component of Twitch. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone build a Discord.js or Slack.js that was only good for chat bots. It probably handles what 90% of people want to do with such a library.
kaycebasques 4y ago
First time I'm seeing https://js.org https://js.org: > Your page just has to provide some reasonable content with a clear connection to JavaScript! Follow these four steps to get your own free JS.ORG subdomain for your GitHub Page
- lioeters 4y ago
  Interesting how similar JS.ORG's approach is to EU.ORG (which I learned about today), in that they both provide subdomains for free.
bflesch 4y ago
typo: UNNOFICIAL -> UNOFFICIAL
ehsankia 4y ago
Twitch has one of the worst developer experience I've seen. I developed a set of tools ~6 years ago and they get broken by API changes twice a year. Meanwhile my similar set of Steam tools have been running smoothly for a decade. They just love changing their APIs left and right, often without fully supporting all the previous functionality. They arbitrarily many functions harder on the developer for no reason (like how you now have to manually convert username into userid). Also, since they switched their own internal API to GraphQL, they basically stopped caring about the developer API. That's the #1 thing, if a website doesn't use the same API that it provides developers, then chances are the API will be shit.
- hashworks 4y ago
  Could you elaborate on things Valve does right? Simple API versioning and LTS of old versions you use or more extended stuff?
  - 22c 4y ago
    Steam APIs have not significantly changed in the last 15 or so years. They're not exactly well documented, but they are relatively well understood because they haven't changed. I'd say what they did right is simply not break existing functionality.
    - ehsankia 4y ago
      Exactly this. It feels like Twitch changes things for the sake of changing them. There is not reason why their changes couldn't have been backward compatible. It's just unnecessary churn for developers, who often are working for free making tools for your website.
rektide 4y ago
Great tools for peopleanaging Twitch streams. Weird to me, there's almost no consumer facing API of note. I just want to mamage my favorite channels and categories, & the web interface is terroble- only shows like 18 results & that's all. There's no api either. Did note, while poking around, twtich's front end is some pretty wild graphql.
- rstat1 4y ago
  https://dev.twitch.tv https://dev.twitch.tv
  - rektide 4y ago
    Thanks for linking people the site that shows exactly what Im saying: Many tools for running a channel, producing content, No tools/apis for consuming/viewing. No way of managing who you follow & how you browse or experience twitch.
    - rstat1 4y ago
      Ok so my knowledge of the Twitch API is apparently outdated, but there were at one point APIs that allowed for at least managing your follows.
      - jorams 4y ago
        They removed those endpoints last year[1], to help combat abuse. [1]: https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/deprecation-of-create-and-delete-follows-api-endpoints/32351 https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/deprecation-of-create-and-de...
        rstat1 4y ago
        Yep, I only just learned this in this thread. I went looking to see whether they had re-added follow APIs in the new API and found that deprecation notice.
      - deleted 4y ago
thirdplace_ 4y ago
Interesting that twitch still uses IRC as their messaging infrastructure. Wonder how they were able to scale it up.
- grogenaut 4y ago
  Clarification: (had been stated publicly before) we speak irc as one protocol option at the edge. We are definitely not running IRC at the edge or infernally. Source: have worked there for over 5 years.
  - Zee2 4y ago
    I'm sure it's infernal.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- fulafel 4y ago
  IRC is pretty scalable as-is, no?
  - kolme 4y ago
    It is! AFAIK you can have a bunch of relay servers effectively acting as load balancers. In the nineties / early 00s you had large IRC networks with many thousands of users chatting in real time with no issues. Well, one known issue was a netsplit [1]. But it did work most of the time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsplit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsplit
- boredpudding 4y ago
  I'm not sure if they actually use IRC internally, it could just be presenting itself as IRC to have an easy API with tons of libraries offering support. Internally, it could translate IRC calls to whatever their internal architecture wants.
  - 4y ago
fosefx 4y ago
Not to be confused with d-fischer's twitch.js which is now called twurple https://github.com/twurple/twurple https://github.com/twurple/twurple https://twurple.js.org/ https://twurple.js.org/ https://d-fischer.github.io/twitch/ https://d-fischer.github.io/twitch/
VoidWhisperer 4y ago
TMI[1] is a library that serves a very similar purpose but is still actually relatively maintained (the last commit on the main release branch of twitch.js was back in late 2021 - the main branch has more recent commits but it is not a great sign there has been no releaae since late 2021) Also TMI seems to better handle the nuances of how twitch uses IRC to provide more useful info. (Twitch uses IRCv3 tags to pass extra info on various messages[2]) [1]:https://github.com/tmijs/tmi.js https://github.com/tmijs/tmi.js [2]: https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/irc/tags https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/irc/tags

46 points by memorable 4y ago

If people are interested in this, we automatically host Twitch chat apps for you on Autocode and provide a simple, stateless API to work with Twitch chat. We host the chat infra for you, you just write serverless functions to handle webhooks / etc. Here’s an open source app you can fork (install) immediately that gets you up and running in about a minute; https://autocode.com/twitch/apps/basic-twitch-example/ https://autocode.com/twitch/apps/basic-twitch-example/ And here’s the API Reference: https://autocode.com/twitch/api/ https://autocode.com/twitch/api/

numlock86 4y ago

> interacts with Twitch's IRC So yet again another API without any of the features except chat. Sigh. Seriously, these IRC "APIs" barely bring anything to the table. Call it "YATICA" for "Yet Another Twitch IRC Client API" or something like that. Twitch.js suggests an API for Twitch, which this isn't. I am getting super tired of it.

sillysaurusx 4y ago
You ok? It’s just a code library. If you want someone to talk to, you can DM me on Twitter. I hope you have a nice week.
- numlock86 4y ago
  The point is that this isn't a Twitch API as the name suggests. Imagine an API for Microsoft Teams, but all it can do is ... well, chat with people. Your wouldn't call that Teams.js either, would you? At least I hope so ...
  - Kaze404 4y ago
    I would
cupofpython 4y ago
tired enough of it to make your own?
hombre_fatal 4y ago
This complaint seems a bit arbitrary. Twitch chat is the main interactive component of Twitch. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone build a Discord.js or Slack.js that was only good for chat bots. It probably handles what 90% of people want to do with such a library.

kaycebasques 4y ago

First time I'm seeing https://js.org https://js.org: > Your page just has to provide some reasonable content with a clear connection to JavaScript! Follow these four steps to get your own free JS.ORG subdomain for your GitHub Page

lioeters 4y ago
Interesting how similar JS.ORG's approach is to EU.ORG (which I learned about today), in that they both provide subdomains for free.

bflesch 4y ago

typo: UNNOFICIAL -> UNOFFICIAL

ehsankia 4y ago

Twitch has one of the worst developer experience I've seen. I developed a set of tools ~6 years ago and they get broken by API changes twice a year. Meanwhile my similar set of Steam tools have been running smoothly for a decade. They just love changing their APIs left and right, often without fully supporting all the previous functionality. They arbitrarily many functions harder on the developer for no reason (like how you now have to manually convert username into userid). Also, since they switched their own internal API to GraphQL, they basically stopped caring about the developer API. That's the #1 thing, if a website doesn't use the same API that it provides developers, then chances are the API will be shit.

hashworks 4y ago
Could you elaborate on things Valve does right? Simple API versioning and LTS of old versions you use or more extended stuff?
- 22c 4y ago
  Steam APIs have not significantly changed in the last 15 or so years. They're not exactly well documented, but they are relatively well understood because they haven't changed. I'd say what they did right is simply not break existing functionality.
  - ehsankia 4y ago
    Exactly this. It feels like Twitch changes things for the sake of changing them. There is not reason why their changes couldn't have been backward compatible. It's just unnecessary churn for developers, who often are working for free making tools for your website.

rektide 4y ago

Great tools for peopleanaging Twitch streams. Weird to me, there's almost no consumer facing API of note. I just want to mamage my favorite channels and categories, & the web interface is terroble- only shows like 18 results & that's all. There's no api either. Did note, while poking around, twtich's front end is some pretty wild graphql.

rstat1 4y ago
https://dev.twitch.tv https://dev.twitch.tv
- rektide 4y ago
  Thanks for linking people the site that shows exactly what Im saying: Many tools for running a channel, producing content, No tools/apis for consuming/viewing. No way of managing who you follow & how you browse or experience twitch.
  - rstat1 4y ago
    Ok so my knowledge of the Twitch API is apparently outdated, but there were at one point APIs that allowed for at least managing your follows.
    - jorams 4y ago
      They removed those endpoints last year[1], to help combat abuse. [1]: https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/deprecation-of-create-and-delete-follows-api-endpoints/32351 https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/deprecation-of-create-and-de...
      - rstat1 4y ago
        Yep, I only just learned this in this thread. I went looking to see whether they had re-added follow APIs in the new API and found that deprecation notice.
    - deleted 4y ago

thirdplace_ 4y ago

Interesting that twitch still uses IRC as their messaging infrastructure. Wonder how they were able to scale it up.

grogenaut 4y ago
Clarification: (had been stated publicly before) we speak irc as one protocol option at the edge. We are definitely not running IRC at the edge or infernally. Source: have worked there for over 5 years.
- Zee2 4y ago
  I'm sure it's infernal.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
fulafel 4y ago
IRC is pretty scalable as-is, no?
- kolme 4y ago
  It is! AFAIK you can have a bunch of relay servers effectively acting as load balancers. In the nineties / early 00s you had large IRC networks with many thousands of users chatting in real time with no issues. Well, one known issue was a netsplit [1]. But it did work most of the time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsplit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsplit
boredpudding 4y ago
I'm not sure if they actually use IRC internally, it could just be presenting itself as IRC to have an easy API with tons of libraries offering support. Internally, it could translate IRC calls to whatever their internal architecture wants.
- 4y ago

fosefx 4y ago

Not to be confused with d-fischer's twitch.js which is now called twurple https://github.com/twurple/twurple https://github.com/twurple/twurple https://twurple.js.org/ https://twurple.js.org/ https://d-fischer.github.io/twitch/ https://d-fischer.github.io/twitch/

VoidWhisperer 4y ago

TMI[1] is a library that serves a very similar purpose but is still actually relatively maintained (the last commit on the main release branch of twitch.js was back in late 2021 - the main branch has more recent commits but it is not a great sign there has been no releaae since late 2021) Also TMI seems to better handle the nuances of how twitch uses IRC to provide more useful info. (Twitch uses IRCv3 tags to pass extra info on various messages[2]) [1]:https://github.com/tmijs/tmi.js https://github.com/tmijs/tmi.js [2]: https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/irc/tags https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/irc/tags