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Marvel Comics API
- pincubator 12y agowhat kind of information you can pull? is it possible to pull content of the comics?
- pyre 12y agoTake a look: http://developer.marvel.com/docs http://developer.marvel.com/docs
- wehadfun 12y agoThat link is not telling me a lot
- dpio 12y agoIt's just info on the comics, superhero appearances, crossovers. Like someone previously said, just metadata. You can't pull Marvel Universe data like the height of all the X-Men from shortest to tallest or how many planets Galactus has eaten.
- r00fus 12y agoLooks like just metadata - characters, series, events - I was just a tad disappointed that event didn't have a "event date" which constituted a date that the event occurred in. Such a date would allow construction of a marvel-verse wide timeline.
- relaxatorium 12y agoDoes it have "issue release date"? That's what you'd need to make a timeline that made any sense at all. An in-universe "event date" doesn't really make sense because of the whole sliding timescale thing where continuity makes no sense and we (comic fans) pretend it does.
- cridenour 12y agoI don't know what I'll use this for, but I'm happier knowing it exists.
- DevKoala 12y agoPOST v1/public/fanfiction
- TronPaul_ 12y agoNeeds a crossover endpoint that takes a url (and schema) for another universe's API
- brianbreslin 12y agoSo effectively someone could build a marvel wiki entirely off this api. HOWEVER the geek in me wants to see the "comic graph" and someone map the hell out of all the cross appearances and so forth.
- jaredsohn 12y agoAlready exists (2011): http://exposedata.com/marvel/ http://exposedata.com/marvel/
- cinquemb 12y agoOne would think you could sign up using ones github/bitbucket account. Would probably make it easier for them to showcase what devs have made using the api over time.
- bueno 12y agoI'm currently developing a website, Longboxed (http://www.longboxed.com http://www.longboxed.com), that helps users build virtual pull lists, keeping them up to date with the latest releases. The comic industry needs more of this. There is a wealth of information out there, nearly all of which is user created. Its nice to see Marvel offering this. I'm very interested in seeing what people make with this. Now let's pester DC, Image, Dark Horse, etc to get on the bandwagon!
- dethtron5000 12y agoThis is a use case we're very excited about. I know longbox.me is using our API as well and is dreading on similar ground.
- bscofield 12y agoGood luck! I traveled that road for a few years with a site called MyPullList (2007-2010, RIP), and had a heck of a time with ... basically all of it. I did have a lot of fun talking about the data model and its challenges during the height of the NoSQL hype, though.
- jayd16 12y agoAnyone know what they're using to generate this page? http://developer.marvel.com/docs http://developer.marvel.com/docs
- crabasa 12y agoSwagger: https://helloreverb.com/developers/swagger https://helloreverb.com/developers/swagger
- nacs 12y agoSource of that page seems to point to "Swagger UI": https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-ui https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-ui http://swagger.wordnik.com/ http://swagger.wordnik.com/
- turtle4 12y agoWhile having access at all is nice, the terms of use are prohibitive and somewhat heavy handed. They basically say you can make something, but can't charge for it in any way, you can't create a mash-up (no augmentation of data) and if it works out, Marvel will probably implement it for themselves anyway. Not really as 'open' as you might hope. The following default rules apply to all Apps: Advertising. No advertising or sponsorship of any kind may appear on or be associated with any App (unless included in the Content made available by Marvel). No Charge. All Apps must be offered free of charge to download or otherwise access and may not contain any in-App purchase features or any other method of monetization, unless approved in writing by Marvel pursuant to a separate written agreement as described below. ... NO PRESS RELEASES. You may not issue any press release or make any public statement about the Marvel API (and related Content), Tools, the inclusion of any of the foregoing in any Apps (yours or others') or these API Terms of Use without Marvel's prior written approval. ... Use of our Content. You may not change or edit the Content (e.g., modify, augment). ... You understand and acknowledge that Marvel may be independently creating applications, content and other products or services that may be similar to or competitive with your App, and nothing in these API Terms of Use will be construed as restricting or preventing Marvel from creating and fully exploiting such applications, content and other products or services now or in the future, without any obligation to you.
- _zen 12y agoThey never said it was open, so I don't see the problem, unless you readily associate "API" with "open".
- spiffage 12y agoI appreciated the PSA.
- Natsu 12y agoI would not have anticipated all of those and I appreciated the heads up. If you're offering an API to the public at large like this, yes, I would default towards assuming it was relatively open barring notice to the contrary. When you make it really easy to start sending requests and bury all the terms in conditions in fine print, that's something of an anti-pattern. Especially when talking about the kind of API most likely to be used by clever teenagers on a fansite.
- quux 12y agoVia John Carmack's twitter feed: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/459728407169728512 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/459728407169728512
- saraid216 12y agoAmusingly, you basically won the HN lottery on uptake: https://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/forever/0/developer.marvel.com https://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/forever/0/developer.marvel.c...
- quux 12y agoHow was this reposted so many times? I was sure when I posted it that someone would have beaten me to it and I would be up voting their post.
- quux 12y agoI think the difference is that I used the word API in my submissions title, which immediately makes the developer part of my brain say "Comic book API? What's that about?" and want to know more.
- minimaxir 12y agoA cool thing about the API is that it returns both normalized and denormalized foreign entities. (E.g if I query a character, it will return a reference to an endpoint to query all that character's comics AND it will return the total number of comics). It saves a lot of time for aggregation. I used that data a few months ago to create a chart of the most popular Marvel characters: http://i.imgur.com/KVAT3Xn.png http://i.imgur.com/KVAT3Xn.png Code for retrieving the data here: https://github.com/minimaxir/all-marvel-comics-characters https://github.com/minimaxir/all-marvel-comics-characters (I have absolutely no idea if this still works)
- dethtron5000 12y agoThanks - we tried to make discoverability of related entities easy.
- kitwalker12 12y agowould be great if a proper search parameter was provided. Right now you can only search characters by the exact name or 'namestartswith'. It would be nice if the searches had a priority associated with them (Iron man shows up way in the bottom for a search for 'iron')
- dethtron5000 12y agoWe get this request a lot and we're evaluating adding it.
- camus2 12y agoI build a node client,never used it, https://github.com/Mparaiso/mpm.marvel https://github.com/Mparaiso/mpm.marvel if anybody has an idea of app he is welcome.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- lfrequency 12y agoThis would be pretty nice combined with the Open Gaming System to produce a marvel + d&d mashup. Think dungeon crawls with Iron man
- rdwallis 12y agoLooks like they're putting in place infrastructure for an API affiliate plan. To use the API you must display a copyright link whose href points at a url included in the API's response. Ignoring the nice boost this gives to Google rank, the urls change based on the request and so can point to a place where the viewer can buy the API response's content from Marvel. Plus each url includes a tag so Marvel can know which app sent them the customer. Not sure why they're putting such a powerful linkback/affiliate scheme in the copyright notice though. If they're sending back custom urls it's no extra effort to include call to action text for the link as well eg: Buy 'Avengers: The Quest For Profit'. More info in the linking section of http://developer.marvel.com/documentation/attribution http://developer.marvel.com/documentation/attribution
- tiquorsj 12y agoIts nice but strict non commercial license means if you built something cool you would have no way to support it.
- crabasa 12y agoFor anyone who has enjoyed Timehop, I put together an app I call Marvelhop [1]. It simply picks a random comic that was issued on this week in the past 20 years. I am surely biased, but it's a pretty fun way to rediscover comics you might have forgotten about. [1]: http://marvelhop.jit.su/ http://marvelhop.jit.su/ UPDATE: The code that queries the API (while messy) is entirely written in client-side JQuery, so feel free to view the source.
- M_J_P 12y agoI hate to be "that guy", but what about turtle4's observation [1] of some TOS items? Seems like your post may be crossing some lines? ~~ NO PRESS RELEASES. You may not issue any press release or make any public statement about the Marvel API (and related Content), Tools, the inclusion of any of the foregoing in any Apps (yours or others') or these API Terms of Use without Marvel's prior written approval. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7649077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7649077
- spoiler 12y agoI'm hoping you're just kidding. Would making a forum post really violate their TOS? I would consider this a "public statement," but I am not a lawyer.
- franze 12y agojust wanted to say: i love it, cool!
- Dotnaught 12y agoBah. Create your own IP. If you piggyback on the work of others you'll just get taken for a ride.
- egypturnash 12y agoGood luck spreading the word about your own IP. You'll have to either be that one in a million viral hit, or sink a lot of money into advertising.
- balls187 12y agoThe `v1/public` namespace is interesting That seems to imply there is might be a `v1/private` namespace as well.
- canvia 12y agoDon't forget what Disney has done to corrupt copyright law and government: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
- Jabe 12y agoThis looks a lot like the Riot Games developer portal. I wonder if they used it as reference. http://developer.riotgames.com/ http://developer.riotgames.com/
- jbarrow 12y agoThis is really cool, however I found one major flaw that will prevent me from using this: I have a marvel.com account and forgot my password, so I went to "Forgot my Password" to get a new one. I was emailed with my email and password in plain text, meaning that Marvel stores the passwords in plain text. Knowing that, I'm not sure how comfortable I would be building something on top of this API.
- nly 12y agoWhile concerning with regard to their stance on security, you should really assume all web services store their passwords in plaintext. Passwords have always been kept in confidence on the web, without any guarantee of secrecy. Until web standards improve and address this with client side hashing this is an uphill battle, like trying to get people to use prepared queries instead of escaping. Use a password manager with a random per-site generator and just accept it.
- ImJasonH 12y agoStarted hacking on a Go client: https://github.com/ImJasonH/go-marvel/ https://github.com/ImJasonH/go-marvel/ Feedback/contributions welcome if you feel like it edit: I might just break down and write a Go client generator for Swagger...
- davidgrenier 12y agoHere's a small script to access the Marvel Comics API from F# Interactive using the FSharp.Data JSON Type Provider: http://fssnip.net/mC http://fssnip.net/mC
- cfjedimaster 12y agoBack when this was announced, I blogged about it and built a demo. This demo simply finds a random cover over the past 50 years. It updates every - 30 seconds - I think. Anyway, here it is: http://marvel.raymondcamden.com/ http://marvel.raymondcamden.com/ And the code: http://www.raymondcamden.com/index.cfm/2014/2/2/Examples-of-the-Marvel-API http://www.raymondcamden.com/index.cfm/2014/2/2/Examples-of-...
- pjonesdotca 12y agoFail - to create an account you have to enter a postal code and they limit the length to 5. Just as the limit of a zip code. Canadian postal codes are invalid. :/
- cccsss 12y agoI built something small to try the API out a couple months ago: http://cesnotseth.com/marvel/ http://cesnotseth.com/marvel/ Type in an event to see characters and covers from that event. Click individual characters to see covers throughout their history.
- adia 12y agoMaybe a bit off-topic, but the Grand Comics Database (http://www.comics.org http://www.comics.org) is an fan non-profit effort to index all comic books worldwide. We don't have an API, although we'd like to - it's mostly that we have no clear requirements yet, and since all data is available as a DB dump under CC-BY, there's not much push for one. The project is now in its 20th year and this shows in that the database schema isn't as canonicalized as could be (for example, creator credits and character fields are just text fields and not DB references. Yet slowly but surely improvements are being made, faster in the last couple of years. We could use some help if anybody is interested - our code is GPL (https://github.com/GrandComicsDatabase/gcd-django https://github.com/GrandComicsDatabase/gcd-django) and since the dev team is limited and everything happens on our free time, all kinds of help are appreciated. Further links: our wiki: http://docs.comics.org/ http://docs.comics.org/ our tech mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/gcd-tech http://groups.google.com/group/gcd-tech
- vinaykola 12y agoI find that the ComicVine API is really good. https://www.comicvine.com/api/ https://www.comicvine.com/api/ Has both Marvel and DC characters, so that's a huge plus.