Ubuntu – Can’t I get all reviews for this app in the Ubuntu Software Center using the JSON API

12.04application-developmentsoftware-center

I have a question after reading this: Is there any web API for Software Center available?

I am trying to understand the Ubuntu Software Center's JSON endpoints.

This JSON lists all the apps available from the Software Center: http://software-center.ubuntu.com/api/2.0/applications/any/ubuntu/any/any/

Cool… Now I need to get all review for one app!

So I choose an app and get its packages_name from the JSON file:

{
        "status": "Published", 
        "package_name": "splashtop-streamer", 
        "video_embedded_html_urls": [
            "http://myapps.developer.ubuntu.com/dev/apps/1804/video/264a5fb11b60410a3a7d03bebdd1fcccd0cf5a72/"
        ],....

Here the package_name is splashtop-streamer.

To gets all reviews for the vlc app I just do this: https://reviews.ubuntu.com/reviews/api/1.0/reviews/filter/any/ubuntu/any/any/vlc

But for splashtop-streamer app I can't: https://reviews.ubuntu.com/reviews/api/1.0/reviews/filter/any/ubuntu/any/any/splashtop-streamer

It only returns this:

[]

If you look at splashtop-streamer Install splashtop-streamer online, you'll see that it does indeed have reviews. So why is the API returning an empty list?

Best Answer

It's not obvious, but the API filter there is using origin to specify whether the app is from the ubuntu archives or a PPA. So for a commercial app, filtering by 'ubuntu' gives zero results. What you want is:

http://reviews.ubuntu.com/reviews/api/1.0/reviews/filter/any/any/any/any/splashtop-streamer/
http://reviews.ubuntu.com/reviews/api/1.0/reviews/filter/any/any/any/any/splashtop-streamer/page/2/

etc.

Note, there's also a tiny wrapper that can keep your code cleaner if you want it:

$ bzr branch lp:~rnr-developers/rnr-server/rnrclient
$ cd rnrclient && virtualenv venv && venv/bin/python setup.py install && venv/bin/python
>>> from rnrclient import RatingsAndReviewsAPI
>>> api = RatingsAndReviewsAPI("http://reviews.ubuntu.com/reviews/api/1.0")
>>> api.server_status()
u'ok'
>>> streamer_reviews = api.get_reviews(packagename='splashtop-streamer')
>>> len(streamer_reviews)
10
>>> streamer_reviews = api.get_reviews(packagename='splashtop-streamer', page=2)
...
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