More than a year and a half ago we unveiled the first version of the Stack Exchange API to the wider world. Since then we've had a minor point release, improved app and script listing, and shared some statistics about the consumers of our API.
I've been pretty pleased with version 1.1, stackexchange.com and our chat software make extensive use of it, there are a good number of useful applications listed, and a couple of parties are pulling interesting statistics out using it. It's been a success, but the shine's definitely come off; there are some use cases we didn't support, some missing features, and just some plain-old mistakes.
That's why I'm pleased to announce...
The public beta for Version 2.0 of the Stack Exchange API
We've been consuming this internally for a bit, and a rather low-key private beta has been going on for the last few weeks. With any luck we've flushed out any really bad bugs and functional deficiencies.
If you want to hop right in, go take a look at the documentation and then register an app.
Just like last time, we're running a contest to encourage some applications that exercise the sweet new features in V2.0.
First Prize
For the most awesome application, you'll get an iPad 2.
Second Prize
Second place will get an Acer Aspire One.
Third Prize
For third place, a 160 GB Intel SSD.
Library
We've tried to make the API easy to understand and use, we're aware of the great advantages of wrapping some complexity away in a library. Building an awesome library makes it easier for future developers to get up and running against our API.
The author of the best library will get a Kindle Fire.
Bug Reports
Even if you don't have any app ideas, and can't afford to invest the time needed in building a full library, you can still participate in the contest. Each bug you find makes the API a little bit better for the rest of the community.
Those who we feel have contributed substantially to the quality of the API with their bug reports will get to choose between a Kindle Touch 3G, or a Lilliput Mini USB Monitor.
The Rules
- Contest open to every man, woman, and child on planet Earth, except those men, women, or children living in places where contests like this are somehow illegal.
- Only applications and libraries/wrappers listed on the apps tab of stackapps.com are eligible for consideration.
- The application or library/wrapper must be written using our API, and work against all of our sites.
- Libraries must expose all available methods in the API in some fashion. I'd advise comprehensive examples to make it clear you've covered everything.
- While we do have a prize to recognize the best library/wrapper, to be eligible for the first 3 prizes you must build an application.
- If you live in an area of the world where it is logistically impossible for us to get your prize to you — like, say, because your nearest Apple retailer is 3000 nautical miles away — we’ll make something work.
- Your app must work against the final, 2.0 released version of the API. The "beta" moniker will have come off the API before the contest ends.
- If your app depends on an app store for distribution, you must have some way of getting the app to us to judge if it is not yet approved when the contest ends. We'll contact you to get a copy, but you've got to get our notice first so put some real effort into your Stack Apps post.
We'll be judging apps based on how awesome and useful we, the rapidly increasing employees of Stack Exchange, find them.
The library prize will be chosen by the development team, and who knows we may pull it into our projects (as Stacky, the previous winner, was into stackexchange.com). While we don't care about platform, we do care about documentation and examples, so make yours exemplary.
The bug report prizes will be sent to anyone we feel went above and beyond in finding bugs in the API, there's no limit to the number of people who may win.
All entries must be listed on Stack Apps by 11:59 PM UTC February 29th, 2012, we'll be judging entries in the first few weeks of March and announcing winners subsequently.