We need an api for make good extension, app etc for this website!

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MILESTONES
1st: Death Note

I second this!

Why?

Every recent discussion I've heard of in regards to API is how nearly every "popular" website needs the web browser (As in, your computer) to pull the load of actually getting the site to work correctly. What's wrong with having a website that's still compatible with something as old as Netscape or the Dreamcast web browser?

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I like the simplicity of the site as it is. It doesn't tax my computer/phone or bandwidth and loads instantly.

What functionality do you want from an API? I think it would help if you suggested some specific features. That said, I'm not sure what you could want that wouldn't be or isn't already implemented via a browser extension/userscript.

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"People don't change, they just give in."<BR><!--url_type_2--><a href='http://webtoons.com/en/fantasy/kubera/list?title_no=83' target='_blank'><u>Kubera is the best.</u></a><!--url_type_2_end--><BR>同人音楽 (doujin music)<BR><!--img--><img src='http://i.imgur.com/CkHPJMM.gif' border='0' alt='Laila Hemawati'><!--img_end-->

An API is an orthogonal concept to the website. The addition of an API can, but does not imply change to the current site in any way. An API lets headless consumer (e.g. machines) consume MU great database without the noise created by user-friendly, machine-unfriendly HTML.

(EDIT: I now understand your concern. I am not looking for an API so that I can build another MU client/website. The MU website is good. I want an API to build integrations/synchronization with other manga indexes and/or readers)


- I would like to be able to get and update reading list (including updating read chapter position). Really useful in syncing MU reading list with manga hosting services as you read the releases. (1)
- Poll and be informed of new releases for your lists. I don't think the current RSS feed is powerful enough (only texts and links for RSS readers, not meant for machines, not meant for backward querying, filtering).
- Nice to be able to add releases (and more, e.g. series) as well. Sometimes manga hosting services have things not listed on MU. (2)
- Authentication mechanism to the API so you don't have to login by the website and then use your session token cookie inappropriately.

Now I understand that all of this is doable manually or through userscript on the website, of course. An API doesn't mean new core features. It is just a different way to interact with MU. Integrations can be built to not only help users (like 1) but contribute to MU database as well (like 2).


However, crawling the website by userscripts is something that might actually require the browser and will break if the site visual changes. Userscripts in general are obscure, flaky, easy to develop initially but hard to scale and maintain. Browser extensions for sure requires a browser. Headless services can crawl and parse HTML but that is nowhere machine-friendly and it suffers the same drawback as userscripts in general.

In the end, these are just my opinions and I do not have complete knowledge of MU and whether an API would be a good direction for it. Thanks to the MU team for building a great site/service that is essential to me.

Last edited by quanganhhero at 4:32 am, Sep 6 2020

Furthermore, APIs gives a way to interact with the site with minimal server overhead. Manually crawling HTML pages requires the user to download the entire page, most of which are going to be thrown out anyway.

I would like API so that MALSync would integrate with this site (I want to use baka-updates instead of MyAnimeList)

https://github.com/MALSync/MALSync/issues/290

Since it doesn't seem like this info is available anywhere on the internet, and the developers have not revealed that there is in fact a hidden API, I thought I might as well post it for anyone who finds my research useful.

I was looking to use MU data, and I'm sick of parsing HTML soup on this site. Thankfully the pages are simple and static enough that it's not difficult, but it's just not right. So I found out that MU has/had an iOS app at some point, screenshots/info here: https://applion.jp/iphone/app/598640522/ (I don't have iOS devices). Then based on forum complaints about app errors containing the phrase "application/json" I figured there must be a JSON API somewhere.
Hmmm https://www.mangaupdates.com/api/ returns nginx 403... that means it's a folder! Then I took an obvious endpoint, https://www.mangaupdates.com/api/series.php and sure enough, there is a hidden API! But all I got was a "Version is required." error. I tried all sorts of url parameters and headers, and finally got a hit with the super secret "API-Version" header (using 1.1.0 because it's latest version of the app on that listing page). And yes, it actually works. Example:

So now what? Well maybe some MU developers or community members can help figure out the rest of the endpoints and parameters they accept. Based on the screenshots, stuff like login, reading lists, search, releases must exist. Endpoints I've found so far:

I hope this helps...

Launched DirBuster and so far found those endpoints:

But I didn't have any luck in querying anything other than endpoint. I have to restart the search with some bigger timeout between requests to prevent throttling and connection refusal by server. I'll update if any new endpoint is found during scan.

Last edited by T3sT3ro at 4:30 am, Apr 30 2021

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I've started working on this again, trying to figure out more endpoints. Also found this based on the name of the iOS app developer for teaser of what the API probably can do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IViFiiC-KgE .
Based on the responses I've gotten from list/lists.php ("errorMessage":"User Name is required.), which are for the user, I'm beginning to think the credentials are in some way directly in the headers, as some sort of basic auth lookalike. Notice how in the youtube video, the requests always take 1-2s or so, but when he logs in there's zero wait, and goes directly to list page. It's also the same error format as that of the api version header, and mentioned specifically the username, not token or cookie

Last edited by chocolatkey at 10:21 pm, Aug 17 2021

Having an API to make it easier to track/update what you're reading would be super helpful. Using something like Tachiyomi to read on the go makes it so much easier to track for MAL for me, but I find MU far more robust in terms of web comics, manhwa, and manhua in its database.

Since mobile usage is only ever going to get more common and integrations between services is important, I think it'd help MU keep up to date with similar tracking websites. Otherwise, it feels like it could fall behind. The amount of information on this site makes it a huge competitor alone, but being able to work it together with other services would be a an even bigger boon. I'd say it would make people use it more for those who read and track things regularly.

I understand that means there's work for the site admins in maintaining it, but I believe that it would be more beneficial in the long run for the site and its longevity.

As someone who wants to learn from your categories system + genres system and, maybe, create visualizations based on the data that can be generated from your genres and categories data. I would deeply appreciate the creation of an API for mangaupdates. (Background: Getting my Masters in Information and Library Science. I believe the library sciences could learn something from how your users create and utilize your system of genres and categories.)

API would be cool, this is a database of sorts... Crawling with BS4 is wasteful 😁

Last edited by WIRLYWIRLYPOOL at 8:16 pm, May 7 2022