Active Trades Export

[CodeR70]

I would love to see something implemented to easily export (download) the Active Trades pages (all trades) to a common file format (XML, CSV, TSV). Maybe something to be integrated with the API (see http://www.linkspun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=451), but a "Save As" button or "Download" button would be great.

I'm a web developer myself and I could really use something like that. In the short-term I want to update webmaster names in LO for my active trades. But in the future I would love to make LO modifications automatically. Or at least some kind of exchange between linkspun and my LO database.

or...... and this would be AMAZING.... talk to the LO developer and see if you guys can come up with some sort of integration between linkspun and LO. I would actually pay for that tbh.

[jdoughs]

I would love to see something implemented to easily export (download) the Active Trades pages (all trades) to a common file format (XML, CSV, TSV). Maybe something to be integrated with the API (see http://www.linkspun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=451), but a "Save As" button or "Download" button would be great.

I'm a web developer myself and I could really use something like that. In the short-term I want to update webmaster names in LO for my active trades. But in the future I would love to make LO modifications automatically. Or at least some kind of exchange between linkspun and my LO database.

or...... and this would be AMAZING.... talk to the LO developer and see if you guys can come up with some sort of integration between linkspun and LO. I would actually pay for that tbh.

I have emailed him a couple times, I would like to add a solid import/export or built in system that allows users to do this.

I think in a perfect world for BOTH his and our users, we could have the two systems mingle and synch up some way, even if just by standard import/export.

This is on our list right now, and I'm basically just waiting for an answer for him.

Also, if anyone knows him, have him hit me up or forward me his contact, its been a week or two since I emailed him and did not hear back yet.

[CodeR70]

Aha, nice to hear you are on it. I don't know the guy myself although I do see him respond rather quickly on his own forum. He does this for a living so I guess he put more priority on his own activities. Makes sense to me, but two weeks is a bit long, I agree.

Anyway, I have LO up and running. The source code is not accessible/readable, but the database itself is open. So and import/export/sync function can be created external of the LO application if needed (and allowed in terms of licenses with LO, not sure yet). If there is no movement from the LO developer side I will probably try to do some "sync facilities" myself based on any export functions you guys can provide. I would be happy to share that code with you guys if there is any interest.

Cheers,
CodeR70

[jdoughs]

I had a good chat today with Kaktusan from Links Organizer and you should see Linkspun and Links Organizer working well together in the near future.

I can't give an ETA on this but I can tell you that we pretty much have all we need to make it happen, just a matter of getting it done, making sure it's easy enough to use, and tested.

[CodeR70]

That is nice to hear. Would be happy to help out testing as well. Anyway, take your time and good luck with the implementation.

[vrocks]

Was any of this ever implemented?

I don't use LO so I don't know what sort of data you would want exported or in what format.

Got a link to their database scheme?

[CodeR70]

Not sure about the status of this one. But if needed I can give you a schema export of LO.

On the other hand, any kind of export function, may it be in plain text, XML, JSON, or whatever, will give us developers a good chance of writing a script to import in LO or any other kind of program a webmaster would use (is LinkEx still maintained?). I even think if I have for instance an export for a particular page I would be able to generate the link codes which can automatically be included in a page (if it's generated in PHP).

So in short, export functionality, manual or automatic, would be a huge improvement of usability for LS. But be careful though, if people do for instance exports for every request on their site (for inclusion) then LS has a problem of course. So any limits on export jobs should be considered and webmasters need to implement some caching (no instant updates though).

[vrocks]

Can you expand (maybe with an example) on the part:

But be careful though, if people do for instance exports for every request on their site (for inclusion) then LS has a problem of course.

And here too:

webmasters need to implement some caching (no instant updates though).

[CodeR70]

Can you expand (maybe with an example) on the part...

Sure…

Let's say LS has an export function that allows to retrieve all active links for a certain page. Then I can create a script which makes a linklist from that data. If I include that script directly in my site then every time the page is requested, my server would request the data from LS, and spits out the HTML code.

Obviously, if you have a few thousand of servers making multiple request then LS will be on it's knees rapidly (or you need to have loads of capacity for this). So, to protect LS, you guys need to make some sort of API request limit. This is in fact very common. Twitter, Facebook and many sites which provide an API have some sort of limits on the amount of request per hour/session/user or whatever kind of limits they implement.

But… if LS has a limit on such requests, then the webmaster/developer that uses such API needs to implement a caching system. A) to make sure it does not exceed the API limits and B) to make sure data is available for inclusion in the page.

I think LS should not be that worried about how the "client" would implement the caching. As long as limits are respected. The only problem with such caching mechanism is that if a link gets active on LS (by both parties approving it), then it will not be instant, hence the LS bot would not find the link.

The last one can be a bit irritating, but it's a good compromise I think. As you pointed out, LS is a free service and we cant expect unlimited resource (or it's a service you need to provide at a subscription fee, but that is up to you guys).

Anyway, these are all just my thoughts, don't pin me down that this is the only method. I'm sure other devs have different ideas how s/he would implement this.

[vrocks]

Thanks.

In the beginning it would have to be manual export as the API is something John wanted to keep as a paid feature. Plus, the manual export would be easier to implement for now. It would require the user to be logged in and running data mining requests outside of an implemented API would breach the terms of service John already has in place.

So for now... Having XML, CSV, JSON, pipe delimited plain text - options would be useful?

[CodeR70]

So for now... Having XML, CSV, JSON, pipe delimited plain text - options would be useful?

Absolutely, that would be great.

[sexsite69]

The ability to export the active trades would allow me to do everything I wanted re: this thread: http://www.linkspun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1061

A CSV export would be perfect to manipulate the data myself. I am thinking of building a small desktop app / script that would take such data as the active trades and x-reference to other things like referers, indexed pages and alexa rank. I always like to know which sites are sending traffic! They are all variables I use to determine if I want to continue a trade or not.

- Sexsite69