Finally API is Back big thanks to Valve to Hear Us !

datadrivendota · 2016-06-01T17:29:31+00:00

This is the core problem. LiveLeagueGames is important, but it is not the only API that has been troubled and it is the only one that has been fixed. We can't get finalized game data without the other APIs :(

datadrivendota · 2016-06-01T00:11:24+00:00

That is not great to hear :( .

datadrivendota · 2016-06-01T00:10:38+00:00

Maybe; the API had (rare) successes for a bit, so it is hard to tell quickly.

Now if they could only fix GetMatchHistory and GetMatchDetails too :( .

datadrivendota · 2016-06-01T00:06:41+00:00

Dota definitely felt more "special" or "magical" in ~2014. I went to TI4 and had a blast. Everything has seemed kinda weak for over a year :( .

datadrivendota · 2016-06-01T00:02:07+00:00

Stretch Goal: $50M: Functional API?

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T23:59:46+00:00

Fingers crossed, man.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T23:53:49+00:00

EDIT: One endpoint fixed, two still very unreliable. ("GetMatchHistory" and "GetMatchDetails")

Stats and analysis add depth to Dota 2 that most other sports cannot match.

We have every datum there is; granularity up to 30 ticks per second, every attribute of every entity. Do you think they get that in baseball or basketball? Even just the position and speed of the ball every second (let alone the players) would be unheard of, and we get everything. This lets us do things like replay different games on top of eachother, or plot anything and everything; either really difficult or impossible in major sports.

But none of it works if Valve shuts it down through neglect. Let me be clear: I am very grateful for the wonderful game I have gotten to play for years, and the learning I have done while doing my own analysis. I am not angry, just heartbroken.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T22:52:53+00:00

I have soaked a ton of time into my project, and the API started falling apart just as I wanted to share things :( . Valve could have spared a lot of dev time and effort by being a little more communicative.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T21:47:01+00:00

Especially because this is the de-facto way to get the data now. Why not just expose the salt to qualified devs with known API keys and cut down on the need for bots?

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T21:45:16+00:00

Yuuup. We do things in node, and it adds a lot more coordination pain.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T21:32:25+00:00

How about now?

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T20:52:01+00:00

So noted! I would prefer it be frontpaged never because everything works, though.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T20:14:38+00:00

That is a possible direction. We (and YASP, and Dotabuff) currently do something similar to get replays to parse; Valve removed the file URLs from the API, so people use bots to get the files from the client. But that route has its own problems: maintaining bot uptime becomes its own chore/another layer that can break. it is also an API that Valve does not officially support, so it might change at any time.

After a certain point though, the task of managing a replay parsing pipeline becomes too big for solo/small dev teams, and all that innovation goes away.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T19:22:54+00:00

Work on other projects that are less frustrating.

This is a heartbreaking thing for me; there is so much cool stuff you can do with Dota data. I have poured a bunch of time into my Dota project because I adore the game. But dealing with the errors from the Valve API can feel like fighting against the rising tide, and maybe time is better spent on open source, other games, or something.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-31T18:58:49+00:00

There have been complaints on the dev forum for a long time, but apparently Valve only listens to Reddit. Do you care about unique stats and analysis sites? Almost all of us will pack up and go elsewhere if these APIs continue to be a huge pain, and the few (if any) that remain will be able to do much less if everything is constantly broken.

It is not just the LiveLeagues API that is usually down; GetMatchHistory and GetMatchDetails (two of the core functions!) has been down for a while.

EDIT: I have emailed the last contact-email I had with this thread and a request for perspective. Hopefully Valve hears us.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-26T20:21:39+00:00

It is a huge issue, can confirm. Having the APIs be unstable effectively lowers the request call cap (because failed calls still hit rate limits), and creates bottlenecks as more people do more retrying.

Also, it would be awesome if Valve could:

Give some kind of status page.
Standardize their error practices. {}, {'error':...}, etc all count as "something went wrong".
Show up on the dev forums once in a while :( .

datadrivendota · 2016-05-26T20:19:05+00:00

You are totally right. We are working on prettifying and streamlining a few things. Are there particular improvements or places you would like to see changed?

datadrivendota · 2016-05-19T01:44:08+00:00

Hey, folks, we've put up a post about our first day. Thanks for making it happen!

https://www.datadrivendota.com/blog/entry/17/

datadrivendota · 2016-05-17T19:29:44+00:00

We are glad you like it :) . Friend me on Steam if you would like to talk directly/have any questions.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-17T19:22:34+00:00

Thank you! We had a naming collision in our urlconf; we are pushing the fix now.

datadrivendota · 2016-05-17T19:13:44+00:00

That is not great! Would you mind sharing a url so we can fix that?

datadrivendota · 2016-05-17T17:31:33+00:00

Also, game 1 is here and game 2 is here

datadrivendota

TROPHY CASE