• JSON
• Javascript (JSONP)
• Txt

Response formats are specified as a file-extension in the API request url. Topsy provides resources in JSON format (".json") and Javascript format (JSONP) (".js"). There's also a txt format for debugging.

JSON

When an API request uses a JSON response format, the response body will be in the form of a JSON object. An HTTP Header Content-Type: application/json` will also be sent.

Example Request:

http://otter.topsy.com/stats.json?url=http://blog.example.com/my-post

Example Response:

{'request':{'response_type':'json','parameters':{'url':'http://blog.example.com/my-post'}, ... }

Javascript (JSONP)

When an API request uses a Javascript response format, the response body will be a javascript function call that takes one parameter containing the response object. An HTTP Header Content-Type: application/javascript` will also be sent.

Parameters:

Example Request:

http://otter.topsy.com/stats.js?callback=foobar&url=http://blog.example.com/my-post

Example Response:

foobar({'request':{'response_type':'js','parameters':{'url':'http://blog.example.com/my-post'}, ... });

Txt

This is for debug purposes only! The TXT response type returns a Data::Dumper object version (a form of perl object serialization) of the response object. This is useful for debugging / learning the API in the browser. Please DO NOT parse this with a perl script.

Example Request:

http://otter.topsy.com/stats.txt?url=http://topsy.com/

Example Response:

### FOR DEBUG ONLY ###
$VAR1 = {
  'request' => {
    'response_type' => 'txt',
    'parameters' => {
      'url' => 'http://topsy.com/'
    },
    'request_type' => 'stats',
    'url' => 'http://otter.topsy.com/stats.txt?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftopsy.com%2F'
  },
  'response' => {
    'contains' => '1889',
    'influential' => '464',
    'all' => '1889'
  }
};