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Standards

Here are some basic standards that all Ampache API's should follow.

There will be inconsistencies between the current API's and we will be working on merging to a clear set of standards.

Rules regarding objects and data​

For now, here are a few basic rules that the API should follow:

  • ID is a string for all objects.
  • Everything that has an ID should include this in the response.
  • All other integers are cast to int
  • Same thing for doubles
  • null and empty values may be returned. (for example XML will always return an object but it may not have any value)

XML attributes and elements​

  • Any object that has an ID will add that as an attribute to the repsonse
  • All other information is to be returned as an element
<album id="2">
    <name><![CDATA[Colorsmoke EP]]></name>
</album>

The exception to this is for success & error messages which return a code attribute.

<success code="1"><![CDATA[successfully updated: temp_user]]></success>

The message is also not an element.

<error code="400"><![CDATA[User does not have access to this function]]></error>

Rules regarding dates​

There are 2 date formats used in the API:

The Ampache handshake method returns dates in ISO 8601

{
    "session_expire": "2021-08-20T12:20:26+10:00",
    "update": "2021-07-21T12:51:36+10:00",
    "add": "2021-08-03T10:04:14+10:00",
    "clean": "2021-08-03T10:05:54+10:00",
}

Podcasts and Podcast Episodes objects also return ISO dates for the following fields

  • podcast object "build_date" and "sync_date"
  • podcast_episode object "pubdate"
{
    "build_date": "1970-01-01T10:00:00+10:00",
    "sync_date": "2021-08-20T11:08:30+10:00",
    "podcast_episode": [
        {
            "pubdate": "2021-08-17T23:00:00+10:00",
        }
    ]
}

All remaining Ampache dates should be returned as an integer using Unix epoch time

{
    "last_add": 1627949046,
    "last_clean": 1627949154,
    "last_update": 1626835896
}

Tag is being renamed into Genre​

Ampache 5.0.0 renamed all tag objects into genre and removed the old genre element from the object.

Genre will provide a genre ID as well as the name​

<genre id="20">
    <name><![CDATA[Metal]]><name>
</genre>
<genre id="37">
    <name><![CDATA[Hard Rock]]><name>
</genre>
        "genre": [
            {
                "id": "4",
                "name": "Electronic"
            },
            {
                "id": "77",
                "name": "Experimental"
            }
        ],

Remove spaces from advanced_search rule names. (Backwards compatible with old names)​

These rules have been changed to make sure everything has no spaces. The backward compatible names were removed in Ampache 5.0.0

  • 'has image' => 'has_image'
  • 'image height' => 'image_height'
  • 'image width' => 'image_width'
  • 'filename' => 'file' (Video search)