We’re finally ready to unveil the API for the new Basecamp. The documentation lives on Github and we encourage developers to help us improve it with pull requests.
The new API covers most of what’s available in the web UI and whatever is currently not there, we’ll be sure to add in the future. You can create projects, add people to those projects, work the calendar, upload files, the works.
We’re really excited to see where people will take the API. Especially the Events API that allows you to poll for changes since a given timestamp. This should make it easy to have local notification style integrations and much easier for people who want to build synching services.
So have at it!
martin
on 28 Mar 12thanks guys, I asked for this but didn’t expect such a quick turnaround
Jon
on 28 Mar 12If I was a mobile app developer this is the day where I drop everything and get a great app to market before anyone else. But instead I will wait for someone else to do it.
Wade
on 28 Mar 12Awesome! Been waiting for this to use with Zapier.
Glad to see JSON too. :D
Sam Soffes
on 28 Mar 12Looks great! I really love the idea of having it on GitHub. It will be great to have the community’s help keeping the documentation current.
Chad Sakonchick
on 28 Mar 12It would be nice to allow user signup via the API. Webapps that do something complementary to you could promote Basecamp within their app and allow uber easy signup.
John Kranz
on 28 Mar 12Congrats on the milestone. Looking forward to seeing the first wave of third-party apps (and updates for apps that worked with the previous version).
Wayne
on 28 Mar 12Must suck to work at 37signals. You spent the last 8 years perfecting a product (Basecamp classic), documentation, API, etc … Then one day Jason got tried of it and killed it.
Now, tIme to recreate the entire wheel all over again that took 8 years to accomplish.
Morgan Currie
on 28 Mar 12Congrats guys! This looks really slick!
@Wayne, I’m sure that’s exactly what happened! Great insight!
Alistair
on 29 Mar 12@Wayne, @37signals
Even though I know Wayne is trolling a bit, there is also a lot of truth to his comment.
Nikolay Burlov
on 29 Mar 12@Wayne I believe that when you are killing your own service it’s better then someone else kills it. And I’m sure that New Basecamp aggregates their experience (8 years) about project management.
a7r
on 29 Mar 12“the Events API that allows you to poll for changes since a given timestamp”
Awesome right here.
Anthony Barone
on 29 Mar 12@wayne. That is not why it must suck to work @37signals. That is why is must be great to work @37signals. The change speaks volumes to employees, customers, business partners and the rails community.
Michael
on 29 Mar 12Thanks for the API, guys. Looks robust and I hope you’ll continue to improve it in response to requests. A powerful API is one of the best defenses against product bloat.
Nate
on 29 Mar 12Just out of intellectual curiosity, was there a strong opinion involved with encouraging polling for events rather than some kind of web-hook/callback kind of mechanism. Is that something you just felt wasn’t important for V1 of the new API or was there something else involved with that decision?
—
As for the side talk about the recreation of Basecamp…
“Lasting companies know how to reinvent themselves”
- “Mike” Markkula, Jr. (Apple’s first investor)
DHH
on 29 Mar 12Nate, we might well look into web hooks in the future, but it wasn’t important enough to hold up the release of the API.
Anonymous Coward
on 30 Mar 12Recreate != “reinvent”
Nico Oud
on 30 Mar 12Hi David!
Congratulations! We were waiting for this! Can’t wait for the new Highrise ;)
Eric Blade
on 30 Mar 12Hmm. The “Must send a User-Agent that includes identifying information about your app” might be a problem—most mobile platforms do not allow mangling of the device’s UA string.
Well intentioned, but difficult to write for.
scott mclaughlin
on 31 Mar 12When will the API key be on the new basecamp for us non-developers and where will it appear???
Nick
on 02 Apr 12Eric: What platforms? If you’re having trouble with something let us know on GitHub or on the Google Group.
Scott: The new Basecamp’s API and internals are completely different than for Classic. If you’re using a tool that uses Classic’s API, bug the creators to get them to update to the new API! If you’ve got more questions feel free to crack open a support ticket.
This discussion is closed.