[API Suggestion] Guilds
smiley.1438:
Ok, what i expect from a guild API:
- Guild name & Tag (public)
- Guild info & search tags (which may be specified by the leader ingame) (public)
- Ranking (public, doesn’t apply yet, eh?)
- Memberlist (authorized)
- Chat (authorized)
- Ability to queue upgrades, invite/kick members & stuff (authorized & if allowed ofc)
Natas.2659:
And maybe earned influence
Moturdrn.2837:
Being able to get the emblem would be nice too, depending on how it’s stored, and whether it could be converted to a blob that’s returned in the object.
Aether.7095:
I’m definately waiting for this one. Guild chat is maybe one of the more complicated ones, since it would require for other guild members to authenticate before being able to have access to the chat implementation. Except if the webmaster parses the data and makes the chat public, but I’m not sure if that’s how it should be working.
Thinking about it, chat (and anything else that involves interactivity) probably requires a lot more planning to be done correctly, so maybe main focus should be, for now, on guild features that are read-only. I could indeed use a guild member list for our guild page.
Cruzyo.7304:
I’m much more interested in data that i cant see ingame but im sure that is stored in some database, like the last online feature or gained influence for the guild per user.
might be another API guild_members_details? I’m really noob when it comes to coding and working with this stuff so i leave that to those with knowledge to judge that
Moturdrn.2837:
I’m much more interested in data that i cant see ingame but im sure that is stored in some database, like the last online feature or gained influence for the guild per user.
might be another API guild_members_details? I’m really noob when it comes to coding and working with this stuff so i leave that to those with knowledge to judge that
The last online information could probably just be stored within the main guild JSON, similar to the WvW objectives.
Example:
[{"guild_id":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX","influence":"12345","members":[{"id":1234,"last_online":1369400859,"rank_id":1},
{"id":1289,"last_online":1369400859,"rank_id":2},
{"id":1412,"last_online""1369400859,"rank_id":2},
{"id":1841,"last_online":1369400859,"rank_id":3}]}]bakemonosan.3891:
Current active guild events like guild bounty, rush, etc.
zeeZ.5713:
Once the actual event has kicked off it’s in the API already. Rushes are “Complete the guild rush course.” while bounties begin with “Subdue and capture” (except for Brekkabek, his event is swapped as “Capture and subdue Brekkabek.”).
I assume what you’re looking for is whether or not a specific guild has one of those missions active, and if so with which targets and their completion status.
zeeZ.5713:
Ah yes, showing individual members’ influence gain. I’m looking forward to some kicking related drama this will eventually generate in those elite guilds
Nabrok.9023:
Could guild chat be done via XMPP?
Nabrok.9023:
Ah yes, showing individual members’ influence gain. I’m looking forward to some kicking related drama this will eventually generate in those elite guilds
That’s not available in-game, it’s not going to be available via the API.
rodadams.5963:
Shouldn’t this be merged with the “Guilds” Suggestion Thread?
And in the Authenticated world, having access to the current Guild mission info would be pretty cool.
Whether or not it’d be imbalancing to allow apps which autolink to Dulfy’s guides, however, would be another matter. I could easily see an App built where a Guild logs in for a Trek, and then it pops up the list, sorted by Map and Zone, and people “call” which ones they are doing.
… not that even Tier 3 Treks are that hard for 10-12 people to quickly clear anyways.
The Talcmaster.7391:
eh, I’d say autolinking would be no more unfair than the existence of the guides in the first place or using VOIP in the first place. If the program automatically distributed the trek locations and told people the waypoint and direction they need to head in, THEN it might get a little unfair. But then again, if that capability is freely available to everybody anyways, it’s still fair. Just completely subverting the design of the mission.
Omne.4603:
Ability to download roster and bank logs…
Cruzyo.7304:
Ah yes, showing individual members’ influence gain. I’m looking forward to some kicking related drama this will eventually generate in those elite guilds
That’s not available in-game, it’s not going to be available via the API.
though, this is stuff that should be available in-game. So it would be great from them putting it in an API to give guild leaders some more possibilities of managing their guild
bakemonosan.3891:
Once the actual event has kicked off it’s in the API already. Rushes are “Complete the guild rush course.” while bounties begin with “Subdue and capture” (except for Brekkabek, his event is swapped as “Capture and subdue Brekkabek.”).
good to know
JanoRis.8703:
Hmm maybe make it so that the Api responds how many Guild members are currently near a bounty (even if not a target). That would help organizing Tier 3 events. Ofc bounty targets like Sotzz,… (those that can’t be searched beforehand) should not be affected by this.
Khisanth.2948:
Ah yes, showing individual members’ influence gain. I’m looking forward to some kicking related drama this will eventually generate in those elite guilds
That’s not available in-game, it’s not going to be available via the API.
though, this is stuff that should be available in-game. So it would be great from them putting it in an API to give guild leaders some more possibilities of managing their guild
That would terrible idea considering how Influence is earned.
Just for attendance it’s
10 Influence per character for the first 20 characters.
5 Influence per character for the next 30 characters.
1 Influence per each additional character.
if 21 people logged in how do you determine who earned how many influence? If you use timestamps to determine who is in the first 20 then does that mean one member is better than another just because they choose to log on at a different time of the day?
For events it’s
2 Influence/event if only one guild member is present.
20 Influence/event if two or more guild members are present, regardless of whether they are in the same party.
If 3 guild members are at an event, who is the dead weight?
Even split results in fractional influence gain per member with diminishing returns with each additional guild member per event meaning you should try to avoid playing with guild members for maximum influence gain.
Assigning 20 per person at the event(assuming at least 2 members present) results in totals that do not reflect reality. Bugs section is going to be filled with “Member A earned X Influence, Member B earned Y … influence so why was my guild influence earned less than X+Y?”
Dungeon and PvP earned influence have similar issues.
Cruzyo.7304:
well the influence gained would just be a informal thing.
I dont think anyone in his mind in the right place would use that to judge his members.
But anyways, this goes back to a complete different issue that you mentioned aswell, the way Influence is earned. Imo that system isnt the best but as I said, thats a different issue.
anzenketh.3759:
well the influence gained would just be a informal thing.
I dont think anyone in his mind in the right place would use that to judge his members.
But anyways, this goes back to a complete different issue that you mentioned aswell, the way Influence is earned. Imo that system isnt the best but as I said, thats a different issue.
You would be surprised. Last online can also cause issues.
Cruzyo.7304:
You would be surprised. Last online can also cause issues.
What Issues would that possibly be other than a fast and accurate way to filter out inactive people in the guild?
anzenketh.3759:
You would be surprised. Last online can also cause issues.
What Issues would that possibly be other than a fast and accurate way to filter out inactive people in the guild?
Some say. The flip side of that is that login requirements would made for guild members. A lot of people do not like this mostly a lot of GW1 players did not like to see it re-appear in GW2 and there is little need as there is a high guild cap. But then again perhaps the high Guild Cap will make it so that less guilds have a activity requirement. There is another thread about people requesting for this and you will see the controversy on that.
Cruzyo.7304:
From what I saw on the suggestions board on this topic was, that it is very well wanted.
But I do agree, this is one of the many issues the GW2 Guild System has, it is imo one of the worst i’ve seen in an MMORPG so far.
but on a side note, if people aren’t active (im now talking about people not logging for 2+ weeks of sudden disappearance), they dont need to take a slot in a guild anyways :P
kaspi.7164:
You would be surprised. Last online can also cause issues.
What Issues would that possibly be other than a fast and accurate way to filter out inactive people in the guild?
Some say. The flip side of that is that login requirements would made for guild members. A lot of people do not like this mostly a lot of GW1 players did not like to see it re-appear in GW2 and there is little need as there is a high guild cap. But then again perhaps the high Guild Cap will make it so that less guilds have a activity requirement. There is another thread about people requesting for this and you will see the controversy on that.
I’ll derail this a bit further. This is a matter of the guild, their rules and I don’t see any reason why ArenaNet should force me with their UI design into having inactive people on my roster if I don’t want them there.
Sure, they already try to force some things via their design choices, but I don’t like devs forcing me to play the way they want me to play their game by throwing hurdles under my feet as I run.
What’s happening is that the leaders who do want actives are now keeping tabs on members with “pen and paper” instead of a simple UI feature.
Now back on track: if they have the data and plan to update the game UI at some point, I don’t see why the data couldn’t make it to the API first. The API dev cycle is different thing and I’d say much easier as you just need to pull the data from the database and don’t need to worry about graphics, testing etc.
It would be also interesting to be able to get the roster data including race, profession, known crafting disciplines…
Example: Our forums implement a plugin that is based on Anet Guild API. I need some advice from a guardian. I look up lvl 80 guardians and PM them on the forum with links to builds etc. to get their opinion. Convenient? Very!
anzenketh.3759:
Now back on track: if they have the data and plan to update the game UI at some point, I don’t see why the data couldn’t make it to the API first. The API dev cycle is different thing and I’d say much easier as you just need to pull the data from the database and don’t need to worry about graphics, testing etc.
If they have the data. I am ok with them making it available in the API after and only after it is made available in the UI. Many have requested for it to be made available in the UI many have spoken out against it.
What I would like to see is the ability for the system to report a player current status Representing/Online etc… Then if some programer wants to make a program to report the last online information from that so be it.
Foghladha.2506:
The Big things for me as a large community manager are:
Status (Online, Away, Offline)
Account
Rank
Last Login
Home Server (Non-Guesting)
The HUGE part is being able to get Last Login either in game or out. Management of a Large Community is a nightmare without it. It’s responsible for many grey hairs on my head.
Nabrok.9023:
I thought it was common knowledge now that last online can more or less be determined from the achievements leaderboard? ok, not quite last online but last time an achievement point was earned (and you can barely sneeze in this game without completing part of the dailies).
We’re using this information to find the 100 or so guild members we have that haven’t logged in since they started tracking for the leaderboards or within a few months.
It’s not instant kick, we set them to an inactive rank first, and if we see them online promote them out of it. Just in case there are some people who manage to play without accidentally stumbling over an achievement point. After a couple weeks we remove anybody still inactive.
Anyway, for a proper API, last online would be nice, but if absent it could be determined by querying status at regular intervals. A representing flag would be nice too. Somebody may be online 10 hours a day, but if they never rep they might as well be offline. Last represented is more useful than last online.
Cliff Spradlin.3512:
OK, so for the first guild API release, this is what I’m considering:
/v1/guild_details.json?guild_id=xxxx
Would return name, tag, and emblem data.
The emblem would be in the form
“%i, %i, %i, %i, %i, %i”
background ID, foreground ID, flags, color 0, color 1, color 2
flags define things like flip image horizontally or vertically
like “1,62,0,114,114,93”
At some point we’d like to be able to render images on our servers so that you don’t have to, but that’s not available yet. I know there are some emblem creator websites and apps already — is this enough information to feed into those so that you can generate emblems?
Also, if you have any other ideas for public information that would be useful that could go into this API, let me know. Your ideas for authenticated/private APIs are good — this thread will be a useful reference for when we have the ability to implement them.
Khisanth.2948:
From what I saw on the suggestions board on this topic was, that it is very well wanted.
But I do agree, this is one of the many issues the GW2 Guild System has, it is imo one of the worst i’ve seen in an MMORPG so far.
but on a side note, if people aren’t active (im now talking about people not logging for 2+ weeks of sudden disappearance), they dont need to take a slot in a guild anyways :P
That is also misleading, nobody(or very few people) is going to be spamming the suggestions section with piles of “please don’t change X” posts.
Anyway a last online is fairly useless for what you described. You need a last represent. Then you need a how long where they representing.
rodadams.5963:
Also, if you have any other ideas for public information that would be useful that could go into this API, let me know.
Is there any way to list what World(s) the Guild plays on?
For the most part, my guild identifies itself with SoR. Something like 95%+ of our players have it as their home world, and all of our influence/builds/etc are there. We do, however, have a couple members who are based on other worlds, so that would potentially mess things up. I suspect many guilds are like mine in this regard: Mostly identify as one world, but have a few from others.
Another question:
Are you planning on having a “guild list” api, like you did for items and recipes, such that all guilds are discoverable, or are you only allowing them to be linked to?
I have also have a one person “storage” guild that I’d slightly frown upon other people looking at, but would more be annoyed at sorting through the thousands of other such guilds that people have made.
Keep in mind that to start with, this will likely just be for WvW info, but later, when Authenticated APIs come out, there will be a fair amount of PvE info as well.
Cliff Spradlin.3512:
Is there any way to list what World(s) the Guild plays on?
I think so. I’ll look into it. Like you said, it might get kind of bloated with stale information.
Are you planning on having a “guild list” api, like you did for items and recipes, such that all guilds are discoverable, or are you only allowing them to be linked to?
Not at the moment. For now you’ll need to get guild IDs as a result of something like the WvW status API.
Narax.7605:
I really would recommend making the match_details.json additionally return the clear guild names and tags, otherwise one has to send way too many requests for getting a match and it’s guilds.
Cruzyo.7304:
From what I saw on the suggestions board on this topic was, that it is very well wanted.
But I do agree, this is one of the many issues the GW2 Guild System has, it is imo one of the worst i’ve seen in an MMORPG so far.
but on a side note, if people aren’t active (im now talking about people not logging for 2+ weeks of sudden disappearance), they dont need to take a slot in a guild anyways :P
That is also misleading, nobody(or very few people) is going to be spamming the suggestions section with piles of “please don’t change X” posts.
Anyway a last online is fairly useless for what you described. You need a last represent. Then you need a how long where they representing.
I see your point.
But someone that is not representing but active can be talked to to figure out the nature of his nonrepresenting, while someone that is not active cannot be talked.
After all, as kaspi said already, it should be up to the guildleaders how they want to manage their roster and the rules for their guild. So giving out this information would be essential and I personally see no reason why it should be denied?
also the representing might be more missleading than the last online. Last online is really something to clearly say: okay this guy is not active he does not need to be in a guild.
a “guild_roster.json” with guild_id as required input should give out these informations:
- Account Name (string)
- Rank (string)
- last online (dd.mm.yyyy)
- last representing (dd.mm.yyyy)
that information of course only authenticated and accessable if your accountname is listed on the roster.
Tough i’m not sure about the last representing, I think that might be enough to give a boolean wether he’s representing (= 1) or not (= 0) at the time the “last online” was recorded.
Moturdrn.2837:
OK, so for the first guild API release, this is what I’m considering:
/v1/guild_details.json?guild_id=xxxx
Would return name, tag, and emblem data.
The emblem would be in the form
“%i, %i, %i, %i, %i, %i”
background ID, foreground ID, flags, color 0, color 1, color 2
flags define things like flip image horizontally or verticallylike “1,62,0,114,114,93”
Thanks for the response, Cliff!
We currently have a page where our guilds can submit their emblem details (part of a get to know which Guild’s banner is flying in WvW initiative) which generates a image like so: http://www.gunnars-hold.eu/emblemtest/index.php?emblem=002&col1=25&col2=7&eflip=0&bk=19&bkcol=5&bkflip=2 (the way the forum links stuff seems to break it, turning the & into & so you’ll need to copy and paste.)
The foreground and background IDs for this match the order on the wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_guild_emblems). Do you know if the IDs returned by the API will match these or will there be another order for them?
Additionally in our example the colours are hard coded on a range of 1 to 26. Will there be another API linking colour IDs to hex codes/colour names?
Uttar.2341:
Also, if you have any other ideas for public information that would be useful that could go into this API, let me know.
The main thing I can think of is “Active WvW Fort Buffs” – this is already public information in the sense that you can go to a claimed fort and check which buffs are active.
After all the main reason why you care about knowing which guild claimed something is to ask them if another guild can take over the claim when they they no longer have buffs active, as well as guild pride to show everyone how you’re trying to help the server in more ways than fighting.
The other big thing I would like, but that would be for the WvW API probably and isn’t currently public, is knowing the account name of the user who claimed a structure. As it is you really wouldn’t have any known points of contacts for smaller guilds who claimed objectives. Alternatively a list of guild leaders might work.
Dr Ishmael.9685:
The foreground and background IDs for this match the order on the wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_guild_emblems). Do you know if the IDs returned by the API will match these or will there be another order for them?
The numbers I assigned to them for the wiki are simply sequential based on their file ID order within Gw2.dat. I seem to remember that this matched the order that they appear within the in-game emblem designer, so it may very well match up to the in-game IDs (although I wouldn’t count on it).
Each emblem actually has 3 textures, a composite texture showing the full emblem and one texture for each of the two color channels. The backgrounds are a single texture. All of them are alpha-channel masks, no RGB data at all.
kaspi.7164:
I like the first guild API proposition and I am perfectly ok with this being the first release. I’d like to voice the wish to release a roster endpoint for the API with the “last online” info.
@Uttar: I’ll be the killjoy of the party and say that imo Anet already pushed it a bit far with showing the claiming guild id in the API. If you look at the map in-game, you can only see some upgrades (waypoints, merchants…), which team has it, if it’s contested.
The more info we get in API, the less scouting is needed and the servers that sucked at scouting will get an easy way to get all the information they need. I feel that proper offensive and defensive scouting is an integral part of warfare (WvW) and therefore a significant part of the skill-set of the armies.
It’s further dumbing down the game. A common trend in gaming nowadays
Yes, I don’t like swag claimers who want to show of their emblem. Yes, I would like a way to contact them, but in the UI. Make it e.g. a conversation option with the lord/supervisor.
Nabrok.9023:
From what I saw on the suggestions board on this topic was, that it is very well wanted.
But I do agree, this is one of the many issues the GW2 Guild System has, it is imo one of the worst i’ve seen in an MMORPG so far.
but on a side note, if people aren’t active (im now talking about people not logging for 2+ weeks of sudden disappearance), they dont need to take a slot in a guild anyways :P
That is also misleading, nobody(or very few people) is going to be spamming the suggestions section with piles of “please don’t change X” posts.
Anyway a last online is fairly useless for what you described. You need a last represent. Then you need a how long where they representing.
I see your point.
But someone that is not representing but active can be talked to to figure out the nature of his nonrepresenting, while someone that is not active cannot be talked.After all, as kaspi said already, it should be up to the guildleaders how they want to manage their roster and the rules for their guild. So giving out this information would be essential and I personally see no reason why it should be denied?
also the representing might be more missleading than the last online. Last online is really something to clearly say: okay this guy is not active he does not need to be in a guild.
a “guild_roster.json” with guild_id as required input should give out these informations:
- Account Name (string)
- Rank (string)
- last online (dd.mm.yyyy)
- last representing (dd.mm.yyyy)that information of course only authenticated and accessable if your accountname is listed on the roster.
Tough i’m not sure about the last representing, I think that might be enough to give a boolean wether he’s representing (= 1) or not (= 0) at the time the “last online” was recorded.
It should return current status (offline, online, away, lfg), a representing flag, and current location as well.
Possibly also the other character information visible on the in-game roster (character name, class, crafting professions, achievement points), though that could possibly be from another API call with account name as a parameter.
Cruzyo.7304:
dont forget it might be we’ll also get a character API where informations like crafting professions and current location are better placed.
SLAYER.3941:
current location…. crazy I imagine live-maps in the web
Nabrok.9023:
current location…. crazy
Well, I meant which map they are on (just as it is on the guild roster in game).
zeeZ.5713:
At some point we’d like to be able to render images on our servers so that you don’t have to, but that’s not available yet. I know there are some emblem creator websites and apps already — is this enough information to feed into those so that you can generate emblems?
I dabbled with that around release: http://dragonwatch.net/fancyemblemexperiment/#21;23;1;1;6;0;0;0;0;16
We can get to the emblem parts and figure out their ID, and from what I remember applying a color is just a hue shift (or that least that’s how I did it). Of course pre-rendered images would save us some computations on our side :P
Foghladha.2506:
Is there any way to list what World(s) the Guild plays on?
I think so. I’ll look into it. Like you said, it might get kind of bloated with stale information.
Are you planning on having a “guild list” api, like you did for items and recipes, such that all guilds are discoverable, or are you only allowing them to be linked to?
Not at the moment. For now you’ll need to get guild IDs as a result of something like the WvW status API.
I would suggest a simple:
/v1/guild_list.json?guild_name=xxxx&server_id=xxxx
Example
/v1/guild_info.json?guild_name=Gaiscioch&server_id=1013
This would return:
[{"guild_id":“XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX”}]
This call would help a lot of API developers easily find their guild id without having to claim something in wvw and hunt for the right one. Should be a fairly simple script.
Dr Ishmael.9685:
The foreground and background IDs for this match the order on the wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_guild_emblems). Do you know if the IDs returned by the API will match these or will there be another order for them?
The numbers I assigned to them for the wiki are simply sequential based on their file ID order within Gw2.dat. I seem to remember that this matched the order that they appear within the in-game emblem designer, so it may very well match up to the in-game IDs (although I wouldn’t count on it).
Turns out that YES, the emblems are displayed at the Emblemer in the order of their internal ID, and since my numbering matched the display order, the numbers on the wiki match the internal IDs.
Unfortunately, when I numbered the backgrounds, I forgot to account for the “blank” background, so the numbers on the wiki are (ID – 1) instead of matching the ID exactly. Still, it’s a systematic difference.
I’ve zipped up the game textures (converted to PNG) with the correct IDs, and you can grab them over here (File->Download or Ctrl+S to download). Use in conjunction with colors.json to build guild emblem wizards!
Edit: see Moturdrn’s post below for download with background IDs corrected – bg ID 9 doesn’t exist
Cliff Spradlin.3512:
The foreground and background IDs for this match the order on the wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_guild_emblems). Do you know if the IDs returned by the API will match these or will there be another order for them?
The numbers I assigned to them for the wiki are simply sequential based on their file ID order within Gw2.dat. I seem to remember that this matched the order that they appear within the in-game emblem designer, so it may very well match up to the in-game IDs (although I wouldn’t count on it).
Turns out that YES, the emblems are displayed at the Emblemer in the order of their internal ID, and since my numbering matched the display order, the numbers on the wiki match the internal IDs.
Unfortunately, when I numbered the backgrounds, I forgot to account for the “blank” background, so the numbers on the wiki are (ID – 1) instead of matching the ID exactly. Still, it’s a systematic difference.
I’ve zipped up the game textures (converted to PNG) with the correct IDs, and you can grab them over here (File->Download or Ctrl+S to download). Use in conjunction with colors.json to build guild emblem wizards!
Edit: had a sync error on my GDrive, link is fixed now
Nice! I’m glad that worked.
Moturdrn.2837:
The foreground and background IDs for this match the order on the wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_guild_emblems). Do you know if the IDs returned by the API will match these or will there be another order for them?
The numbers I assigned to them for the wiki are simply sequential based on their file ID order within Gw2.dat. I seem to remember that this matched the order that they appear within the in-game emblem designer, so it may very well match up to the in-game IDs (although I wouldn’t count on it).
Turns out that YES, the emblems are displayed at the Emblemer in the order of their internal ID, and since my numbering matched the display order, the numbers on the wiki match the internal IDs.
Unfortunately, when I numbered the backgrounds, I forgot to account for the “blank” background, so the numbers on the wiki are (ID – 1) instead of matching the ID exactly. Still, it’s a systematic difference.
I’ve zipped up the game textures (converted to PNG) with the correct IDs, and you can grab them over here (File->Download or Ctrl+S to download). Use in conjunction with colors.json to build guild emblem wizards!
Edit: had a sync error on my GDrive, link is fixed now
Thanks for that, Dr Ishmael!
I have noticed something else with the background IDs – it seems there is no number 9 within the editor, so everything that’s 9 and upwards is incremented by an additional 1. As an example https://api.guildwars2.com/v1/guild_details.json?guild_name=the%20secret%20society returns a value of 21 for the background ID, which is 20.png within the directory.
I hope you don’t mind, I’ve made the changes to the file names and re-uploaded them here: link.
Dr Ishmael.9685:
Ah, okay. I hadn’t checked through every background, I just assumed the pattern would hold after the first 3. Never expected there to be a gap.
Moturdrn.2837:
I did exactly the same to be honest. It wasn’t until I checked the linked guild’s information that I realised something was up.
Dr Ishmael.9685:
Well, I’ve got something that almost works for creating emblem images. I’m probably doing something wrong when applying the alpha masks.
In-game emblem:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/2HjBl4j.jpg[/img]
My version:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EtHfAnR.png[/img]
(those aren’t working in preview, will they work when I save? edit: nnnnnnnope)
Emblem ID: 58 (textures: base color, primary color mask, secondary color mask)
Foreground primary color ID: 617 “Green”
Foreground secondary color ID: 139 “Violet”
My Perl script: @GitHub
The most obvious error is the hard edges between the two color zones, but there’s also some odd shading within the secondary color zone (middle of the octopus’s head). Anyone have any idea how this is supposed to work?
Moturdrn.2837:
Well, I’ve got something that almost works for creating emblem images. I’m probably doing something wrong when applying the alpha masks.
In-game emblem:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/2HjBl4j.jpg[/img]My version:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EtHfAnR.png[/img](those aren’t working in preview, will they work when I save? edit: nnnnnnnope)
Emblem ID: 58 (textures: base color, primary color mask, secondary color mask)
Foreground primary color ID: 617 “Green”
Foreground secondary color ID: 139 “Violet”My Perl script: @GitHub
The most obvious error is the hard edges between the two color zones, but there’s also some odd shading within the secondary color zone (middle of the octopus’s head). Anyone have any idea how this is supposed to work?
I’m actually not touching the masking myself (partly because the Imagick PHP library isn’t fully documented) and actually have the 2 parts with the base colours added as such:
http://www.gunnars-hold.eu/guild_emblems/emblems/58a.png
http://www.gunnars-hold.eu/guild_emblems/emblems/58b.png
The source code is here
It’s still not perfect, but it’s the closest I’ve got so far.
Dr Ishmael.9685:
How are you creating the “2 parts with the base colours added”? I think that’s the step I’m not getting right.
smiley.1438:
I’m more interested, how i get this working without Imagemagick, since it’s not supported on my webspace >.<
Moturdrn.2837:
How are you creating the “2 parts with the base colours added”? I think that’s the step I’m not getting right.
I got the 2 parts manually by using the masks to get an area to cut out to a new image file. I’ve uploaded the zipped file of them here. I would probably have preferred learning how to use Imagick to do it with the masks themselves, but I already had the images and don’t quite have the time at the moment.
I’m more interested, how i get this working without Imagemagick, since it’s not supported on my webspace >.<
I originally coded this using PHP’s GD libraries before porting it to Imagick. If you have access to use GD I have there is a version of the code here: (old pastebin url) using that below.
It’s not as efficient as the Imagick version by any means, although that could possibly be due to how I’ve done it.
Edit: I’ve uploaded both the Imagick and GD versions for PHP to gist. Both of these versions now include code for manipulating the orientation of the emblem and background. Colours may still not be perfect but this is something I’m going to keep looking at.
PHP + Imagick: https://gist.github.com/moturdrn/9d03a0cd4967828ac6cc
PHP + GD: https://gist.github.com/moturdrn/d263d9f668dbe9c97718
smiley.1438:
Hey, thanks for posting this
Just a little note on your code: you call compositeColorShiftRgb within the 65536 run loop, which isn’t nessecary. Actually, don’t ever do that – it will melt you CPU (the unchanged script took ~20s on my machine)
Both parameters, $hslbc and $base are given through the API call. In fact, you don’t even need to calculate the RGB values anymore, since Cliff added them to the API yesterday.
Attachment:
First try with the Logo of my Guild:
https://api.guildwars2.com/v1/guild_details.json?guild_id=75FD83CF-0C45-4834-BC4C-097F93A487AF
Moturdrn.2837:
Not a problem
The only reason I’m actually looping through and doing that is emblems themselves don’t seem to have a single base RGB (or at least the way I have them). If I remove the compositeColorShiftRgb from within the loop and just apply the RGB values as given by Cliff then the result ends up more of a solid colour (unless I’m missing what you’re saying.)
Personally I won’t be calling my script often, only on detected changes of a Guild’s emblem, and only from the server side – it won’t be part of a user facing script
In the example attachments below, the left image is generated when calling compositeColorShiftRgb within the loop, the right when using only the RGB from the API.
As an additional example, I’ve also attached what your Guild’s emblem looks like when you run it through the loop. All 3 examples attached are using the GD library.
smiley.1438:
Hmm, yeah, theres a little difference
How long does it take to render the image?
And btw. which material type do you use to calculate? (mine above was metal)
smiley.1438:
(double post to repair the broken pagination… see also: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/support/forum/Thread-loaded-as-Empty )
Dr Ishmael.9685:
Both parameters, $hslbc and $base are given through the API call. In fact, you don’t even need to calculate the RGB values anymore, since Cliff added them to the API yesterday.
Cliff also said specifically that the static RGB value is not for use with guild emblems:
You still need the more detailed information if you want to apply dyes against textures yourself, such as for guild emblem compositing.
To save your CPU, you could split the function into one that builds the conversion matrix and one that applies it to an RGB value. I haven’t done that yet because I had hoped to get the image composition working first.
smiley.1438:
Ah, ok, forget everything i’ve said before
Moturdrn.2837:
It takes ~20 seconds from start to finish when I’m viewing it too. When using Imagick it’s more like 6 when still using the loop.
Interestingly enough, you seemingly can use just the RGB from the API when using Imagick as that seems to actually keep the texturing a lot better (also the time is cut down from 6 to 3 seconds.) See the example images below. The first one is Imagick when using the function within the loop. The second is Imagick when just applying the base RGB. There is a slight difference though in the colours themselves.
I’m using the values for the cloth material type. Taken from the API documentation:
Emblems use the ‘cloth’ material value in the color. We do not currently have an API to resolve foreground_id or background_id to more useful information about the images they represent.
smiley.1438:
I did a funny stunt now: i played around with imagefilter() just to check the difference it makes. Anyway, while playing around, i’ve forgot to comment a line of code, which surprisingly returned a not-so-bad result. This is what i did:
imagehue($imagebk, $bg);
imagefilter($imagebk, IMG_FILTER_CONTRAST, $bg['contrast']);
#imagefilter($imagebk, IMG_FILTER_BRIGHTNESS, $bg['brightness']);
imagefilter($imagebk, IMG_FILTER_COLORIZE, $bg['rgb'][0], $bg['rgb'][1],$bg['rgb'][2]);
So i applied that to the processing for all parts and it returned this:
Moturdrn.2837:
That went pretty well When I originally started doing the GD stuff (and before it got all technical with this is how you should apply things) I actually used the imagefilter to adjust the brightness and contrast, though it always turned out naff heh.
I tried to replicate what you did with white, and whilst yes it does end up whiter, it also ends up losing its detail
Will have to have a play around tomorrow and see what happens if I tweak some other settings
Edit: Just before I was about to switch off for the night, I remembered that the Imagick version has a check in there for the alpha value of the pixel. Basically anything that’s completely transparent shouldn’t be checked. Just put a similar change into the GD version starting at line 93 (https://gist.github.com/moturdrn/9d03a0cd4967828ac6cc/revisions) so that anything with an alpha value of 127 (GD’s transparent value) isn’t put through the compositeColorShiftRgb function. Should improve performance, however it’ll be a lot more noticeable on the minimalist emblems.
smiley.1438:
Yeah, checking for the alpha value improves performance significant. Anyway, the other script is twice as fast (or even faster) without that check – about 2 seconds with checking alpha. One more reason to get that working.
Moturdrn.2837:
I’ve made further changes and split the compositeColorShiftRgb function into 2 different ones – getColorMatrix and applyColorTransform.
The matrix that you multiply the bgrVector against will only change on a dye colour change, so only needs to be computed once per colour. Pretty much what Dr. Ishmael suggested.
As a performance comparison see the difference between the old version (https://gist.github.com/moturdrn/9d03a0cd4967828ac6cc/69fd710ab5d88233e4c92cc0eba283a49e57a91b) which took ~7 seconds to generate your emblem, and the latest version (https://gist.github.com/moturdrn/9d03a0cd4967828ac6cc) which took ~2 seconds.
zeeZ.5713:
First try with the Logo of my Guild:
https://api.guildwars2.com/v1/guild_details.json?guild_id=75FD83CF-0C45-4834-BC4C-097F93A487AF
I spent the night messing with that stuff, and, because I always wanted to learn how to use Google’s App Engine:
http://gw2-emblemer.appspot.com/emblem.get?guild_id=75FD83CF-0C45-4834-BC4C-097F93A487AF
It uses numpy and PIL to mess with the emblem data
The source is horrible, I’m not catching some of the errors, and there’s no caching, let’s see how long it takes to break and exceed all limits
I’m basically creating a matrix following Cliff’s JS example, then… turn the image from RGB into BGR, apply the mask, turn it back into RGB and add the a or b file as an alpha
I blame Cliff, his matrix is totally backwards :P
E(E): Fixed issue with guilds with blank background, I think, thanks to whoever tried that and put it in my error log :P
Moturdrn.2837:
After requests, I’ve updated the PHP scripts to listen for a guild_id or guild_name being passed through the URL.
PHP GD Version: https://gist.github.com/moturdrn/9d03a0cd4967828ac6cc
PHP Imagick Version: https://gist.github.com/moturdrn/d263d9f668dbe9c97718
A download of all the images I’m using, including the question mark for unknown guilds, can be found here.
Still having the issue where the background doesn’t seem correct (when using the Abyss colours), will be trying to look at that again later today after today’s meetings finish. Once the background issue is sorted, my next step will be to store the images as local PNG files, with a name based on the hash of the emblem values. That way rather than re-generating when there are no changes, it can just serve the pre-generated PNG file.
smiley.1438:
Hey, 2 more notes on your code
- You don’t need the objectToArray function – json_decode() can handle that for you – just add true as second parameter in my gw2apiRequest function
- Theres no need to provide 2 versions of getColorMatrix and applyColorTransform, just drop the php 5.4+ part. php 5.4+ just supports the shorthand syntax for arrays aside from the regular syntax.
The performance increase was huge after splitting the functions, now we just need to find out how to process the images further, so that we get the same result like ingame. After stumbling across that imagefilter stunt i mentioned above, i think there’s some information missing.
Moturdrn.2837:
Hey, 2 more notes on your code
- You don’t need the objectToArray function – json_decode() can handle that for you – just add true as second parameter in my gw2apiRequest function
- Theres no need to provide 2 versions of getColorMatrix and applyColorTransform, just drop the php 5.4+ part. php 5.4+ just supports the shorthand syntax for arrays aside from the regular syntax.
The performance increase was huge after splitting the functions, now we just need to find out how to process the images further, so that we get the same result like ingame. After stumbling across that imagefilter stunt i mentioned above, i think there’s some information missing.
Thanks smiley, I’ve now updated the code to reflect the changes (removing the duplicate getColorMatrix and applyColorTransform functions, and modifying the gw2_api_request function)
I’ve also got a slight variation of the Imagick version running now. I really don’t know Imagick that well and the PHP documentation for it isn’t the best, so I’m not quite sure of the best way to replicate the imagefilter for IMG_FILTER_CONTRAST (Imagick’s contrastImage doesn’t seem to handle it in the same way) and IMG_FILTER_COLORIZE. As a work around I’m currently exporting the Imagick image to a blob, reading this in GD and applying the image filter, and then writing it back out to a blob before it’s read back in by Imagick.
As an example, http://www.gunnars-hold.eu/guild_emblems/emblem.php?guild_name=Veterans%20Of%20Lions%20Arch
It’s taking a bit longer than usual when generating a fresh image as I’m now directly getting the most recent data from the API for both the Guild and colours. That said, I’m now storing previously generated images so serve up if nothing has changed (so your Guild emblem should load quite quickly.)
Edit: The gists for both the Imagick and GD versions have now been updated with local file saving and serving.
zeeZ.5713:
http://gw2-emblemer.appspot.com/emblem.get?guild_id=75FD83CF-0C45-4834-BC4C-097F93A487AF
It uses numpy and PIL to mess with the emblem data
… and here are the relevant bits, I think:
https://gist.github.com/zeeZ/5714857
Is that sane?
smiley.1438:
Is that sane?
insane :P
Ok, i took Moturdrn’s script and added some fancy resizing and caching and got this:
(i should’ve added antialiasing or so…)
https://github.com/codemasher/gw2api-tools/blob/master/examples/gw2emblems.php
zeeZ.5713:
That seems to be a little bit too bright
Is that sane?
insane :P
I added (mem)caches all over the place, it’s a lot saner now, I think :P
Time when nothing is cached: 1000ms to 1500ms
Time when all three color matrices are cached: 600ms to 800ms
Time when image is in cache: 50ms
…
Time when app engine starts a new instance: 3 to 20 seconds
I could probably shove off a bit of time by pre-calculating the matrices and putting them into the datastore, but I suspect lookup times are a big part of it.
And then there’s the whole color channels being backwards thing.
Samuraiken.9581:
OK, so for the first guild API release, this is what I’m considering:
/v1/guild_details.json?guild_id=xxxx
Would return name, tag, and emblem data.
The emblem would be in the form
“%i, %i, %i, %i, %i, %i”
background ID, foreground ID, flags, color 0, color 1, color 2
flags define things like flip image horizontally or verticallylike “1,62,0,114,114,93”
At some point we’d like to be able to render images on our servers so that you don’t have to, but that’s not available yet. I know there are some emblem creator websites and apps already — is this enough information to feed into those so that you can generate emblems?
Also, if you have any other ideas for public information that would be useful that could go into this API, let me know. Your ideas for authenticated/private APIs are good — this thread will be a useful reference for when we have the ability to implement them.
Is there any planned implementation for examining the deposit/withdrawal history for money/items into the guild bank? My guild does a lottery every week where we deposit 10s per “entry” into the lottery, and our poor guild leader and office go through and tally it all up…which can get tedious. If I was able to grab the list of deposits, sort it by time since deposit, and go back 7 days, I’d have my entries in a list and then could just choose a random number, pick that entry in the list, get the username, and “boom”!
rodadams.5963:
Is there any planned implementation for examining the deposit/withdrawal history for money/items into the guild bank? My guild does a lottery every week where we deposit 10s per “entry” into the lottery, and our poor guild leader and office go through and tally it all up…which can get tedious. If I was able to grab the list of deposits, sort it by time since deposit, and go back 7 days, I’d have my entries in a list and then could just choose a random number, pick that entry in the list, get the username, and “boom”!
This would most certainly wait until after there was oauth2 support for pulling account specific information.
Whether or not this is on the roadmap or not, I obviously don’t know, and thus far Cliff’s been pretty tight lipped about what features will be coming out, so I wouldn’t expect an answer to your question.
But I’d wait until we start seeing things like per character information coming out, and then start asking again.
killo.5638:
I’d like to see a guild roster,
with: username(and or)id, rank, last online, status, last map id, server id, achievement points , last character online
All just like the guild roster ingame.
Maybe add crafts? but this could also be added to the character API?
Also would like to see total members, total online right now, most online at (date and number)
I’d also love to see the ability to change the rank as I have a automated script running on my website that lets users choose between ranks and let me know they are active.
Showing and interacting with guild chat is not so important, but would be a neat feature.
Get a list of upgrades done and available? and to be upgraded? and a list of influence gain? like the history tab ingame.
Show if any bonuses are active. / Guild misisons are running.
I would really want to be able to read the message of the day, and if possible even change it.
Read the logs of the guild bank, see whats in the guild bank. Transfer gold/silver/copper between bank slots, aswell as items./ order items.
Maybe also give influence as public value?
This is just a quick thought of what I would like to see. I bet lots of other people already thought of this.. I hope you make this API as responsive and complete as possible. I’ve been waiting so long for this and am so happy right now!!!
Dr Ishmael.9685:
I’d also love to see the ability to change the rank as I have a automated script running on my website that lets users choose between ranks and let me know they are active.
Showing and interacting with guild chat is not so important, but would be a neat feature.
[…] I would really want to be able to read the message of the day, and if possible even change it. […] Transfer gold/silver/copper between bank slots, aswell as items./ order items.
I highly doubt that Anet is going to introduce any writeback functionality in the API, i.e. it’s going to remain read-only. In the past, they mentioned releasing a mobile app that would let you participate in chat, but we haven’t heard anything about that since release.
killo.5638:
I’d also love to see the ability to change the rank as I have a automated script running on my website that lets users choose between ranks and let me know they are active.
Showing and interacting with guild chat is not so important, but would be a neat feature.
[…] I would really want to be able to read the message of the day, and if possible even change it. […] Transfer gold/silver/copper between bank slots, aswell as items./ order items.
I highly doubt that Anet is going to introduce any writeback functionality in the API, i.e. it’s going to remain read-only. In the past, they mentioned releasing a mobile app that would let you participate in chat, but we haven’t heard anything about that since release.
Well maybe I read this wrong, but I quote this from a dev post.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api/API-Development-Plans/first#post2081787
“that will allow websites and applications to talk to our API " As I understand “talk” is 2 way communication, and read-only is not really talking.. please correct me if i’m wrong. I haven’t found a post from a dev yet that denies the possibility of being able to post data to them in the (hopefully near)future.
“more personalized APIs to be created. Guild, Chat, Character, and other APIs are all possible.” Chat is probably gonna have a writeback? as you said a mobile app that let you participate. if they just release API for it, they wont have to make an app.. the community will do it for them…
I think they should make a it possible to change stuff through API… But make it limited so it cannot be abused. Example: Bot just invites all characters he can find into his guild. ( limit the invites to 1 invite per 1-5 minutes orso ) ..
If there is gonna be a write back feature, I really want to be able to manage my guild with my website, this will make the boring administration stuff go away. and more play time available!
WBL.6715:
Return the guild message would be nice. We usually post dates and guild events in our guild message.
MartyPartys.9187:
I’d love to see a list of the members in the guild and what rank they are. Or just the guild leader, that would be good enough for me.
Renovatio.2504:
Maybe there’s a reason the guild API doesn’t return members, but wouldn’t it be nice to have it return total members, members online, members repping, etc.
Virtute.8251:
Devs already published in this forum that the above few suggestions (chat, roster, moar, etc.) are all valid and likely additions to the guild API, after OAuth2 is implemented in the API.
Belorn.2659:
Being able to show a guild roster on a Guild site is one of those “sound much simpler than it is” features. Just keeping a 300+ guild roster up-to-date is quite hard, and it would be nice to also be able to show who is currently online so new recruits can easy be directed to someone they can talk to.
Any hints if such features is being added, and maybe when?
MartyPartys.9187:
I believe it is, but it wont be before Oauth2 has been added
coderjoe.7538:
I’m currently working on a support website for my guild which I imagine other guilds might find very useful. It would be amazing if there were an API to allow me to query a guild’s roster and get information about the players in the guild.
The most important pieces of information for me are:
1. Character or Account name
2. A timestamp representing the last login of the account.
3. A timestamp representing the last time any charater on the account represented the selected guild.
4. The current guild rank of each guild member by ID
5. A list of currently configured guild ranks.
A bunch of nice to have information is:
1. All of the information from the current roster page for statistcs gathering.
2. Currently logged in member information.
3. Influence information (ideally with a way to keep track of highest earners).
Right now I’m only looking for read-only data, but in the future it would be awesome if there were a read/write API that allowed a user to authenticate with Arenanet so they could automate some of the guild maintenance tasks that people might want to perform.
Is anything like this on the horizon? Currently guild management is a very time consuming task for me, and I’d really like to simplify my life.
Stefan Larimore.6872:
Hi coderjoe,
Yes, we do have plans to offer guild and character APIs in an authenticated fashion (via OAuth2) – but secured to a particular user. For example, you would programmatically be able to obtain last-login/representation information for yourself, not any arbitrary user in your guild.
It sounds like what you would like is some enhanced permissions for guild leaders to obtain members’ guild stats. We will definitely keep this in mind when implementing the guild APIs. Thank you for the suggestion.
smiley.1438:
@OP: have a look at this thread too: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api/API-Suggestion-Guilds/
Drakma.1549:
If you haven’t look at it yet, I highly suggest you look at how Eve Online does their guild API.
Each person is given 2 unique keys.
Key 1 is a read only key and gives very basic information on an account/character
Key 2 is a read/write key that allows an account to actually “do stuff”
With this system, the user can give out their Key 1 to whomever they wish to have access to their basic information. There is no requirement to give it out, but I am sure that large guilds can make it mandatory, etc.
Each key can be regenerated at any time allowing the user to effectively “cut off” access to their information.
A type of system like this + OAuth2 would be as secure as you can get it while allowing everybody involved to get the data they need.
It’s not extremely difficult to do. I’ve done it before with one of my applications. While not as big as GW2, it still has a fairly large user base.
That being said, I’ve submitted my application to Anet. I can start anytime.
Lazarus.9716:
Drakma makes a very good point. CCP spent years figuring that out and it’s a good approach to keeping things secure while giving users the ability to control what type of information is available for a specific key. Definitely worth looking at as a model, depending on what type of information you’re planning to release through the API>
rodadams.5963:
I’d actually prefer a slightly different approach.
Be able to generate any number of keys, each with a different set of permissions, perhaps, and then be able to deactivate them individually.
That way, you could experiment with site XYZ, decide you don’t trust them, and cut them off without interfering with your guild site (or whatever).
Drakma.1549:
Honestly, that is a great approach.
Generate a key for a specific domain as well. So only that domain can use that specific key.
This is probably an approach that I will be taking to gw2stats.net as the API picks up use as well.
Heimdall.4510:
rodadams.5963I’d actually prefer a slightly different approach.
Be able to generate any number of keys, each with a different set of permissions, perhaps, and then be able to deactivate them individually.
That way, you could experiment with site XYZ, decide you don’t trust them, and cut them off without interfering with your guild site (or whatever).
all in all this is a rly good idea but why do you want to generate multiple keys? In my oppinion it’s much easier to provide a public and a private Version of the API. Within the public Version i would let the user choose which data he wants to share. The private Version could then contain the administrative stuff.
Virtute.8251:
… For example, you would programmatically be able to obtain last-login/representation information for yourself, not any arbitrary user in your guild.
It sounds like what you would like is some enhanced permissions for guild leaders to obtain members’ guild stats. We will definitely keep this in mind when implementing the guild APIs. Thank you for the suggestion.
This is precisely what we need—to be able to remotely query for the current guild roster table—and here is a use-case: Drupal 7 implementation of GW2 API.
In that case, what we would like to do is have our web server periodically (perhaps hourly on cron) query for changes in the guild roster, to keep a website user database up-to-date. This relieves a major pain-point for managing third-party guild websites. When a guild operates a website (say a forum) which has some permissions configured which require knowledge of the simple fact of whether or not a website-account owner is a member of this guild in-game, then this API proposal will make that significantly easier.
The root problem we want to address is that our third-party systems support contains data that always grows stale quickly. We absolutely must keep third-party copies of our guild rosters, and often the ranks as well. Currently, we are being forced to do this manually in all cases.
This API suggestion would truly be a major step toward helping player-organized communities grow up around your game. The hurdles we have to jump through currently are prohibitive. We have no clean and trustworthy access to any of the user- or guild-related data, and we’re forced to spend man-hours doing free data entry to compensate. Most of us refuse to do that, and our communities suffer.
We do not require write access, you can keep that in the game client. We do need read access, and it can be put behind OAuth2. I propose that a separate OAuth2 token should be generated for each guild, and it should be revealed only to the guild leader(s). This would be an API access token in the same respect as implemented in Google API, but with read-only access. The data made available there should be the same as we see in the guild screen in-game. The order in which you choose to implement these is yours to make, but I could likely give you a solid case for read-access to most pieces of it.
The roster is the most important data for us. The full roster and achievement points (including exact time that the most recent points were earned) are already public to every guild member, on the web, and the rest of data is public to them in-game. We just want it in a machine-readable format, up front, through the API, without having to parse DOM on that page.
Some examples of using the other data for community-building and support purposes:
- Query influence point history to plot on a graph when the guild is most actively playing.
- Query influence point history to calculate an estimate of upgrade capabilities (how often can we activate a planned set of Boost upgrades).
- Query upgrades building status to generate an alert message on some condition like no upgrade running.
- Query Message of the Day to publish it in other systems, like a website.
- Query histories like Upgrades, Missions, Roster to know who is accomplishing all of that work, over a longer period than the 1 to 2 weeks shown in-game.
However, my favorite and most desired one would be read-access to the ranks and the roster (with user rank included) so that we can use the rank system in-game, to affect ACLs outside of the game. I don’t mean the in-game permissions assignments here, just simply the rank naming and positioning of the ranks within the list of 10 possible ranks. It would be fairly straight-forward for us to create 1:1 relationships between ranks in-game and, for example, account roles in Drupal or channel/server groupings in TeamSpeak.
Also note that there is discussion of this solution’s pain-point here, where some thought to use the Mumble memory-mapped file as a temporary unsecured solution.
Syranus Crade.6154:
if not suggested a list of goods stored into the guild-bank with its item_id’s would be nice too as example guild_bank array with item_id, count and also gold. For this its necessary to have view-rights of the guild bank
Miss.5930:
An api that allows displays of guild’s current influence points, merits, member counts, and if possible active guild buffs.
This would be very useful.
lolage.1450:
Hi coderjoe,
Yes, we do have plans to offer guild and character APIs in an authenticated fashion (via OAuth2) – but secured to a particular user. For example, you would programmatically be able to obtain last-login/representation information for yourself, not any arbitrary user in your guild.
It sounds like what you would like is some enhanced permissions for guild leaders to obtain members’ guild stats. We will definitely keep this in mind when implementing the guild APIs. Thank you for the suggestion.
I think the best approach to character data permissions would be to basically copy how Eve does it. Basically you let the player create “API keys” with permissions so he could create one that only shows his current gear, or characters or another that shows all of his stats.
When implementing guild APIs, I’d really love to be able to query my guild member list and see who is representing. The reason behind this is to make member management easier and it’d be a good way to poll for activity. Is this something that might be available in future?
Stefan Larimore.6872:
Hi Lolage,
Yes, I expect ultimately we would allow guild leaders to obtain guild representation and other basic guild activity of their members.
Regarding the ‘Eve’ approach to API keys: we instead are going with the OAuth2 approach, in which it is up to the 3rd party app to request required information permissions and the user may allow or deny these permissions en masse.
lolage.1450:
Ah ok, thanks for the response. That sounds great Stefan, hope you guys keep up the good work.
Thanks.
Naz.2607:
I’m not a techie by any means here so, help me understand this.
Are you talking about public access to guild information? Or just access to guild information if you are a member of that guild?
Public access to guild information is a truly bad idea. no-no-& no
Allowing only Guild Leaders access to special member information is also not helpful.
I am an officer and I run the guild in the guild leaders absence. The guild leader is only on a cpl of hours a day. I spend hours of my rl time keeping up the multiple guild spreadsheets required to keep track of what’s going on with our members.
Honestly, I’m not sure why the Guild Panel has not been revamped in 16 months… It’s almost useless. Why won’t you guys fix it?
What I would give for just a “Last log-in” date & the ability to grant individual members certain levels of access apart from rank…
Morhyn.8032:
Hi Lolage,
Yes, I expect ultimately we would allow guild leaders to obtain guild representation and other basic guild activity of their members.
Regarding the ‘Eve’ approach to API keys: we instead are going with the OAuth2 approach, in which it is up to the 3rd party app to request required information permissions and the user may allow or deny these permissions en masse.
I am starting work on an application that my guild leader can use to manage a weekly raffle. It would be really helpful if this application could read the bank deposit list. This would greatly reduce the effort involved in running this raffle because the application could track who bought how many tickets instead of the guild leader having to do manual entry.
I realize such access would need to be secured, but the guild API is basically useless for me as it is. Guild leaders should be able to grant authorization to an application such that the application can get at least read-only access to all of the guild’s information (roster, bank history, etc.). And they should be able to revoke that access from a GW2 system (e.g. maybe the guild’s app developer went missing and the guild leader no longer trusts logging in to that app. The guild leader should be able to login to GW2 and revoke access for that app).
It would be really nice if this granting/revoking privilege could be granted to members with certain ranks.
Ryan.9387:
Guild leaders should just have access to a password key that needs to be passed to the API. Allow it to be changed and used by officers who are given the password.
This would be great for guild management.
Nabrok.9023:
I’m not a techie by any means here so, help me understand this.
Are you talking about public access to guild information? Or just access to guild information if you are a member of that guild?
Public access to guild information is a truly bad idea. no-no-& no
It would only be public if the guild published the information publicly. It wouldn’t be available for just anybody to retrieve (this is the point of authentication).
Allowing only Guild Leaders access to special member information is also not helpful.
I am an officer and I run the guild in the guild leaders absence. The guild leader is only on a cpl of hours a day. I spend hours of my rl time keeping up the multiple guild spreadsheets required to keep track of what’s going on with our members.
Honestly, I’m not sure why the Guild Panel has not been revamped in 16 months… It’s almost useless. Why won’t you guys fix it?What I would give for just a “Last log-in” date & the ability to grant individual members certain levels of access apart from rank…
At a minimum, information we have in-game should be available. For example, every single guild members can log in, look at the roster and see who is online, who is representing, which server they are on, what zone they are in, etc. This information should all be retrievable.
The API may or may not include a last log-in date, but if it does not you can create one by having your app query the data at regular intervals (maybe every 15 minutes for example) and logging who is online and if they are representing or not. This is similar to how camp timers work in the WvW apps … that information isn’t exposed in the API but people query often and mark the time when a camp changes hands.
P.S. You can get currently get the next best thing to a last log in date from the achievements leaderboard. It’s actually last time an achievement point was earned, but most people earn at least 1 achievement point as they play. Filter by guild, you can hover over people to get a date.
Advanced: append ?pjax=1 to the URL and copy/paste into a spreadsheet.
Extra advanced: Paste into a text editor first and search & replace " Since " with a tab character, which puts the dates in their own column when you copy/paste again into the spreadsheet.
coderjoe.7538:
Hi Lolage,
Yes, I expect ultimately we would allow guild leaders to obtain guild representation and other basic guild activity of their members.
Regarding the ‘Eve’ approach to API keys: we instead are going with the OAuth2 approach, in which it is up to the 3rd party app to request required information permissions and the user may allow or deny these permissions en masse.
Every time I hear an update about how this is still in progress I get more and more excited. Even if it takes a while longer to exist pass my thanks along for all the hard work to your team. What you’re working on is EXACTLY what I want.
YtseJam.9784:
Being able to see the last time guild members logged in on the API (or in Game) would really be helpful for guild maintenance. As players leave the game, there is no user-friendly way of being able to see what members in a guild are inactive.
Drakma.1549:
Being able to see the last time guild members logged in on the API (or in Game) would really be helpful for guild maintenance. As players leave the game, there is no user-friendly way of being able to see what members in a guild are inactive.
+1 and the ability to see the last time a member rep’d the guild would be nice as well.
SniffyCube.6107:
Being able to see the last time guild members logged in on the API (or in Game) would really be helpful for guild maintenance. As players leave the game, there is no user-friendly way of being able to see what members in a guild are inactive.
+1 and the ability to see the last time a member rep’d the guild would be nice as well.
Can’t add enough +1
Tellsarius.4651:
I can’t wait for a good guild API. It would make it a lot easier to gain information. Especially when we can see who is representing, because that’s the one thing I want which is not easily obtainable.
A tip for other desperate guild leaders (:P) you can check for activity on the achievement points leaderboards. It shows you the AP of every member. If it changes, that person must have been online. It’s not perfect, because someone could play without getting any AP at all, but that’s a rather rare case.
Based on that I create reports for our members to see, like who got the most AP in the last 30 days, how often were people online, how many people were last online today/this week/this month, etc.
If a dev reads this: is it possible to store data like that ingame for guild leaders to see? Or is the API solution the end goal and managing guilds is supposed to be done with external tools?
Nabrok.9023:
I can’t wait for a good guild API. It would make it a lot easier to gain information. Especially when we can see who is representing, because that’s the one thing I want which is not easily obtainable.
A tip for other desperate guild leaders (:P) you can check for activity on the achievement points leaderboards. It shows you the AP of every member. If it changes, that person must have been online. It’s not perfect, because someone could play without getting any AP at all, but that’s a rather rare case.
Based on that I create reports for our members to see, like who got the most AP in the last 30 days, how often were people online, how many people were last online today/this week/this month, etc.
If a dev reads this: is it possible to store data like that ingame for guild leaders to see? Or is the API solution the end goal and managing guilds is supposed to be done with external tools?
I have (had) a script to parse that information from the leaderboards, but the way authentication works on the web site seems to have changed because it no longer logs in correctly. I haven’t quite figured out how to adjust my script to get it working again yet.
But … authentication changes on the web site … could mean OAuth2 coming soon? Maybe?
Mehlox.1756:
GuildMessage would be awesome too!
By accessing GuildMessage via API the members of the guild could stay tuned on the future plans and dates of guild events!
If applications could periodically check for GuildMessage updates, mobile applications could even inform users via push notifications if something new happened.
Of course this would need something like OAuth2 authentication so that only guild members can view the messages of their own guilds. Otherwise some confidential information might get compromised.