Intervals API - sooner or later?

Our firm is definitely interested in an API as we would like the ability to exchange information captured in Intervals easily with other systems that are not web-based. Also, we are interested in any ability to link from other websites into Intervals.

Robert

A full API would definitely be of interest to my company. We would love the ability to exchange Intervals data with other online and offline applications.

API Update
We have begun development of the Intervals API and hope to launch soon. To give you a sneak peak inside of the API development, here is what you can expect:

1. Authentication will use HTTP Basic Authentication


2. The API will be accessible using POST requests


3. Your Intervals data will be available via the API in both XML and JSON formats.


4. Request lists of data or individual items

Next Steps
We still need to API-enable the individual actions (task lists, project lists, etc) and start testing. Meanwhile, we're finalizing the API documentation. We are considering launching a read-only API for now, to get it launched sooner, and then follow-up with a fully functional read-write API. So now is a good time to let us know your thoughts on the API. Do you have any ideas for us? Any needs for us to consider? Let us know.

API Sneak Peak
Here is an example, from our pending documentation, of how API calls will work:

Request

curl -H 'Accept: application/xml' -u jreevius:wh4t1tb3l1k3 https://url


Response

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<item>
<key>value</key>
<key>value</key>
</item>


Could you give a quick example of using your API using vbscript, vba or visual basic?
Just to point me in the right direction...

Thanks,
Matt

This is an excellent approach; essentially the same strategy as most other W2.0 systems out there.

We had been using BaseCamp before switching to Intervals and we have started a framework for importing MS Project XML files. It created an OO abstraction layer over BaseCamp so it treated all of the POST and returned XML elements as populated classes - much like an object relational mapper (since we already develop an ORM for SQL called BizBlox).

Since you are attacking the tasks first, please see if you can also allow for task creation as well as just viewing/listing.
I will start rewriting the wrapper for Intervals as I get some time and post it up. Its written in C# so any managed language can use it - and it could easily be ported to Java - I will post code back here as it gets done.

Regards
Joe

The API is in development, but is being lowered in priority so we can get Milestones and QuickBooks integration launched.

My biggest wish for the API is a task XML import function is that part of your vision for the future API?

I have developed an Adobe AIR based time tracking application called Klok (https://klok.mcgraphix.com) and have been gathering information about integration with existing online systems. I am very interested in finding out more about the forthcoming API. Please feel free to contact me directly through email (I assume you have the address since I needed it to register) or through my website.

I am also interested in the API as we will be looking at moving a large bugzilla installation over. I am also interested though in the qb export and milestones. So I would say continue on all three :)

Any update on the API? We just started using intervals and we're very pleased with it. However, as a programmer I'd like more flexibility than what you have currently with your curl implementation. I understand it's still in development :D

It would be cool to build a desktop timer, iPhone app, etc.

Thanks.

I wanted to give everyone a quick update on the API.

The API is currently in development. After meeting internally with our developers, we all agreed that the best approach is going to be the REST method. Our first release of the API will allow for basic interaction with tasks, time, projects, clients, invoices, documents, and so on. Subsequent releases will further enhance the API by adding specialized methods for common use scenarios like closing tasks, starting and stopping timers, etc.

So stay tuned! The API is on its way and is going to be highly functional and versatile.

Terrific news about the upcoming API. My firm is rolling out an Intervals implementation this week, and is definitely interested in making use of the API for internal communications and such.

I am very interested in this. I would love to move at least the interface for clients onto my own site, so I can provide more options like submitting project requests etc. I'd like a way in the API to be able to create projects, if possible.

I'm thinking about developing a simple control panel for clients hosted with me, and would love to tie Intervals into that, too.

Here is a page of API examples from our upcoming beta documentation.
Resource Operations As mentioned in the intro, resources follow RESTful principles. Each resource has two parts: a collection (e.g. a task list) and a member (e.g. an individual task). How you interact with these resources depends on which HTTP method you use and whether you are addressing a member or a collection. The API root URL is located at https://api.myintervals.com/ Here are some examples of accessing resources: Accessing information about a task GET https://api.myintervals.com/task/13/ Getting a full task list GET https://api.myintervals.com/task/ Getting a filtered task list GET https://api.myintervals.com/task/?clientid=5443&personid=2344 Creating a task POST https://api.myintervals.com/task/ <task>...</task> Editing a task PUT https://api.myintervals.com/task/13/ <task>...</task> Deleting a task DELETE https://api.myintervals.com/task/13/ PUT/POST Interchangeability Though RESTful principles describe separate HTTP methods for creating and updating resources, we understand that there is limited support for PUT in certain development platforms. Consequently, you may use PUT and POST interchangeably; the system will determine whether a member is being created or updated based on whether or not a resource id is passed in the parameters. Sample Requests A simple example of how to request a task list using a formed HTTP request:
<strong>GET</strong> https://api.myintervals.com/task/
Accept: application/xml
Authorization: Basic MTIzNDU6QUJDREU=
For more complicated requests post your XML or JSON directly. The Content-type Header The Intervals API supports both XML and JSON as forms of input for PUT and POST requests, but you must specify which type you are using by including either application/xml or application/json in a Content-Type HTTP header sent with your request. An example of updating the description on a timer using XML.
<strong>PUT</strong> https://api.myintervals.com/timer/9282/
Accept: application/xml
Content-type: application/xml
Authorization: Basic MTIzNDU6QUJDREU=
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<timer>
<name>Client X homepage redesign</name>
</timer>
An example of creating a new timer JSON.
<strong>POST</strong> https://api.myintervals.com/timer/
Accept: application/json
Content-type: application/json
Authorization: Basic MTIzNDU6QUJDREU=
{
"timer":{
"personid":2051,
"starttime":"2009-06-19 10:06:36",
"name":"Meeting with Client Y"
}
}
A more detailed description of each type of request, including required fields and the expected response, can be found in each individual resource page. Sample Response An example of a XML response. Please note that values containing reserved XML characters are embedded with CDATA tags to allow for proper XML parsing.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<intervals status="OK" code="200">
<client>
<id>4561</id>
<name>My Italian client</name>
<datecreated>2007-09-04</datecreated>
<description/>
<firstname>Molto</firstname>
<lastname>Bene</lastname>
<email>whatever@blah.com</email>
<website/>
<phone>+44 01223 123456</phone>
<cell>+44 01223 123456</cell>
<fax>+44 01223 123456</fax>
<address>810 Montecito St</address>
<aptsuite>C</aptsuite>
<city>Santa Barbara</city>
<state>CA</state>
<zip>93103</zip>
<country>US</country>
<active>t</active>
</client>
</intervals>
An example of a JSON response:
{
"status":"OK",
"code":200,
"client":{
"id":"4561",
"name":"My Italian client",
"datecreated":"2007-09-04",
"description":null,
"firstname":"Molto",
"lastname":"Bene",
"email":"info@myintervals.com",
"website":null,
"phone":"+44 01223 123456",
"cell":"+44 01223 123456",
"fax":"+44 01223 123456",
"address":"810 Montecito St",
"aptsuite":"C",
"city":"Santa Barbara",
"state":"CA",
"zip":"93103",
"country":"US",
"active":"t"
}
}
Note: These example responses have been formatted for easy viewing. The actual response returns with whitespace stripped.

You could potentially create a separate site with a client view that is completely customized. Keep in mind that the executive user is going to be phased out in the future with the ability to add multiple contacts to clients with more granular access control. Depending on your needs that separate update that is not related to the API may do the trick.

Michael - we are very interested in leveraging this api for our change log - to create a change log automatically once intervals is populated with appropriate keywords to recognize a log-relevant task. We would be very interested in participating in the beta program.

I am using curl to test drive the API and I am getting the following error: and then it just returns the html for the error page. This is the first time I have used curl, so please let me know if I am missing something

Error Message>curl: (6) could not resolve host: application; host not found
Command Used>curl -k -h 'Accept: application/json' -u <generated_token>:x https://api.myintervals.com/task

I also tried with our actual domain and got the same thing.

Thanks,

Thanks for the prompt feedback John!

I sent the information you requested to the api@myintervals.com.

I was able to resolve the host error(I think), after rereading the error message I removed the space between the colon and application in 'Accept: application/json' and I did not get the host error anymore, but still returning the "Oh Snap" html.

Thanks,

I'm trying to write a hook for Subversion where if somebody mentions "task (number)" in their commit comment, that task gets updated with a comment about what changed. I've worked out the SVN side of things but I'm having an issue with the API: it seems to use some internal ID for tasks rather than the client-visibile ID (presumably some surrogate key used for all tasks stored by Intervals across all companies).

For example, I have a task #6567 in my company's Intervals account, but I can't add a comment to it.

curl --header "Accept: application/json" --insecure -u "********" https://api.myintervals.com/task/6567

...results in:
{"personid":null,"status":"Forbidden","code":403,"error":{"code":10,"message":"User not authorized to access this information","verbose":["You don't appear to have the correct permissions to access the element you are trying to access."]}}

However, if I use a six-digit ID I found while reverse-engineering some Ajax used when viewing a task, the comment does show up. I have the same kind of error when trying to view a task using GET /task/number where number is the four-digit number used for task numbers in the UI and not the surrogate key.

Is this a known bug or am I doing something wrong?

Strange. That error should only occur when there are database connectivity issues, which is rare. I'm going to assume that since your message went through, the request to view the result had a database mishap. Let's chalk it up as a fluke ;)

Meanwhile, to answer your question...

You are correct. The internal id for the tasks is different than the vanity id (due to primary key constraints at the database level). To update a task you need to use the internal id. One way to get that is to reverse-engineer the ajax requests, but that is the long way round (great movie, by the way). Anyways, if you use the task resource to get a list of tasks that will show you the internal id for each task. The vanity id is the localid field.

I realize now we don't have localid as a filter option for the task list resource. I'm going to forward that to our development team. Once we have the localid as an option for the task list filter, it will make it much much easier to get the internal id and other task info.

My apologies for not updating the forum. Yes, the task lists can now be filtered on localid in the API. We added this several weeks ago. You can now use the localid on the task filter to obtain the actual id of the task in question.

Here is a direct link to the API documentation and there is a link to the API documentation in the footer below as well.

Since I am not finding any existing applications that sync with planners I use, I am actually considering just writing my own syncing application so I can sync with what I want. An API would be an important feature that I need to do that. Unless I figure out a way to get Intervals to sync with our existing project management system, I probably will have to stop using Intervals, or only use it in specific situations.