Help:App Policies
Categories: WikiTree Help | Developer Help
Some of these policies are new and subject to change. Please post in the WikiTree Apps Google Group if you have input.
Developers: Here are our policies for apps, browser extensions, and other usages of our API, data dumps, and website content.
We want to give developers a wide open field to experiment, but we need some usage rules to keep WikiTree free.
For an introduction to how apps and extensions relate to the core WikiTree website, see Help:Developers.
Note: The Terms of Service is the legally-binding agreement for all WikiTree users. Anything on this page or any special access given to developers that violates these terms, our privacy policy, rules developed by the WikiTree community, or any applicable laws or privacy regulations is a mistake that needs to be corrected.
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Using the API
Scraping data from WikiTree is discouraged. Use the API instead.
If you have an idea that would require data that is not yet in the API, please make a request in the WikiTree Apps Google Group.
If you do need to request a page, include an appId with your request. For example: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/somepage?appId=myAppId
App ID
When requesting data from the WikiTree API, please include an appId with your request. This can generally be anything you want, but it should be unique to your app.
For example: https://api.wikitree.com/api.php?action=getProfile&key=Adams-35&appId=myAppID
API Rate Limits
The API is rate-limited[1] so that no single app overwhelms our capacity.
The current rate limits per user are:
- 200 per minute
- 4000 per hour
To reduce the number of requests your app makes, you can use getPeople to request data for multiple profiles at once.
You can also build pauses into your app to slow down the request rate. Many apps are intended for experienced WikiTree members who don't mind waiting for something to load, or paginating through results.
If you need data on a large number of profiles, it may be better to use the data dumps or Aleš Trtnik's WikiTree+. The WikiTree Browser Extension has a module to access WT+ and other apps utilize it to retrieve data on tens of thousands of records. The limitations are that the data can be up to 8 days old, and biographies are not available. Ask Aleš about your idea.
Browser Extension Features
In general, extensions should not gather data through WikiTree pages other than the one the user is viewing. See #Using the API above. If you think it's necessary, consult with the apps group and wait for a response from the WikiTree Team.
If a feature has the potential to make a large number of API calls, or if it is meant to display on every profile page using data from the API, it should require a click from the user to display the data instead of running automatically.
You may want to store data fetched from the API in the user's browser for a period of time to reduce the number of required API calls.
If the developer community or WikiTree Team decide that a feature included in the WikiTree Browser Extension is too resource-intensive, it may be removed.
External Websites
If you are using the API or data from WikiTree pages on an external website:
- Images from WikiTree must only be displayed in their 75-pixel thumbnail form. There should be a link to view the full image page on WikiTree (this page includes copyright notices, credit to the member who uploaded it, and other important details).
- Biographies from WikiTree should not be displayed on external websites.
- Data must not be cached or preserved beyond the user's session with the application. Storing data could be a violation of privacy, copyrights, etc., and could have serious legal implications for you and WikiTree. Permissions and restrictions on usage of the data dumps are slightly different. See Help:Database Dumps.
- ↑ The API rate limits have not been finalized.
This page was last modified 20:09, 7 December 2023. This page has been accessed 307 times.