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<id>http://developer.github.com/</id>

<title>GitHub API Changes</title>

<updated>2012-09-28T07:00:00Z</updated>

<link rel="alternate" href="http://developer.github.com/" />

<link rel="self" href="http://developer.github.com/changes.atom" />

<author>

<name>technoweenie</name>

<uri>https://github.com/technoweenie</uri>

</author>

<entry>

<id>tag:developer.github.com,2012-09-28:/changes/2012-9-28-auto-init-for-repositories/</id>

<title type="html">Initialize a repository when creating</title>

<published>2012-09-28T07:00:00Z</published>

<updated>2012-09-28T07:00:00Z</updated>

<author>

<name>pengwynn</name>

<uri>https://github.com/technoweenie</uri>

</author>

<link rel="alternate" href="http://developer.github.com/changes/2012-9-28-auto-init-for-repositories/" />

<content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Today we’ve made it easier to add commits to a repository via the GitHub API.

Until now, you could &lt;a href="/v3/repos/#create"&gt;create a repository&lt;/a&gt;, but you would

need to initialize it locally via your Git client before adding any commits via

the API.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now you can optionally init a repository when it’s created by sending &lt;code&gt;true&lt;/code&gt;

for the &lt;code&gt;auto_init&lt;/code&gt; parameter:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre class="terminal"&gt;

curl -i -u pengwynn \

-d '{"name": "create-repo-test", "auto_init": true}' \

https://api.github.com/user/repos

&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The resulting repository will have a README stub and an initial commit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/images/posts/create-repo-init.png" alt="create repo screenshot"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="gitignore-templates"&gt;.gitignore templates&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Along with this change, you can set up your &lt;code&gt;.gitignore&lt;/code&gt; template by passing

the basename of any template in the &lt;a href="https://github.com/github/gitignore"&gt;GitHub gitignore templates

project&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre class="terminal"&gt;

curl -i -u pengwynn \

-d '{"name": "create-repo-test", "auto_init": true, \

"gitignore_template": "Haskell"}' \

https://api.github.com/user/repos

&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As the &lt;a href="/v3/repos/#create"&gt;docs point out&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;code&gt;gitignore_template&lt;/code&gt; parameter

is ignored if &lt;code&gt;auto_init&lt;/code&gt; is not present and &lt;code&gt;true&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you have any questions or feedback, drop us a line at

&lt;a href="https://github.com/c"&gt;https://github.com/contact&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="mailto:[email protected]"&gt;[email protected]&lt;/a&gt;, or

&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/githubapi"&gt;@GitHubAPI&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</content>

</entry>

<entry>

<id>tag:developer.github.com,2012-09-05:/changes/2012-9-5-watcher-api/</id>

<title type="html">Upcoming Changes to Watcher and Star APIs</title>

<published>2012-09-05T07:00:00Z</published>

<updated>2012-09-05T07:00:00Z</updated>

<author>

<name>technoweenie</name>

<uri>https://github.com/technoweenie</uri>

</author>

<link rel="alternate" href="http://developer.github.com/changes/2012-9-5-watcher-api/" />

<content type="html">&lt;p&gt;We recently &lt;a href="https://github.com/blog/1204-notifications-stars"&gt;changed the Watcher behavior&lt;/a&gt; on GitHub. What

used to be known as “Watching” is now “Starring”. Starring is basically a way

to bookmark interesting repositories. Watching is a way to indicate that you

want to receive email or web notifications on a Repository.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This works well on GitHub.com, but poses a problem for the GitHub API. How do

we change this in a way that developers can gracefully upgrade their

applications? We’re currently looking at rolling out the changes in three

phases over an extended period of time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="current-status"&gt;Current Status&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The current &lt;a href="http://developer.github.com/v3/repos/starring/"&gt;Repository Starring&lt;/a&gt; methods look like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/repos/:owner/:repo/watchers&lt;/code&gt; - A list of users starring the repository.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/users/:user/watched&lt;/code&gt; - A list of repositories that a user has starred.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/user/watched&lt;/code&gt; - A list of repositories the current user has starred.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2 id="phase-1-add-watchers-as-subscriptions"&gt;Phase 1: Add Watchers as Subscriptions&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This phase exposes Watchers as “Subscriptions”. This is to

keep from clashing with the legacy endpoints. This phase will happen

automatically and will not break your application until Phase 3 starts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/repos/:owner/:repo/subscribers&lt;/code&gt; - A list of users watching the repository.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/users/:user/subscriptions&lt;/code&gt; - A list of repositories that a user is watching.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/user/subscriptions&lt;/code&gt; - A list of repositories the current user is watching.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;We’ll also add a copy of the legacy Watchers API in the new endpoint:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/repos/:owner/:repo/stargazers&lt;/code&gt; - A list of users starring the repository.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/users/:user/starred&lt;/code&gt; - A list of repositories that a user has starred.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;code&gt;/user/starred&lt;/code&gt; - A list of repositories the current user has starred.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is in place &lt;em&gt;now&lt;/em&gt; with the current media type for the API:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;application/vnd.github.beta+json

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you care about your application not breaking, make sure all outgoing API

requests pass that value for the “Accept” header. You should do this now. This

can be verified by checking the &lt;code&gt;X-GitHub-Media-Type&lt;/code&gt; header on all API

responses.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;# Accesses a user's starred repositories.

curl https://api.github.com/user/watched \

-H "Accept: application/vnd.github.beta+json"

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This Phase will be broken once Phase 3 starts. Phase 3 removes all support for

the “beta” media type, and makes the “v3” media type the implicit default

for API requests.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="phase-2-switch-watchers-api-endpoint"&gt;Phase 2: Switch &lt;code&gt;/watchers&lt;/code&gt; API Endpoint&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The “watch” endpoints will now be a copy of the “subscription” endpoints. You

will have to use &lt;code&gt;/user/starred&lt;/code&gt; to get a user’s starred repositories, not

&lt;code&gt;/user/watched&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This requires a new media type value:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;application/vnd.github.v3+json

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is a breaking change from Phase 1. We will release this change in an

experimental mode first, letting developers gracefully upgrade their

applications by specifying the new media value for the Accept header.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;# Accesses a user's watched repositories.

curl https://api.github.com/user/watched \

-H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json"

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;h2 id="phase-3-remove-subscribers-api-endpoint"&gt;Phase 3: Remove &lt;code&gt;/subscribers&lt;/code&gt; API Endpoint.&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This phase involves disabling the subscription endpoints completely. At this

point, you should be using the starring endpoints for starred repositories, and

the watch endpoints for watched repositories. No date has been set yet, but we

expect this to be &lt;em&gt;3-6 months&lt;/em&gt; after Phase 2 is in place. This should give

developers enough time for a smooth upgrade path. If they use popular API

wrappers, the work will likely mostly be done for them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Keep on passing the “v3” media type in your application, until the API has

another breaking change to make. If you can’t make the deadline for Phase 3,

just set the “beta” media type until we shut that down completely. It’s likely

that we will keep the old “beta” media type active for another month, like

the &lt;a href="https://github.com/blog/1090-github-api-moving-on"&gt;last time&lt;/a&gt; we terminated

old API functionality.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We look forward to assisting you through this transition. Hit us up at

&lt;a href="https://github.com/c"&gt;https://github.com/contact&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="mailto:[email protected]"&gt;[email protected]&lt;/a&gt;, or

&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/githubapi"&gt;@GitHubAPI&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</content>

</entry>

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