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Erik McClintock
45,783 PointsCan I access forum statistics for a Treehouse member from the JSON for their profile?
Andrew Chalkley In the forum, when I've been asked specifically to help on a given question, I noticed that next to the other suggestions for people to help, they have a) the total number of answers that they've supplied, and b) the number of times their answers have been voted as "best".
I've just today begun your Node.js course, and was wondering if this "answers/best answers" data (along with other forum statistics, like the different categories that a user posts to/answers questions in, number of upvotes, etc) was stored somewhere in the JSON of my profile? In accessing the JSON and doing searches for terms that I would assume this information would be tracked under (like "best", "answer", "vote", "forum", etc.), I have been unsuccessful in finding anything. Is this information tracked/stored elsewhere, or is it inaccessible to students?
2 Answers
Dave McFarland
Treehouse TeacherHi Erik McClintock,
Information about forum posts, votes, etc, are tracked and used by the Treehouse app, but aren't exposed in the public API. So, unfortunately, you won't be able to get at that information using Node, or any other programming language.
Dustin Matlock
33,856 PointsErik, one thing I use to reference helpful posts I've made, is a Google search of my full name in quotes. Works decent of you have a somewhat unique name. For instance: Erik McClintock.
Erik McClintock
45,783 PointsThanks for the tip, Dustin!
Erik McClintock
45,783 PointsErik McClintock
45,783 PointsThank you for the response, Dave McFarland. Are there any plans to make this information accessible in the future, and if not, would you be able to share any insight as to the reasoning behind that decision? Just curious, as I am a glutton for statistics and recording/comparing my progress over time, and I spend quite a bit of my time here in the forums so that information is of particular interest (especially since it isn't tracked or visible elsewhere on my profile) :)
Dave McFarland
Treehouse TeacherDave McFarland
Treehouse TeacherHi Erik,
Basically it adds a lot of programming time for us to expose that information in the API. We're so busy working on getting great content out, making sure our site works for our students and improving the educational experience at Treehouse that we're probably not going to add that info to the API. Sorry.
Erik McClintock
45,783 PointsErik McClintock
45,783 PointsUnderstood. Thank you for the information!
Dustin Matlock
33,856 PointsDustin Matlock
33,856 PointsDave McFarland, that's interesting. I thought it was unique to not have that information — that maybe Treehouse decided it to help with privacy and the usual status quos you sometimes see on forums.
Erik McClintock
45,783 PointsErik McClintock
45,783 PointsIf some of that information weren't already visible when you are able to ask specific people for help on a post (the number of answers and best answers for a given user), I wouldn't have thought twice about it being inaccessible and would've thought the same thing as you, Dustin; that perhaps it was hidden for privacy reasons. Since it is exposed in some fashion, though, that's were I had a spot of confusion and hope for more.
Dustin Matlock
33,856 PointsDustin Matlock
33,856 PointsP.S. Dave McFarland, Ryan Carson, Alan Johnson, Johnny Thunder, if mods had a tool similar to Canopy, it would make our contributions here much easier. However, I do realize there's a lot of other things planned.