REST API access to Featured Blogs

[Dayne]

Is there an attribute tag or something that allows me to pull in only the featured blog postings through REST?

I've found everything else I need. I'm just missing this one piece.

[Nick Verwymeren]

I need something like this too. It would also be nice toaccess blogs based on tags through REST.

[TimG]

At first, I was simply going to say, "Me, too!" (but that's obnoxious).

While I *am* anxious to hear Ning's answer - about filtering Blogs and other content by "Featured" status - I think my current work-around is pretty decent.

I grabbed my Blog section's RSS feed, and headed over to Yahoo! Pipes. There, I created a new Pipe that pulls in *all* the blog entries, then proceeds to employ *several* filters so I can carefully block/allow the content I want.

Among those "filters" is a Block: ALL type filter set for "Match Regex". I crafted a Regex expression that catches blogs whose titles begin and end with an asterisk.

Why? Well, as my network's Creator, I'm apt to want my own blog content to appear in a separate RSS box on our Main Page. Easy: I just make another Yahoo! Pipe, this time with an Allow: ALL filter looking for asterisks at both ends of the blog entry's title. Those would be mine!

In case you're wondering, I never saw any XML field among Ning's imported RSS items that would identify them as "Featured", nor their "Tags", etc. Though it would be *awesome* if Ning would begin passing that data out. Otherwise, it's a pain in the butt to sort things the way I mentioned above.

And nothing stops others from accidentally getting through my filters using asterisks in their title. Sure, I could filter by author, but I wanted a way for my Admins to easily make their blogs appear in my special box, too. It's a temporary arrangement, to be sure.

I'd MUCH rather mark things as Featured, or specially tagged, etc., knowing I can do something in the REST API to pull 'em out.

P.S. My Yahoo! Pipes also strip the leading/trailing asterisk (*) characters, so nobody knows what I'm doing. ha ha

- TimG