Ning bug: REST get of Blogpost has id# not username

[Erol Fox]

This code should return a blog feed and does.


However, instead of the user name for the post, it returns an id like: 3lya7yrvqty15

definately not cool and looks goofy to human reader.

[Devin]

Hello Erol!

This is not a bug, this is the members unique Ning ID. A members username can change over time, but the Ning ID does not change. You can find the mapping between Ning ID's and usernames using a REST request of the members profile.

-Devin!

[Erol Fox]

Thanks Devin! I did understand it is the user id. But the actual user name should be returned, not an id #. The entire XML feel is returned. We would have to parse the entire file, grab the ids, replace them, ouch ouch.

That was the bug, user "id" returned rather than "username" as in any feed.

[Erol Fox]

any word on this devin? I really want a valid human-readable username on feeds, rather than an id number. please...

[Devin]

Hello Erol!

Sorry for the wait! I realized that rather than getting the blog posts from the REST endpoint, you could use your networks generated RSS feeds. These feeds contain the translated member ID.

The RSS feed for everyone's blogs is as follows:

http://examplenetwork.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?xn_auth=no

For a member's blog who has the Ning ID 1xugqabn0t2ln it would be:

http://examplenetwork.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=1xugqabn0t2l...

You could also check out the blog widget to see how these feeds are generated and come up with your own scheme.

Good Luck!

Devin

[Erol Fox]

ah, so REST won't be fixed?

on a private network we may want to use REST to create a feed so the whole world won't know how to get the feed. the built in fails on privates, which is as desired.

[Erol Fox]

Hi Devin!

any word on correcting the REST feed request as the standard feed requests were fixed?

[Devin]

Hello Erol!

I don't think the engineering team is planning to remove the Ning ID from the REST feeds.

If you are looking to hide the true location of the RSS feed, you could embed the feed in a PHP file placed somewhere else.

Cheers!

Devin

[Erol Fox]

yes I have a PHP file that calls REST.

but, WOW, no feed anywhere on the planet puts a user ID instead of a human's name. There are obviously a few lines of code missing that would take the ID# and replace with the string.

I'm sure if this was pointed out they'd see that flaw. there could be no reason anyone would want the ID# and have to re-parse the entire output. right?

thanks for the contact!