Digg API

Recent News

Digg's Public API Proxy and Good API Application Design

by Kurt Wilms at 11am, Apr 23rd, 2008

by Steve Williams at 4pm, Feb 4th, 2008

by Kurt Wilms at 6pm, Oct 25th, 2007

Background

The Digg Application Programming Interface (API) has been created to let users and partners interact programmatically with Digg. The API returns Digg data in a form that can be easily integrated into an application or a web site. While the API is available to everyone free of charge, its use is subject to acceptance of our API License Agreement.

We intend to make most of the data on Digg.com available through the API. Currently, you can use the API to request very specific information about news stories and videos submitted to Digg, digging activity, comments, users, and gallery photos.

The API accepts REST requests and offers several response types: XML, JSON, Javascript, and serialized PHP. In addition, a PEAR module is available for PHP as well other open-source toolkits.

Thank you for interacting with and using the Digg API. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please visit the Digg API Community Support Forum.

Want to use the Digg API for commercial purposes? Contact us at partners@digg.com. Please provide as much detail as you can about your proposed application and how you would like the business relationship with Digg to work. We will review your proposal and get back to you as soon as we can if there is interest in discussing a commercial license for your application.

Getting Started

The Basic Concepts page describes the basics of how to use the API, including requirements, common considerations, error code information, and a current list of available Digg topics. We recommend you start with Basic Concepts.

The Endpoints pages describe API calls and give some sample requests and responses. There's also a handy index of all endpoints.

Summary of API Features

List Stories Endpoint

This endpoint returns a list of stories matching various criteria. Examples:

Get all popular stories submitted after January 1, 2007 sorted by promotion date
- And is from the container Science
- Or is from the topic Celebrity
Get the most recent 100 upcoming stories in the topic "Apple"
- And is sorted by submission date
Get the first 20 stories that were promoted on or after December 25, 2005
Determine whether a story, identified by its URL, has been submitted to Digg and, if so, get details like the number of Diggs and comments it has received
Get the details of a story, identified by its URL on Digg
Get all stories submitted today from nytimes.com
Get all stories submitted by Kevin Rose (or another Digger)

The response is a list of stories. When there are no matches for the request, the response is an XML document that contains no stories. Each story in the response includes the following story-related information:

The id of the story
The title
The description
The Digg permalink URL (href)
Its URL (source story URL)
The submit date
The Digg count
The number of comments
The date it was promoted (if relevant)
The status of the story (popular or upcoming)
The user who submitted the story
The container and topic to which it was submitted

The request can also narrow the results to stories submitted or promoted in a particular time period or from one domain or a specific URL. Individual Digg stories can be requested by URL. The request can be limited to a maximum number of stories and the results sorted by date submitted or promoted.

List Events Endpoint

This endpoint returns the Diggs for the requested stories. Some examples:

All Diggs on popular stories Dugg yesterday
The most recent Diggs from user jayadelson
The last 5 comments made by user kevinrose

The last 10 Diggs on stories in upcoming that were Dugg today
The first 100 Diggs on stories Dugg by user blink21 last week
Whether user blink21 has Dugg story id 473148
All Diggs on story ids 473148, 473149 and 473150
All Diggs on story id 473148 sorted newest first

The response includes includes:

Total Digg (or comment) count
The number of Diggs (or comments) included in the response
For each event (Digg or comment):
- The date and time the event occurred
- The id of the story that was Dugg or commented on
- The status of the story at the time of the event (popular or upcoming)
- The user who Dugg or commented on the story
In the case of comments, up and down comment-diggs are provided as well as the comment text

List Users Endpoint

This endpoint returns a list of users, or friends or fans of users. Some examples:

Get all users
Get the details of a single user, sbwms
Get the friends of user jayadelson
Get the fans of user kevinrose sorted in reverse alphabetical order

For each user returned in a request, the response includes:

User name
URL of the user's icon
Date the user registered on Digg
Number of profile views

List Gallery Photos Endpoint

This endpoint returns gallery photos. Some examples:

Get all gallery photos
Get the details of a single gallery photo
Get the comments on a gallery photo

For each gallery photo returned in a request, the response includes:

The id of the gallery photo
The gallery photo title
The Digg gallery URL (href)
Its URL (image source)
The submit date
The number of comments
The user who uploaded the gallery photo

Topics Endpoint

This endpoint returns a list of Digg topics. Each topic includes a capitalized name for display as well as a short name used as an argument to other endpoints.