Home → FormSpring API → Overview → Overview

1.1. Overview

Requests

• All requests must be submitted with a valid API key. (e.g. api_key=ABCDE)
• All requests must be made to the url https://www.formspring.com/api/METHOD where METHOD is the name of one of the methods specified below.
• All requests must be submitted over SSL.
• Requests may be submitted using HTTP POST or GET methods, although POST is required for file uploads.
• Requests are limited to 14,400 calls per day (an average of 10 requests per minute). This limit is per account, not per API key.

Responses

• The default response type is XML
• The response type may be requested using the type parameter with one of xml, json or php. (e.g. type=json)
• All successful calls will be returned with an HTTP status code of 200
• Calls that reference a form or data object that could not be found will be returned with an HTTP status code of 400
• Invalid calls will be returned with an HTTP status code of 500

Example Successful XML Response

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<response status="ok">
[xml]
</response>

Example Successful JSON Response

{
"status" : "ok",
"response" : [ ]
}

Example Successful PHP Response

    a:2:{s:6:"status";s:2:"ok";s:7:"response";a:0:{}}

Example Error XML Response

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<response status="error">
<error>ERROR MESSAGE</error>
</response>

Example Error JSON Response

{
"status" : "error",
"error" : "ERROR MESSAGE"
}

Example Error PHP Response

a:2:{s:6:"status";s:5:"error";s:5:"error";s:13:"ERROR MESSAGE";}

Authentication

Multiple API keys can be created per account, and each key can be configured to indicate which forms can be accessed, and what permissions are allowed when doing so.

Permissions are defined as:

• Info: can get the form name, certain settings, and statistics such as the # of submissions and views
• Data: can search and view data collected for the form
• Submit: can submit new entries but not view or edit data
• Write: can view or edit data, or submit new entries