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Better API Documentation

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Level 5

3/30/17

The API documentation needs to be improved overall. There are things missing from it, and there are references to v4 and v5, without notes about whether or not they're still relevant. It's hampering our integration efforts.

5 Comments

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Level 9

5/2/17

And offering Jira integration - even if just basic functionality. Or a good whitepaper wireframe for our developers to create the connections.

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Level 3

11/17/17

The documentation took a downturn recently when they moved it to be inside the support articles.

Various suggestions:

  • Condense pages
  • Fix all the "Whats New" pages, the links are scattered and sparse.
  • *Move the API docs out of the support section*. I know they have developersupport.workfront.com under development, but the API docs are unnecessarily cramped in the support templates they have. Case in point: the API explorer. It is now a scrolling iform inside a fixed-width scrolling page. It's awful. Furthermore, the API-Basics doc is now an utter eye-sore because of the fonts used in the support pages. Code snippets are huge and blend in with text, and tables are tiny and smushed.
  • Find API-related documents easier. Try to link them inside pages more, don't truncate the articles lists so much, and add more pages to the API master page. See "Condense pages".
  • Fix the API Explorer search bar to allow for partial searches and searching by objCode. Right now if I look up "Role" it won't return anything, but if I look up "Job" it will finally give Job Role. I already did the javascript for them to throw in here.
  • There's no documentation explaining the constants in depth
  • It'd be nice to have Object Type viewable from the API-Explorer objects more easily. If you're using the API you understand basic programming, and programmers tend to expect to see variable type of the fields. Instead you have to click each field and find the type. ie some fields like "Last Updated By" or "receiver" you couldn't know were user objects until you clicked through them.
  • Wish list: API explorer has no tie-in with a live environment, so customizable enums like project status have to be looked up on your own environment.
  • Put the section breakdown back on the API-Basics page. A sidebar table of contents used to be available but was removed when the documentation was moved to the support section.

Links I've had to accumulate to get all the information needed for API use:

API-Basics - Most stuff: authentication, gets, posts, deletes, search, fields, custom data, reports, pagination, bulk actions, etc.

Understanding Text Mode - provided insight on how to do distinct lists of conditions

    &AND:0:project:status_Mod=notin
    &AND:0:project:status=CPL

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Level 3

3/13/19

Agreed! WF API doc needs a new look and functionality, my particular complaint is when an object exists independently of a parent record yet there's no way to fetch it with an API call... madness :D It should be crystal-clear to any semi-technical admin working with exporting or importing data via REST or automating with an external tool what is possible and what is not.

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Community Advisor

12/30/20

I'd love to see a description column in the API Explorer to indicate what each item is in plain English. Most of the items are fairly straight forward, but some are not clear.

For example, I've recently learned while trying to do a User Kick-Start:

  • Layout Template ID - applies only to Workfront Classic
  • UI Template ID - applies to New Workfront Experience

and you need to use the appropriate one depending on which you are working in.