TheTVDB.com

Since there seems to be an influx of whining about series orders lately (thanks Terra Nova), I figured I might as well post about this. Development of the new site continues, but I've made a couple of key decisions and at least partially implemented them. I've also spoken with a couple of key API developers so they know what's coming. Most of you know that the new site will have additional flexibility for our season orders. Now, nothing is completely nailed down yet, so any of this may change and anyone planning on whining about it at some point can direct their complaints to hikaricore (expect a "honey badger" response).

In a nutshell we'll be adding a "Popular" order in addition to the air date (will be referred to as "Official"), absolute, and DVD orders. We also have the code in place where we can easily add additional order types, like director's preferred, unsplit storyline (possibly for cartoons like Phineas and Ferb, where we currently split two part episodes) etc. Each series will require a mod to enable alternate order types beyond official, DVD, and absolute. The "Popular" order will be used in instances where there is a very strong demand for an order that varies from the official listing (hello again, Terra Nova). People will still have to post a valid reason for requiring an alternate order to be enabled. The exact rules for this will be determined at a later date.

On the end-user app side, app developers will have to program in these alternate orders per series and handle them accordingly. There's some added complexity, so don't expect your app to automatically make use of this. Don't demand that they do so or be dicks about it... ask them nicely and make sure you contribute to help support their development.

Before anyone asks, the expected release of the new site is When It's Done.

Do you have something detailing what many of the api changes are/going to be?

I'm just curious if you had a doc/link so I can send it to some devs so they could get some pseudo code going to be prepared.

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Nope. I've already spoken with devs from some of the projects to let them know a change is coming, but that's all. When the API is ready for them to look at it, I'll send it over. Until then it'll just waste their time (in case something changes) and mine (dealing with various questions about it).