myVidster API (Beta)

Here is a how to guide for using our API. The API is in beta and we need your feedback to make it better. Only a few functions are available but more will be added soon (requests will be given higher priority).

Requirements:
myVidster account, if you do not have one please register here.

Insert function
This function will bookmark videos to your collection.

Syntax:

http://www.myvidster.com/user/api.php?action=insert&email=email&password=sha1 encrypted password&channel_id=channel id&url=encoded url to video

Parameters:

email: Your email you register with myVidster.
password: Sha1 encrypted password use a hash generator to encrypt your password.
url: Encoded url of webpage containing the video use a url encoder to encode the url.
channel_id: This is the ID of the channel that the video will be save to. Go to your video collections homepage and click on the channel link (typically it’s call Favorites). For example the ID for this channel is 13512.
access (optional): By default all videos are given public access. To set to private use 1 and if the video contain adult content set to 2. Note if you are require to flag videos with adult content.
embed (optional): If myVidster is having issues fetching the embed then provide the embed code (url encoded).

Return values (in XML format):

video_id: Video identifier can be use with the fetch function.
title: Title of the video.
description: Description of the video.
thumbnail_url#: myVidster attempts to fetch a video thumbnail from the video host, if it cannot find one then one will be generate. Use the fetch function to get myVidster's generated thumbnails (recommended).
status: Will have the word Success or an error message.

Fetch Function
This function will retrieve information of a bookmarked video.

Syntax

http://www.myvidster.com/user/api.php?action=fetch&email=email&password=sha1 encrypted password&video_id=video

Parameters:

email: Your email you register with myVidster.
password: Sha1 encrypted password use a hash generator to encrypt your password.
video_id: : This is the ID of the video. You can get the video ID when executing the insert function or in the video url. For example the ID for this video the ID is 253050.

Return values (in XML format):

video_id: Video identifier.
title: Title of the video.
description: Description of the video.
thumb_status: Will display either a Completed or Pending message.
thumbnail_url#: Video thumbnails for the video. Wait for the Completed message to appear in the thumb_status. If not you will retrieve a temp thumbnail image.

Yes we are still growing

myVidster's traffic still continues to grow! Here are the numbers.

Pageviews (last 30 days): 7,200,531
Visits (last 30 days): 460,971
Users: 17,889
Collections: 17,554
Bookmarked Videos: 134,250

I would like to highlight the growth in pageviews, wow! Take care and thanks for the support.

Profile pages are here (finally)!

myVidster now has profile pages! It has been long overdue, but worth the wait. To view your profile click here or visit myVidster and click on your user name at the top of the webpage. The purpose of the profile page is to give you and your friends an overview of your activity on myVidster. Note that any bookmarked videos that are set to private will not be viewable to other users.

Highlights
See all your bookmark videos across your collections.
See everyone who is following you.
See who you are following.
See that last 10 videos from your subscriptions (those you follow).

Upcoming additions:
Upload a profile photo.
Link to your website.

Please provide feedback.

myVidster's traffic is still climbing, now at 324,000 visits per month!

Can't stop, won't stop! myVidster popularity and traffic reaches new heights with over 324,000 visits and 3.7 million page views per month! I have put a hold on any new features and have been focusing on optimizing myVidster to manage the increase in traffic. If you remember the days of Friendster, one of their biggest drawbacks was site performance which in my opinion was one of the reason why Friendster did not reach the popularity of sites like Facebook and mySpace. Features like video searching and page load times during peak hours have been increased (< 2 seconds). myVidster's engine is very light weight which allows me to handle the traffic with only one server. Don't worry about server failure, all of your data is backed up to another server for safe keeping :)

Additional stats
Users: 15,092
Collections: 14,832
Bookmarked Videos: 109,222
Backed up Videos: 2,844 @ 62 GBs

Keep showing the love and invite your friends to join the myVidster community!

Exceeding Expectations myVidster's Traffic Doubles to 225,000 Visits!

Recently myVidster's monthly traffic reached over 225,000 visits and 2.6 million page views! myVidster's growth is due to a increase in search engine traffic, organic growth and word of month. I am so proud of the myVidster project which was launch over 3 years ago where monthly traffic was only a few thousand visits. myVidster is proof that you do not hype from bloggers or money from VCs to be successful. I will admit that organic growth is slower than media hype, but I feel that the my users are more stable and loyal.

I hope myVidster inspires others to start up their own website. All it takes is an idea and dedication.

New Enhancements

Adult Filtering
In the past some found it difficult viewing myVidster from work because NSFW content would occasionally get past my filters and end up on the homepage. This will no longer happen, only approved video hosts like Youtube and Vimeo will be displayed on the homepage. It kinda sucks because users do collect a lot of video content from smaller video hosts, but its not worth the risk of seeing some 18 year old's rack on myVidster's homepage while I am in the office. Also if you browsing a user's collection that has adult content it will be block with NSFW warnings.
Reddit and Digg Stories
Digg stories that relate to the bookmarked video have been available for sometime on myVidster (viewable in the lower right column on the video display), but is now optional and must be enable. I added the same feature for Reddit stories. To enable these features go to the manage page and click edit next to the collection.

Enhance bookmarklet
For those who do not use the Firefox addon there is a new bookmarklet available. I would highly recommend you switch to the new bookmarklet. It is faster and it will be more successful at fetching the video. Also if you are using Internet Explorer, SWITCH TO ANOTHER BROWSER! IE (any version) does not work well with fetching the embedded video. This is not an issue with myVidster, but with IE's moving the flash variables outside of Javascript's innerhtml. There is also a Chrome extension I develop, but it is only for users who have Chrome Beta installed and I removed the video download and backup feature to comply with their TOS.

Where are my profile pages?
Yes, I know I still owe you guys profile pages. Life has been super busy and hopefully I can free up some time to push them out.

Over 129,000 visits a month, take that!

Reaching over 100k visits a month is a big milestone for myself. Keeping in mind that myVidster is myself and a server. You will notice that there was a drop in traffic. This was caused by server issues resulting in downtime, migration to a new (and faster) server and the holidays. It seems that I have rebounded and my stats are climbing again.

Additional stats
Users: 7,276
Collections: 7,195
Bookmarked Videos: 36,399

I still owe my user's profile pages, i get the last week of December off (my day job) and will finally have the time to do some development.