About the Community API
The Community API allows developers to programmatically retrieve data from MATLAB Central. The API offers a single resource to search across different MATLAB Central areas including MATLAB Answers, File Exchange, Blogs, Cody, Highlights and Contests.
From the API reference page, you can view raw HTTP documenation for supported resources, send test requests and view responses.
When you build your own applications and integrations, take advantage of the supported SDKs. The SDKs simplify integration with the Community API by providing user-friendly methods for making HTTP requests. Currently, SDKs are available in the following languages:
All API methods are designed around the REST ideology, providing simple and predictable URIs to access objects. Requests support standard HTTP methods like GET and POST and responses return standard HTTP status codes. Response bodies are always UTF-8 encoded JSON objects, unless explicitly documented otherwise.
The base URL for all requests is https://api.mathworks.com/community. The complete URL varies depending on the endpoint of the resource being accessed.
Currently, no authentication is required to access the Community API.
Request Parameters
For most REST GET requests, you can include one or more query parameters on the request URI to filter, limit the size of, and sort the data in the API response. See the following table for details.
Note: Not all parameters are supported by all APIs. For a complete list of supported parameters for each API, see the API Reference.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| created_before | datetime | Items returned in the response that were created before the specified date, in Internet date and time format. For example, created_before=2016-03-06T11:00:00Z. |
| created_after | datetime | Items returned in the response that were created after the specified date, in Internet date and time format. For example, created_after=2016-03-06T11:00:00Z. |
| sort_order | string |
Items returned in the response can be ordered by created date, updated date, or relevance and sorted in ascending or descending order.
If sort_order is not specified and there is no value in query, results are sorted by updated date in descending order. However, if sort_order is not specified and there is a value in query, the default sort changes to relevance in descending order. |
| page | integer | The page number indicating which page of items to be returned in the response, specified as a valid positive number.
A Boolean has_more field in the response indicates whether more results are available after this page. If has_more is true, you can pass the next value of the page parameter in a subsequent call to fetch the next page of results. |
| count | integer |
The number of items to be returned in the response specified as a value between 1 and 50. The default value is 10.
For example, the combination of page=1 and count=20 returns the first 20 items. The combination of page=2 and count=20 returns items 21 through 40. |
Response
Community APIs use conventional HTTP response codes to indicate the success or failure of an API request. In general:
- Codes in the 2xx range indicate success.
- Codes in the 4xx range indicate failures that are due to errors in the information provided, for example, an incorrect parameter value or request format.
- Codes in the 5xx range indicate an error with our servers, which is a rare occurrence.
Status Codes
| 200 OK | Indicates a successful response; everything is working as expected. |
| 400 Bad Request | Request was incorrect, possibly an invalid parameter or unsupported value. |
| 404 Not Found | The requested resource does not exist. |
| 405 Method Not Allowed | The requested resource exists but does not support the provided HTTP method. See the 'Allow' header in the response for supported methods. |
| 429 Too Many Requests | Rate limits exceeded. The number of requests exceeds the number allowed for a given time. See the 'Retry-After' response header for more details and implement an exponential backoff for the requests. See Rate Limit for more details. |
| 500 Server Error | Something unexpected occurred on the Community API server. |
Response Fields
All successful responses return the following fields:
- items - One or more results returned by the request. Fields within an item are specific to the content type being returned by the resource; for more details, see the individual resource documentation.
- total_found - Integer value representing the total number of items found for the request criteria.
- has_more - Boolean value representing whether there are more items available after this set. If false, there are no more items.
Error Response Fields
All error responses return an integer 'status' field and an 'error' object.
- status - Integer representing the HTTP status of the error returned.
- error - Error object consisting of the string representation of the HTTP status, a message field explaining the error, and an optional details field with additional information about the error.
Rate Limits
Rate limits define the maximum number of requests a single user can make within a given period. When you exceed a rate limit, the API request fails and returns an HTTP 429 status code.
To prevent abuse, the Community API implements IP throttling. Throttles are applied on a per IP basis and are shared amongst all users and applications on that IP address. If you receive a 429 error, check the response headers for the Retry-After header, which specifies the amount of time that needs to pass before the request can be made again.
Rate limits vary based on the specific resource and are subject to change.