Over the years, we’ve had requests like: “I want to sell my shirts on Facebook” or questions like “Do you have a Wordpress plugin?” and most recently “Can I create a shirt on my iPad“. As you well know, we haven’t yet approached these requests. Either because we were focusing on other features or we weren’t really sure that these projects would be useful to both us and all of the shop partners. Of course, there are quite a few partners out there who know their way around programming and know our platform just as well as we do. That’s why we offered an API way back in 2006 for developers to create their own applications. This was based on SOAP, which, despite its clean name, comes along with a few disadvantages.
We wanted to use our API a little more strategically, so we decided last year to switch over to REST. For just about a year now our API has been hanging out in Alpha Status. That basically meant that the API was available and functional, but was as stable as the 3% of Twitter’s servers dedicated to Justin Bieber.
But today’s a memorable day – our API is officially beta! We will continue to develop and improve on it, but there will be no more global changes. Now it’s your turn to read up on the documentation and have a go at creating your own applications.
Simplomat and iPad Shopping
The Developer Blog already has a few examples of the great powers vested in our API: like the Simplomat, which allows you to easily add photos and text to products and even design a t-shirt on the iPad!
But, that’s just one example. As Robert mentioned a couple of months back, our T-Shirt Designer is completely based on the new API. And I am sure that there will soon be a variety of cool ideas and shopping experiences developed that we couldn’t even imagine ourselves. We are really excited about this and are looking forward to those who will tap into our API and help bring her to a whole new level! Here’s an overview of many opportunities the API offers us and our partners:
Questions? Want to have a go at it?
Again, we have set up a few things to help you get started: documentation in the Developer Wiki, a Developer Blog and a Support Forum (with login).
In the next couple of weeks we will be starting a contest – and the topic is: “code an application that can _______.” (fill in the blank if you have an idea for an API application.)
Ami
Dave
Nice! Can’t wait for the Wordpress integration!
Neither can I! Any programmers out there ready to try it?
Finaly! I’ll definately try to make a flash shop now!
Very good news! Spreadshirt still has tons of hidden potential just waiting to be found. Shops should be easily customized and integrated to all possible websites without any coding. This will make selling and marketing easier with out a doubt.
A couple of plans that I have for the API:
– Automate the batch creation of products
– Automate the transfer of products from a US store to a UK and other international stores
The iPad t-shirt creator will be awesome too!
David
@Andy, @Dave: There are a couple of guys out there that are interested in Wordpress integrations. Maybe you can join forces and make it work with a little support of us.
For those who are interested in Spreadshirt API and in direct contact: We will be present at Barcamp London 8 (http://eight.barcamplondon.org/about/). I will also give a short presentation about CAaaS and our API.