Viddler

Four months ago we announced version 2 of our API. About a month later we released PHPViddler 2 that exclusively used version 2 of our API. One week later we announced the Viddler Ruby gem for our Rails friends to use and it too took advantage of version 2 of our API.

Although we have other wrappers the vast majority of our API traffic comes via these two tools and also the custom-built solutions made by all of you. However, we are still seeing a fair amount of traffic on version 1 of our API and we hope that, over the next few months and with your help, we’ll be able to move that traffic over.

To help with this transition we’re offering yet another version of PHPViddler, called v1transition (download here),  that works exactly the same as PHPViddler1 except that it takes advantage of version 2 of our API. We’ve made all of the adjustments needed within the wrapper so that you should be able to simply replace your current PHPViddler1 with this new version and your application will send all of its traffic to version 2 of our API.

Of course we’d much rather you update your applications to use PHPViddler2 but we thought this transitional release would help both Viddler and our customer’s move to the latest version of our API.

As always this is all available on GitHub if you want to contribute to the project.

The future of API v1

Version 1 of our API has to go sooner or later, however, we don’t want anyone to see an interruption in service so we’re going to do everything that we can in order to help you upgrade your applications and services to use version 2 of our API before we shut it down.

In addition to our API wrappers we are also offering free development support to upgrade your applications. This means that if you need assistance transitioning your application to version 2 of our API you can send an email to net-support@viddler.com and one of our developers will assist you. We want you to be prepared for this transition so please do not hesitate to let us know what you need.

We’ll know the date that we’re going to shut off version 1 of our API by March 1. At that time we’ll write another blog post letting you know when that will be but in the meantime we urge you to update your applications as soon as you can.

Photo credit: Roo Reynolds.

If you frequent our homepage, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that all of us at Viddler are huge fans of Engadget. We feature videos from Engadget on a regular basis, and why wouldn’t we? They do comprehensive and witty coverage of a topic that’s very dear to our hearts: technology. Personally, I’ve been reading Engadget since I was in diapers (which, for me, would be about the 10th grade). In high school when I wasn’t playing Tetris on my TI-83, or watching—mesmerized—as the dock of my Rio Karma pulsed to the beat of my mp3′s, or getting suspended for a proxy I set up to circumvent my school’s web filter (true story), I could be found scrolling through my RSS reader, geeking out at the latest posts from Engadget. Since then I’ve shelved my calculator, moved on to more convergent devices for playing my music, and found a job at a place that would never block me from watching a web video. But one habit still remains. Engadget’s coverage of the gadget world has kept me coming back for more ever since I went through puberty and first noticed how sexy a USB port can look.

Last week I had the honor of hanging out backstage at Engadget’s live talk show, The Engadget Show. As a video producer, it was a real thrill to see Chad Mumm and his crew come into Cooper Union’s venue, set up a top notch production in a matter of hours, and put on a great live show in front of a full auditorium. Oh, and getting their guest, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, to sign my iPad was pretty cool, too. I documented the whole production and sat down with Engadget editors Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, and Paul Miller to talk about The Engadget Show and other ways Engadget is using video to inform and entertain. The result is a new video in our series called Viddler Spotlight, embedded below. Watch it and get inspired. The world of online video is getting more exciting every day.