Post by Jibbs
Wowhead currently provides support for searching for items and displaying back results as XML... I would like to offer a few simple, but significant requests for improving this feature, to make external linking easier and more user friendly.
Add the following capabilities:
http://www.wowhead.com/search=SEARCH_PHRASE&xmlSEARCH_PHRASE could be: a spell/achievement/item/quest NAME or ID
optionally I would add some conditions for "type" for specific searching of spells/items/etc, and maybe a maximum number of results to return
it would return a list of any or all matches, with XML attributes for type, etc, ordered by strength of match
for example:
http://www.wowhead.com/search=Healing Wave&xml
would return the following results (brief)
Healing Wave (this one is first because it is an exact match, not a partial)
Greater Healing Wave (priority for spell)
Glyph of Healing Wave (next priority for item)
Tablet of Healing Wave (item, lower quality)
The XML would return XML similar to the way items work, with the following noted differences (very crude rough example)
<wowhead>
<search results="2" /> (should be 4 but this is for example)
<results>
<result type="spell" id="331">
<name>Healing Wave</name>
<class id="?">Shaman</class>
<subclass id="3">Restoration</subclass>
<icon displayId="12345">spell_nature_magicimmunity</icon>
<link>
</link>
</result>
<result type="item" id="21291">
<name>Tablet of Healing Wave</name>
<level>60</level>
<gearScore>0</gearScore>
<quality id="0">Poor</quality>
<class id="9">Recipes</class>
<subclass id="0">Books</subclass>
<icon displayId="33585">INV_Misc_StoneTablet_11</icon>
<inventorySlot id="0"/>
<link>
Tablet of Healing Wave</link>
... etc
</result>
</results>
</wowhead>
It would be up to the user to decipher exactly what they are looking for. Part of making mods or tools for your site or forum is giving developers access to as much info as they need, so they can make a better decision on how they want it to work. (example
http://www.wowhead.com/search?q=talonstrike versus
http://www.wowhead.com/item=Talonstrike&xml didn't always return the higher quality item but when were people honestly going to link to the green one)
I've seen many requests for things of this nature, and would provide an outstanding dimension to your external tools. Not to mention you already have the database and means of making this happen rather easy. As a self employed developer I not only ask that you make this happen, but I offer my services to do so if needed. I love wowhead and its community and would love to contribute.
Thanks!