SnippetStash API

returns all public snippets associated with that tag.

The Private API

The private API gives you the ability to access and manage your personal snippets however you'd like.

Obtaining your API key

Since we support authentication via OpenID and basic password authentication, you will need to use an API key to access the API functions. Your API key is available via the "Edit Account" option on the navigation bar. To access the api, you simply provide your email address and the api key on every request. Be sure you don't share your API key with anyone, as it gives full access to your snippets!

Making a request

When you make a request to the private API, you need to pass your username and password for each request. REST is a stateless protocol, so SnippetStash won't try to remember you between your requests.

Listing your snippets

You can get your snippets returned to you as XML with a request like this:

curl -u homer@simpsons.com:d53a1fb463c7e3180f3ac0f1479ec7daffa2b9b7 \
	http://www.snippetstash.com/snippets.xml

returns

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<snippets type="array">
  <snippet>
    <title>A Sample</title>
    <author>Homer Simpson</author>
    <code>
       def foo
          puts "hello world"
       end
    </code>
    <description>
      This is a basic program in Ruby.
    </description>
    <created-at type="datetime">2008-07-07T04:48:55-05:00</created-at>
    <id type="integer">1</id>
    <language-id type="integer" nil="true"></language-id>
    <privacy-hash nil="true"></privacy-hash>
    <public type="boolean">true</public>
    <updated-at type="datetime">2008-07-07T04:48:55-05:00</updated-at>
    <user-id type="integer">1</user-id>
    <language-string></language-string>
    <tags type="array">
      <tag>
        <name>Ruby</name>
      </tag>
      <tag>
        <name>Rails</name>
      </tag>
    </tags>
  </snippet>
</snippets>

When you're looking at your own snippets, you can see a few additional fields, such as the privacy hash.

Filtering by a specific tag

To get all of your snippets tagged with ruby, you'd append ?tag=ruby to the end of the request, like this:

curl -u homer@simpsons.com:d53a1fb463c7e3180f3ac0f1479ec7daffa2b9b7 \
	http://www.snippetstash.com/snippets.xml?tag=ruby

Creating a new snippet

Creating a new snippet requires you to send the title and the code itself. You can also specify if it should be public or now.

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
	-u homer@simpsons.com:d53a1fb463c7e3180f3ac0f1479ec7daffa2b9b7 \
	http://www.snippetstash.com/snippets.xml \
	-X POST \
	-d '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	  <snippet>
		<title>A new Sample</title>
	    <author>Homer Simpson</author>
	    <code>
	       def foo
	          puts "hello world 2"
	       end
	    </code>
	    <description>
	      This is a basic program in Ruby.
	    </description>
	    <language-string>ruby</language-string>
	    <public type="boolean">true</public>
	    <tag-list>Ruby, Rails</tag-list>
	 </snippet>'

Supported Languages

These are the language names you'll pass in to the API if you want to specify the language by name.

• Plain
• ASP
• Bash
• ColdFusion
• C++
• C#
• CSS
• Java
• JavaScript
• HTML / XHTML
• PHP
• Python
• PERL
• Ruby
• SQL
• Smalltalk
• VB
• Apache
• Django

You could also set the language-id attribute instead if you happen to know it. Future versions of the API will implement a way to view languages.

Edit a Snippet

Editing a snippet can be done by identifying the id of the snippet and issuing a PUT request. You only need to pass the details that you want to update.

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
    -u homer@simpsons.com:d53a1fb463c7e3180f3ac0f1479ec7daffa2b9b7 \
	http://www.snippetstash.com/snippets/12.xml \
	-X PUT \
	-d '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	  <snippet>
	    <code>
	       def foo
	          puts "hello world 2 was changed"
	       end
	    </code>
	    <public type="boolean">false</public>
	 </snippet>'

Sharing a snippet

Sharing a snippet is as easy as sending a request like this:

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
    -u homer@simpsons.com:d53a1fb463c7e3180f3ac0f1479ec7daffa2b9b7 \
    http://www.snippetstash.com/snippets/12.xml?share=share \
    -X PUT

Unsharing a snippet

To make a snippet completely private again, send a request like htis:

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
    -u homer@simpsons.com:d53a1fb463c7e3180f3ac0f1479ec7daffa2b9b7 \
    http://www.snippetstash.com/snippets/12.xml?share=unshare \
    -X PUT

Deleting a Snippet

Delete a snippet by issuing a delete request.

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
    -u homer@simpsons.com:d53a1fb463c7e3180f3ac0f1479ec7daffa2b9b7 \
    http://www.snippetstash.com/snippets/12.xml  \
    -X DELETE