Learning is a very personal experience. There are many methods, approaches and strategies for getting stuff into your brain and keeping it there, and their effectivenesses vary from person to person. When we set out to make Skritter, we implemented our own vision of the best way to learn characters, but really that’s strongly colored by what works for us personally. And for any company to be successful, it has to keep its vision narrow or risk feature creep, so we’ve generally tried to stick to those things that most people find useful. But only so many of the things people want can ever get built.
This is where the Skritter API comes in. It allows people to hook into their Skritter data and the actions which underpin the service, and do things their way. With an API, anyone can create and collaborate on making new and interesting programs and features, and link in with other services. We’ve been targeting a few specific use cases as we decide what actions and data to prioritize, but the end goal is to make as much as possible accessible to the people who want access. This is your data, go crazy with it!
What sorts of data and actions are accessible through the API right now?
- Items: The current state of learning for any given word or character or part.
- Vocabs: The whole dictionary, along with community data like mnemonics, and custom data like your own definitions.
- VocabLists: All published lists ever, and your own personal ones.
- Settings: So a client can use and change them as needed.
- Progress Stats: Visualize them in any style.
- Submit Reviews: Submit your own reviews to update your progress.
Those are the big things, but there’s more to come, and plenty more than this already. Read through the docs for everything you can do.
If you have some data or action you want to have access to but don’t, feel free to let me know and I’ll prioritize it higher! We’d also love to hear about what you build; keep us posted!