Developers
Our Philosophy on Data
We believe that the data surrounding a fandom is a story in itself. The core mission of Dexter Archive is not just to collect this information, but to make it accessible. We want to empower other fans and developers to build their own amazing things, and that's where our future API comes in.
The Future: A Public API
Let's be clear: The API does not exist... yet.
It is our primary long-term development goal. We envision a RESTful API that will provide open access to the structured data we are collecting: episodes, characters, Reddit posts and statistics, new, community trends, and more. This will be a tool for you to build bots, dashboards, analytical tools, or anything else you can dream up for the Dexter universe.
Current Status & How You Can Help
While we are building the foundation, the API remains on the horizon. However, this is the perfect time for you to help shape it.
- What data do you want?
- What kind of endpoints would be most useful?
- Do you have ideas for the data structure?
If you're a developer with ideas, we want to hear from you. Your input now can help us design a more robust and useful API down the line. Furthermore, if you have experience in web development and are interested in contributing directly, we would be thrilled to talk.
A Note for the Really Curious Developer...
If you're poking around in your browser's developer tools, you'll notice that the website fetches all its data using something that vaguely resembles a RESTful API. We want to be very clear about this: its data structure is crazy, confusing, and was built purely for our internal needs.
Please consider this internal API to be deprecated. Its structure is not intuitive, and more importantly, it will not be updated or changed. We are leaving it as-is until the new, completely rewritten public API is ready to replace it. Building anything on top of the current system would be a frustrating experience, and we don't want you to waste your time!
Get in Touch
Please reach out to us via our contact page to share your ideas, express interest in contributing, or simply to be put on a list for updates when the new, proper API enters its testing phase. Let's build something cool together.