DeviantArtFs 6.0.0-beta2

DeviantArtFs

A .NET / F# library to interact with the DeviantArt / Sta.sh API.

If you're using this library in a .NET Framework project and it doesn't run, make sure that the dependencies (e.g. FSharp.Core, FSharp.Json, FSharp.Control.AsyncSeq) are installed via NuGet.

Notes

Each request that can be made to DeviantArt is represented by a module somewhere in the DeviantArtFs.Api namespace. These modules have static methods that take one or more parameters:

• token (an object that implements the IDeviantArtAccessToken interface and provides the library with the API credentials)
• expansion (on some requests; allows user object expansion)
• A parameter specific to the request (if any)
• paging / cursor / offset (for endpoints that ask the user to request a particular range of results; paging will be a DeviantArtPagingParams record, which contains an offset and an optional limit)
  • To request the maximum page size that DeviantArt allows for a particular request, use int.MaxValue as the limit

The main method is usually named AsyncExecute and returns an async workflow, the result of which is an F# record type that lines up with the original JSON. An ExecuteAsync method is also available that returns a .NET Task instead.

For endpoints that allow paging, ToAsyncSeq and ToArrayAsync methods will be available as well; when using these, DeviantArtFs will perform multiple API calls, asking for the maximum amount of results in each. Be careful not to request too much data or you might hit API usage limits.

Optional types

Many objects in the DeviantArt API have optional fields, which are difficult to represent in languages such as F# that expect a fixed schema. DeviantArtFs represents these optional fields with F# option types.

The library provides extension methods in the namespace DeviantArtFs.Extensions for dealing with option types from outside F#:

public string GetTitleCarefully(Deviation d) {
    return d.title.ToObj() ?? "Could not find title!";
}

public string GetTitleRecklessly(Deviation d) {
    return d.title.Value; // throws an exception if field is None
}

public IEnumerable<DeviationPreview> GetThumbnails(Deviation d) {
    return d.thumbs.OrEmpty();
}

public bool CheckIfFavorited(Deviation d) {
    return d.is_favourited.IsTrue();
}

Deleted deviations and status updates

Deviation and DeviantArtStatus objects can represent a deviation or status update that has been deleted; this is why most of the fields on those two types are marked optional. Check the is_deleted field (or IsDeleted property) before attempting to access any of the other fields.

Partial updates

Stash.Update and User.ProfileUpdate allow you to choose which fields to update on the object. DeviantArtFs uses discriminated unions to represent these updates:

await Requests.User.ProfileUpdate.ExecuteAsync(token, new[] {
    ProfileUpdateField.NewArtistLevel(ArtistLevel.Student),
    ProfileUpdateField.NewWebsite("https://www.example.com")
});

await Requests.Stash.Update.ExecuteAsync(token, 12345678L, new[] {
    UpdateField.NewTitle("new stack title"),
    UpdateField.ClearDescription
});

Note that DeviantArt allows a null value for the "description" field on a Sta.sh stack, and this is represented by its own union case.

Known issues

• Mature content filtering is not supported (use the is_mature flag on the deviation instead).
• The following fields in the deviation object are not supported:
  • challenge
  • challenge_entry
  • motion_book
• The profile_pic field in the user.profile expansion is not supported due to circular type definitions. Get it from the full profile object instead.
• Some of the newer fields on the deviation object (like premium_folder_data or text_content) are not currently supported.
• The api_session return object is ignored.

Examples

• ExampleConsoleApp: An F# console application that shows some data on the current user's recent (and not-so-recent) submissions, along with some of their Sta.sh info. Reads the access token interactively from standard input.
• GalleryViewer: A VB.NET app that lets you see the "All" view of someone's gallery and read the descriptions of individual submissions. Uses the Client Credentials grant and stores tokens in a file.
• WebApp: An ASP.NET Core 2.1 app written in C# that lets you view someone's gallery folders and corresponding submission thumbnails. Uses the Client Credentials grant and stores tokens in a database.

Authentication

See also: https://www.deviantart.com/developers/authentication

Both Authorization Code (recommended) and Implicit grant types are supported. The DeviantArtAuth module provides methods to support the Authorization Code grant type (getting tokens from an authorization code and refreshing tokens).

If you are writing a Windows desktop application, the package DeviantArtFs.WinForms package uses Internet Explorer to provide a way to get a code or token from the user using either grant type.

If you need to store the access token somewhere (such as in a database or file), you may want to create your own class that implements the IDeviantArtAccessToken, IDeviantArtRefreshToken, or IDeviantArtAutomaticRefreshToken interface. Using the latter will allow DeviantArtFs to automatically refresh the token and store the new value when it recieves an HTTP 401 response. (An InvalidRefreshTokenException is thrown if the token cannot be refreshed.)