Official announcement on upcoming API Version 2 breaking changes. Addition of new endpoint /spaced_repetition_systems

@viet Will there still be colours* for stage categories (Started/Passed/Burned) on the dashboard?

*What’s that? You noticed the non-American spelling? Too bad, I wrote this on my computer which autocorrects British, not my phone which autocorrects English to the American spelling! :stuck_out_tongue:

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No. At least not on a personalized level. The SRS system is fixed on a per-subject basis, and everybody gets the same timings. No customization.

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Not sure where else to post, this but are lessons not functioning properly for anyone else?

Whenever I try to answer, I get taken to WaniKani — Log in[the answer I typed], and I’m prompted to “preview” all the lessons again instead of actually making any progress. Tried to do the new lessons from the iOS Tsurukame app, but it doesn’t even see them yet.

This is caused by a number of scripts (because WK changed something). You can find more information here: Can't input answers in lessons

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Thanks, just did the lessons in a different browser rather than fuss with any scripts :sweat_smile:

Any idea how new the new kanji are? Wondering how long they’ve been sitting unnoticed in my lessons pile :stuck_out_tongue:

Do you mean those? Not very old then :sweat_smile:

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I really don’t like the idea of getting rid of the stage names. I don’t understand or care about any of the API stuff so maybe someone can explain that to me but getting rid of the stage names feels like fixing something that isn’t broken.

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Actually it’s less about fixing something but more about removing something that will not fit any more, after the new API changes have been put in place.

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I am curious what the point of “interval_unit” in the stage entries is. Can’t one expect “interval” to always be in seconds or null?

Also “position” in a list seems a bit odd to me. Will they ever be out of order?

Yes, there is the possibility of other units. But this is more for the sake of being explicit. Usually developers work in ms or s.

Again, for the sake of explicitness. I wouldn’t 100% rely on an Array given to me to be ordered. And what happens when you start manipulating the Array or start plucking the objects out of the Array. You can lose the ordering details easily. Having built into the object preserves the details without having to jumping through hoops to try and wrangle it out. The position also acts like a title.

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Am I extrapolating if I’m thinking you are doing this massive change in your API in order for it to work with… EtoEto ?!

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Yes, you are.

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Right? I’m well aware that the whole API thing might be more important than just eliminating the stage names but everything is in the details and for me is what makes WK different from other SRS applications. Changing the names for just a generic number doesn’t feel right for me.

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I know what you mean. There should definitely be, and probably will be with some not currently existing userscript, an option in the user settings somewhere for custom categories per SRS system (e.g. Guru-Master even if need be…)

The Open Framework should be updated to do that. This way the new naming would be consistent across scripts.

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I can imagine some future me wanting to unburn some number of random items from particular levels. To which an API to allow the unburning of an item would be useful.

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Could someone please explain what an API is in this context? And what exactly is changing on WaniKani? I don’t really understand code or what’s being said, can someone please explain in a simple form?
I think I understand that the stage names are being changed but that’s it.

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TL;DR:
This announcement is just a heads-up for the programmers of scripts etc. that they might need to adjust something. WK will remain as-is for the time being, even after this change has been performed.

Longer version:
API is the abbreviation for “Application Programming Interface”, i.e. it offers a way for scripts and other third-party apps to interact with the data that is inside WaniKani.
Therefore, the changes that are announced here are only visible to those scripts etc. They are currently accessing some of the data in a way that will be gone soon, so these scripts need to be adapted to the new way of accessing that data.

This does not have any consequences yet for WaniKani as you use it (well, maybe some unmaintained scripts will break, but WK itself will not change). Of course, we can expect that WK itself will also change at some point in time, and the “consequences” section in the OP hints at those changes, but that is not the contents of this announcement.

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I trust the team to make sensible and effective changes, since they’ve already built one of the most sensible and effective kanji-reading education tools around, but I do want to voice one concern about the removal of the SRS stage names.

One of the benefits of the stage names/categories was easy review-load management. Things like “Keep your Apprentice queue close to 100 items,” or “Keep your Guru queue under 300,” etc., have been useful in avoiding burn-out. I do have a slight worry that replacing these easily visualized frequency queues with anything else–even a fairly information-rich chart of of items in review and their next dates–maaay lose the site that benefit. It’s definitely something I feel it has over similar SRS sites like iKnow. So maybe just some food for thought (if it wasn’t already being considered) in planning revamps for the UI.

Good luck!

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