For those interested, I’ve officially given up on writing a PHP interaction class for connecting to the SOAP-based NewsGator API.

Copied from Incoherent Code:

Welp, I’ve decided to pretty much give up on the whole NewsGator API project for now. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to make the deadline set for the developer competition, as much as I’d love to have that new Apple PowerBook they’re giving away as one of the prizes.

Why am I giving up? Well, to be quite blunt, it’s fucked… I’ve had so many problems with the API, and spent so much time trying to track down where the error is: is it in my code somewhere? Is it in theirs? Is the documentation just wrong, pointing me at the wrong parameter name? Do they really want this value instead of this value?

It’s really just not worth it to me anymore. I’ve spent weeks of time trying to get my PHP interaction class for the NG API finished so that I could continue with my actual project that simply utilized it, that I have finally lost my steam with the whole thing. If you’re building an API, you should build the damn thing and THEN release it… There shouldn’t be heavy development (or much development at all) after the API spec has been released. You’ve got what you hope to be thousands of developers out there running off code that interacts with your API. As soon as you change that single parameter name, you’ve broken each and every one of them. Now they all collectively have to update their code to comply with your new standard… And that’s bad. Very very bad.

Do I think the NG API has potential? Absolutely. Do I think it’ll be next year before it comes even close to meeting any of that potential? Unfortunately.

To you, Newsgator, I bid you good day. Not only have I stopped using your API, but FeedLounge has also stolen me away from your web-based aggregator (which seems to be totally stagnant). Looks like RSS domination isn’t going as well as you guys thought it was, is it?

I’ve got a few more comments about the NewsGator web-based aggregator and its lack of functionality as well. Maybe that’ll make a good follow-up blog entry later on… Who knows, if I complain enough, someone who cares might actually see it and take notice.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled program…