Yesterday and today I've been working on making an alternate character sheet viewer for D&D Beyond characters, since I thought it would be fun to have an easy way to import my character into a different character sheet (like a custom one for a class, or a simple one for newbies, etc).
Since this was working yesterday, I was wondering why it's different today.
I had hoped this would be an ok thing to do, since it works as an encouragement for people to utilize D&D Beyond.
I'm happy to comply with any requests the fine folks at D&D Beyond have for rate limiting etc. Or if there's a better url to use, this just seemed like the one that you get from a readonly share of a character.
We do not intend for users to build tools using the character sheet in this way. We have recently implemented blocks that will stop malicious actors. Unfortunately, some customers building tools like this will also be effected. Based on our estimations, the threat of bad actors out weights the benefits for letting our customers access the character sheet in this way. We’re sorry you’ve been effected and we hope to have a more official and secure way to access data in the future. One that will involve an API using a developer key and secret of some kind.
Ahh bummer. Sorry there have been bad actors. I hope at least a rudimentary API is available sooner rather than later. The JSON is honestly sufficient for my needs.
Is it acceptable to have end users copy their own JSON out in order to paste it into the website? It's not ideal, but it at least isn't automated. I know this *works* now, but I want to make sure it's ok as far as you folks are concerned.
I'm running into this problem now. I'm building a simple application that my group is using to play online that would be greatly enhanced by being able to look up their character stats and attributes. What is the purpose of a JSON endpoint if it cannot be accessed programmatically?
Thanks for the clarification. After reading around a bit, I realized it's private so sorry for sounding so direct. Also, happy to see a public API on your alls roadmap. Keep up the good work!
I am a developer, but I'm not trying to interface with the website. Yet, I've been in Captcha hell for weeks. I've made sure that javascript is enabled and no pop-up blocking. I've even white listed this site for pop-ups and it keeps throwing captcha while we are gaming. Has toanyone else had this issue ( using chrome ) or am I just cursed? I don't remember entering into any demonic contracts...
I am a developer, but I'm not trying to interface with the website. Yet, I've been in Captcha hell for weeks. I've made sure that javascript is enabled and no pop-up blocking. I've even white listed this site for pop-ups and it keeps throwing captcha while we are gaming. Has toanyone else had this issue ( using chrome ) or am I just cursed? I don't remember entering into any demonic contracts...
Hello, we would recommend contacting our Support team with more information, including the situations that cause the captcha to appear.
really frustrating, I spent a ton of money through D&D beyond to later port my character sheet over to Roll 20 so I could play with friends. This is just ridiculous that D&D hasn't developed a mechanism for exporting character sheets since they have stated in the past they didn't want to be a virtual tabletop like Roll 20
really frustrating, I spent a ton of money through D&D beyond to later port my character sheet over to Roll 20 so I could play with friends. This is just ridiculous that D&D hasn't developed a mechanism for exporting character sheets since they have stated in the past they didn't want to be a virtual tabletop like Roll 20
Honestly, wouldn't it be easier for Roll20 to make a way to import the PDF that DDB exports than for DDB to be able to send data directly to a site they are not affiliated with in any way?
This is basically like being frustrated at McDonald's because Burger King doesn't have McDonald's fries.
I guess whatever the case, I think that it is silly that Wizards of the Coast after all these years haven't unified the community. Maybe its because I am young and only have 1 year of experience with D&D but I just find it insane. Like don't get me wrong I love playing person, however life doesn't always allow that for parties. You would think that their would be one official site that handles connecting D&D players online or at the very least you would think that you wouldn't need to buy sourcebooks multiple times over. I was fine buying them again for the tools that make sense. I also want to support a game that has truly become the highlight of my weeks when I get to play with friends. It is just super aggravating that there is not a one shop stop for these kinds of things. Like Roll 20 is going to be making money from their subscription service. DnD beyond is also going to make money from book sales and the subscription. So it would behoove the company to play nice with Roll 20 I believe if they have no desire to make a VTT.
In my eyes the McDonald's and Burger King example doesn't apply. To me, it's more like I bought a car, but I am not allowed to drive it anywhere. I can just look at it, sit in it, but it can never hit the road. I say that because a Character sheet is nothing without a game to use it in. Just like a car is useless if your not allowed to drive it. The whole point of DnD beyond is to make creating a character easier for noobs like me.
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Yesterday and today I've been working on making an alternate character sheet viewer for D&D Beyond characters, since I thought it would be fun to have an easy way to import my character into a different character sheet (like a custom one for a class, or a simple one for newbies, etc).
However, I noticed just now that I'm now getting an error when I request https://www.dndbeyond.com/character/<id>/json from my application. It says
Since this was working yesterday, I was wondering why it's different today.
I had hoped this would be an ok thing to do, since it works as an encouragement for people to utilize D&D Beyond.
I'm happy to comply with any requests the fine folks at D&D Beyond have for rate limiting etc. Or if there's a better url to use, this just seemed like the one that you get from a readonly share of a character.
Thanks,
-Nate
Do you have a github account?
https://GitHub.com/natefinch
We do not intend for users to build tools using the character sheet in this way. We have recently implemented blocks that will stop malicious actors. Unfortunately, some customers building tools like this will also be effected. Based on our estimations, the threat of bad actors out weights the benefits for letting our customers access the character sheet in this way. We’re sorry you’ve been effected and we hope to have a more official and secure way to access data in the future. One that will involve an API using a developer key and secret of some kind.
Ahh bummer. Sorry there have been bad actors. I hope at least a rudimentary API is available sooner rather than later. The JSON is honestly sufficient for my needs.
Is it acceptable to have end users copy their own JSON out in order to paste it into the website? It's not ideal, but it at least isn't automated. I know this *works* now, but I want to make sure it's ok as far as you folks are concerned.
I'm running into this problem now. I'm building a simple application that my group is using to play online that would be greatly enhanced by being able to look up their character stats and attributes. What is the purpose of a JSON endpoint if it cannot be accessed programmatically?
The JSON data is part of the design of the site and allows for a better distributed architecture (necessary when there are millions of characters).
It is not intended as a public API.
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Thanks for the clarification. After reading around a bit, I realized it's private so sorry for sounding so direct. Also, happy to see a public API on your alls roadmap. Keep up the good work!
I am a developer, but I'm not trying to interface with the website. Yet, I've been in Captcha hell for weeks. I've made sure that javascript is enabled and no pop-up blocking. I've even white listed this site for pop-ups and it keeps throwing captcha while we are gaming. Has toanyone else had this issue ( using chrome ) or am I just cursed? I don't remember entering into any demonic contracts...
Get off my lawn or roll for initiative!
Hello, we would recommend contacting our Support team with more information, including the situations that cause the captcha to appear.
really frustrating, I spent a ton of money through D&D beyond to later port my character sheet over to Roll 20 so I could play with friends. This is just ridiculous that D&D hasn't developed a mechanism for exporting character sheets since they have stated in the past they didn't want to be a virtual tabletop like Roll 20
Honestly, wouldn't it be easier for Roll20 to make a way to import the PDF that DDB exports than for DDB to be able to send data directly to a site they are not affiliated with in any way?
This is basically like being frustrated at McDonald's because Burger King doesn't have McDonald's fries.
I guess whatever the case, I think that it is silly that Wizards of the Coast after all these years haven't unified the community. Maybe its because I am young and only have 1 year of experience with D&D but I just find it insane. Like don't get me wrong I love playing person, however life doesn't always allow that for parties. You would think that their would be one official site that handles connecting D&D players online or at the very least you would think that you wouldn't need to buy sourcebooks multiple times over. I was fine buying them again for the tools that make sense. I also want to support a game that has truly become the highlight of my weeks when I get to play with friends. It is just super aggravating that there is not a one shop stop for these kinds of things. Like Roll 20 is going to be making money from their subscription service. DnD beyond is also going to make money from book sales and the subscription. So it would behoove the company to play nice with Roll 20 I believe if they have no desire to make a VTT.
In my eyes the McDonald's and Burger King example doesn't apply. To me, it's more like I bought a car, but I am not allowed to drive it anywhere. I can just look at it, sit in it, but it can never hit the road. I say that because a Character sheet is nothing without a game to use it in. Just like a car is useless if your not allowed to drive it. The whole point of DnD beyond is to make creating a character easier for noobs like me.