Package Metadata URL May be Deprecated

[ghost]

Based on this issue (npm/npm#9164), which was a follow up to pull request #6 , it looks like the <PACKAGE NAME>/<VERSION> API end-point is going to be deprecated in the future.

[sindresorhus]

@destroyerofbuilds Would you be willing to open an issue on their issue tracker, per recommendation:

If you want an interface like this back / to work with scoped packages, you might want to file an issue describing your use case at https://github.com/npm/public-api/issues/new.

[ghost]

@sindresorhus I can do that, but it may be a little longer before I have the time.

Though, I did start to go down the rabbit hole when I was wondering if we could just use the by-field end-point to get the version field. (Assuming it returned the version field for the latest published version of the package).

However, in attempting to use the same URL generated as part of this project's tests (https://registry.npmjs.org/-/by-field/?key=%22pageres%22&field=description) I can't get the value of the description field. With a clean checkout of this project the by-field test fails.

Now I'm wondering if they removed the by-field API end-point.

[sindresorhus]

Yeah, I can confirm it no longer works. It did use to work though. Ugh...

Funnily enough, this works: https://skimdb.npmjs.com/registry/_design/app/_view/byField/?key=%22pageres%22&field=description

@othiym23 Was the by-field endpoint removed or changed? It's very useful as the full package is giant and just fetching a field, which is the most common use-case, is faster.

[ghost]

@sindresorhus npm/public-api#6

[hutson]

I created #9 to focus on the by-field end-point.

Leaving this to the scoped packages end-point.

[hutson]

I've filed npm/public-api#11 to get the discussion moving on the version end-point for scoped packages.

[SamVerschueren]

@sindresorhus In order to solve this, we can maybe just retrieve the latest release (https://registry.npmjs.org/pageres/latest). It's not the entire package so the size is a lot smaller, but allows us to retrieve the field and keep this method.

[sindresorhus]

@SamVerschueren That doesn't work for scoped packages: https://registry.npmjs.org/@sindresorhus%2Fdf/latest

[SamVerschueren]

Why can't they make a consistent API :p

[sindresorhus]

The API is absolutely horrible, but I guess we can look forward a public API in 2020 :p

[SamVerschueren]

2020... Someone is having high hopes ;)