HLO Public API Debuts

[rob]

It's been a long time coming, but the HLO Public API has finally been released. It's now possible to extract character data on a one-time basis, as-needed via infrequent polling, or even through real-time notifications that provide a constant feed of every change made to a character.

At the moment, all of this yummy goodness is only available for Starfinder. We have one big piece left to complete for PF2, which we're working to have in place by the end of October. SR6 will take us a healthy amount of additional time, so there's no timetable on that yet.

There are two major components to the Public API. The first is the Export Format, and the second is the API itself.

The Export Format is a standardized, structured representation of HLO characters, which is consistent across all game systems. The specifics for each game system are obviously distinct, but the data model is identical, and the only differences are at the lowest level of the data (the actual properties and their values). So setting up a basic conduit from HLO to another tool need only be done once. The character details are game-specific, but everything else is the same.

The API itself is a web-based protocol that can be consumed in many different ways by a diverse array of tools. Single characters, multiple characters, and even campaigns can all be accessed. That access can be accomplished via explicit requests when needed or through continuous, live updates over websockets. This should make it possible to setup everything from one-time import feeds to dynamic integration with external tools. The character data surfaced by the API is in the Export Format.

Detailed documentation for the Public API will be found at the links below:
Public API Documentation @ https://docs.herolab.online/HLO-Public-API-Documentation.pdf
Export Format Documentation @ https://docs.herolab.online/HLO-Export-Format-Documentation.pdf

I'm sure there will be additional capabilities that will be wanted. And I'm sure there will be questions we overlooked in the documentation. So please use this thread as an initial place to submit those requests and ask those questions.

I hope this initial API gives everybody the core functionality to get started integrating HLO with your favorite tools. If there's something important we haven't included, we'll get it added.

Thanks!