Mozscape API call returning no json

[GBC]

Hi - I'm having issues getting started with the Mozscape API. I'm putting the following into my browser:

http://[member-ID]:[secret key]@lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape/url-metrics/greatbritishchefs.com

According to the blog posts I'm reading I should get loads of json script returned but all I'm getting is {}

Does anybody have any pointers as to what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks

[GeorgeAndrews]

Looks like AoV and I posted at the same time. AoV is exactly right. We're both pretty much saying the same thing. Add a Cols parameter and you should be good to go.

Good luck!

[AgentsofValue]

Hi - I usually use the URL format shown here:

http://www.seomoz.org/api/keys

They have a "sample request" shown here, that you can use to get started.  I know they recently stopped supporting the old API format, and it caused a bunch of the scripts I run to stop working.  One of the tricky things about the new API format is the 'cols' parameter, where you specify the data that you want returned.  They added this to restrict the amount of data that is returned.  Before it returned a bunch of data, that maybe users were not really interested in - and so it used more of their server resources and bandwidth.

You can see details about how to use the 'cols' parameter for URL metrics here:

http://apiwiki.seomoz.org/url-metrics

You have to add up the bit values for the fields that you want to have returned.  So for instance, if you want only the 'external links' data (32) and the 'mozrank' data (16384), you'd set the cols flag to be 16416  ... (32 + 16384).

Hope that helps ~

[GeorgeAndrews]

I just submitted a YOUmoz post on this topic. Hopefully it runs the gauntlet and is approved.

The Mozscape API used to provide everything if you did not provide a Cols parameter to the request. Now you need to send a Cols value with the summed up total of all the bit flags you want the request to return. You can find all of the URL Metrics bit flags and their values here.

Here's an example using your URL and these bit flags: Title (1), URL (4), External Links (32).

http://[member-ID]:[secret key]@lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape/url-metrics/greatbritishchefs.com?Cols=37

The value 37 represents the bit flags you want to get back added together like so:

Title (1) + URL (4) + External Links (32) = 37

Hope this helps!