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Matthew Lee edited this page Oct 8, 2016 · 36 revisions

This document describes the data structure of an object returned when using the reddit JSON API. Items attached with a ? are not definite and are subject to change. Validation and peer review are needed for those items. They should not be taken as literal question marks.

thing (reddit base class)

All things have these attributes:

type name description
String id this item's identifier, e.g. "8xwlg"
String name Fullname of comment, e.g. "t1_c3v7f8u"
String kind All things have a kind. The kind is a String identifier that denotes the object's type. Some examples: Listing, more, t1, t2
Object data A custom data structure used to hold valuable information. This object's format will follow the data structure respective of its kind. See below for specific structures.

Exception: Listing things have neither name nor id because they are indefinite objects. That is, they are system generated, not user submitted, and are subject to change quickly and expire.

listing

Used to paginate content that is too long to display in one go. Add the query argument before or after with the value given to get the previous or next page. This is usually used in conjunction with a count argument.

Exception: Unlike the other classes documented on this page, Listing is not a thing subclass, as it inherits directly from the Python base class, Object. Although it does have data and kind as parameters, it does not have id and name. A listing's kind will always be Listing and its data will be a List of things.

type name description
String before The fullname of the listing that follows before this page. null if there is no previous page.
String after The fullname of the listing that follows after this page. null if there is no next page.
String modhash This modhash is not the same modhash provided upon login. You do not need to update your user's modhash everytime you get a new modhash. You can reuse the modhash given upon login.
List<thing> children A list of things that this Listing wraps.

votable (implementation)

All things that implement votable have these attributes:

type name description
int ups the number of upvotes. (includes own)
int downs the number of downvotes. (includes own)
Boolean likes true if thing is liked by the user, false if thing is disliked, null if the user has not voted or you are not logged in. Certain languages such as Java may need to use a boolean wrapper that supports null assignment.

created (implementation)

All things that implement created have these attributes:

type name description
long created the time of creation in local epoch-second format. ex: 1331042771.0
long created_utc the time of creation in UTC epoch-second format. Note that neither of these ever have a non-zero fraction.

Data Structures


comment (implements votable | created)

type name description
String approved_by who approved this comment. null if nobody or you are not a mod
String author the account name of the poster
String author_flair_css_class the CSS class of the author's flair. subreddit specific
String author_flair_text the text of the author's flair. subreddit specific
String banned_by who removed this comment. null if nobody or you are not a mod
String body the raw text. this is the unformatted text which includes the raw markup characters such as ** for bold. <, >, and & are escaped.
String body_html the formatted HTML text as displayed on reddit. For example, text that is emphasised by * will now have <em> tags wrapping it. Additionally, bullets and numbered lists will now be in HTML list format. NOTE: The HTML string will be escaped. You must unescape to get the raw HTML.
special edited false if not edited, edit date in UTC epoch-seconds otherwise. NOTE: for some old edited comments on reddit.com, this will be set to true instead of edit date.
int gilded the number of times this comment received reddit gold
boolean likes how the logged-in user has voted on the comment - True = upvoted, False = downvoted, null = no vote
String link_author present if the comment is being displayed outside its thread (user pages, /r/subreddit/comments/.json, etc.). Contains the author of the parent link
String link_id ID of the link this comment is in
String link_title present if the comment is being displayed outside its thread (user pages, /r/subreddit/comments/.json, etc.). Contains the title of the parent link
String link_url present if the comment is being displayed outside its thread (user pages, /r/subreddit/comments/.json, etc.). Contains the URL of the parent link
int num_reports how many times this comment has been reported, null if not a mod
String parent_id ID of the thing this comment is a reply to, either the link or a comment in it
List<thing> replies A list of replies to this comment
boolean saved true if this post is saved by the logged in user
int score the net-score of the comment
boolean score_hidden Whether the comment's score is currently hidden.
String subreddit subreddit of thing excluding the /r/ prefix. "pics"
String subreddit_id the id of the subreddit in which the thing is located
String distinguished to allow determining whether they have been distinguished by moderators/admins. null = not distinguished. moderator = the green [M]. admin = the red [A]. special = various other special distinguishes http://redd.it/19ak1b

link (implements votable | created)

type name description
String author the account name of the poster. null if this is a promotional link
String author_flair_css_class the CSS class of the author's flair. subreddit specific
String author_flair_text the text of the author's flair. subreddit specific
boolean clicked probably always returns false
String domain the domain of this link. Self posts will be self.<subreddit> while other examples include en.wikipedia.org and s3.amazon.com
boolean hidden true if the post is hidden by the logged in user. false if not logged in or not hidden.
boolean is_self true if this link is a selfpost
boolean likes how the logged-in user has voted on the link - True = upvoted, False = downvoted, null = no vote
String link_flair_css_class the CSS class of the link's flair.
String link_flair_text the text of the link's flair.
boolean locked whether the link is locked (closed to new comments) or not.
Object media Used for streaming video. Detailed information about the video and it's origins are placed here
Object media_embed Used for streaming video. Technical embed specific information is found here.
int num_comments the number of comments that belong to this link. includes removed comments.
boolean over_18 true if the post is tagged as NSFW. False if otherwise
String permalink relative URL of the permanent link for this link
boolean saved true if this post is saved by the logged in user
int score the net-score of the link. note: A submission's score is simply the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes. If five users like the submission and three users don't it will have a score of 2. Please note that the vote numbers are not "real" numbers, they have been "fuzzed" to prevent spam bots etc. So taking the above example, if five users upvoted the submission, and three users downvote it, the upvote/downvote numbers may say 23 upvotes and 21 downvotes, or 12 upvotes, and 10 downvotes. The points score is correct, but the vote totals are "fuzzed".
String selftext the raw text. this is the unformatted text which includes the raw markup characters such as ** for bold. <, >, and & are escaped. Empty if not present.
String selftext_html the formatted escaped HTML text. this is the HTML formatted version of the marked up text. Items that are boldened by ** or *** will now have <em> or *** tags on them. Additionally, bullets and numbered lists will now be in HTML list format. NOTE: The HTML string will be escaped. You must unescape to get the raw HTML. Null if not present.
String subreddit subreddit of thing excluding the /r/ prefix. "pics"
String subreddit_id the id of the subreddit in which the thing is located
String thumbnail full URL to the thumbnail for this link; "self" if this is a self post; "image" if this is a link to an image but has no thumbnail; "default" if a thumbnail is not available
String title the title of the link. may contain newlines for some reason
String url the link of this post. the permalink if this is a self-post
long edited Indicates if link has been edited. Will be the edit timestamp if the link has been edited and return false otherwise. https://github.com/reddit/reddit/issues/581
String distinguished to allow determining whether they have been distinguished by moderators/admins. null = not distinguished. moderator = the green [M]. admin = the red [A]. special = various other special distinguishes http://bit.ly/ZYI47B
boolean stickied true if the post is set as the sticky in its subreddit.

subreddit

type name description
int accounts_active number of users active in last 15 minutes
int comment_score_hide_mins number of minutes the subreddit initially hides comment scores
String description sidebar text
String description_html sidebar text, escaped HTML format
String display_name human name of the subreddit
String header_img full URL to the header image, or null
array header_size width and height of the header image, or null
String header_title description of header image shown on hover, or null
boolean over18 whether the subreddit is marked as NSFW
String public_description Description shown in subreddit search results?
boolean public_traffic whether the subreddit's traffic page is publicly-accessible
long subscribers the number of redditors subscribed to this subreddit
String submission_type the type of submissions the subreddit allows - one of "any", "link" or "self"
String submit_link_label the subreddit's custom label for the submit link button, if any
String submit_text_label the subreddit's custom label for the submit text button, if any
String subreddit_type the subreddit's type - one of "public", "private", "restricted", or in very special cases "gold_restricted" or "archived"
String title title of the main page
String url The relative URL of the subreddit. Ex: "/r/pics/"
boolean user_is_banned whether the logged-in user is banned from the subreddit
boolean user_is_contributor whether the logged-in user is an approved submitter in the subreddit
boolean user_is_moderator whether the logged-in user is a moderator of the subreddit
boolean user_is_subscriber whether the logged-in user is subscribed to the subreddit

message (implements created)

type name description
String author
String body the message itself
String body_html the message itself with HTML formatting
String context if the message is a comment, then the permalink to the comment with ?context=3 appended to the end, otherwise an empty string
Message? first_message either null or the first message's ID represented as base 10 (wtf)
String first_message_name either null or the first message's fullname
boolean likes how the logged-in user has voted on the message - True = upvoted, False = downvoted, null = no vote
String link_title if the message is actually a comment, contains the title of the thread it was posted in
String name ex: "t4_8xwlg"
boolean new unread? not sure
String parent_id null if no parent is attached
String replies Again, an empty string if there are no replies.
String subject subject of message
String subreddit null if not a comment.
boolean was_comment

account (implements created)

type name description
int comment_karma user's comment karma
boolean has_mail user has unread mail? null if not your account
boolean has_mod_mail user has unread mod mail? null if not your account
boolean has_verified_email user has provided an email address and got it verified?
String id ID of the account; prepend t2_ to get fullname
int inbox_count Number of unread messages in the inbox. Not present if not your account
boolean is_friend whether the logged-in user has this user set as a friend
boolean is_gold reddit gold status
boolean is_mod whether this account moderates any subreddits
int link_karma user's link karma
String modhash current modhash. not present if not your account
String name The username of the account in question. This attribute overrides the superclass's name attribute. Do not confuse an account's name which is the account's username with a thing's name which is the thing's FULLNAME. See API: Glossary for details on what FULLNAMEs are.
boolean over_18 whether this account is set to be over 18

Example of raw account data:

{
	"kind": "t2", 
	"data": {
		"has_mail": false, 
		"name": "fooBar", 
		"created": 123456789.0, 
		"modhash": "f0f0f0f0f0f0f0f0...", 
		"created_utc": 1315269998.0, 
		"link_karma": 31, 
		"comment_karma": 557, 
		"is_gold": false, 
		"is_mod": false, 
		"has_verified_email": false, 
		"id": "5sryd", 
		"has_mod_mail": false
	}
}

more

type name description
List<String> children A list of String ids that are the additional things that can be downloaded but are not because there are too many to list.

Example of more:

{
	"kind": "more",
	"data": {
		"children": [
			"c3y9tyh",
			"c3y9ul7", 
			"c3y9unp", 
			"c3y9uoi"
		], 
		"name": "t1_c3y9tyh", 
		"id": "c3y9tyh"
	}
}