Pixeldrain API documentation

The methods for uploading and retrieving files don’t require an API key. The methods for creating and retrieving lists also don’t require an API key. All methods which delete or modify a resource do require an API key.

API keys can be obtained from the login API.

Some JSON responses include fields which end in “_href” (some people don’t know this, but “href” stands for “Hypertext Reference”, the more you know). These point to different places in the API, which you can retrieve with a GET request. The path is to be appended to the API URL, so “/file/someid/thumbnail” becomes “/api/file/someid/thumbnail”.

The base URL for the API is “/api”, all paths below are relative to that URL.

Form value order

I recommend you put files at the end of every file upload form. By doing this the pixeldrain server can respond to malformed requests before the file upload finishes and this may save you a lot of time and bandwidth when uploading large files. Make sure your HTTP client has support for premature responses, pixeldrain uses them a lot. If the server responds before your request is finished it will always indicate an error and you may abort the connection.

File Methods

POST/file

Description

Upload a file.

Parameters

Param	Type	Required	Maximum Size	Default	Description
name	string	false	255 characters	multipart file name	Name of the file to upload
anonymous	boolean	false	N/A	false	File is not linked to user if true
file	multipart file	true	1000^3 bytes	none	File to upload

Returns

HTTP 200: OK

{
	"success": true,
	"id": "abc123" // ID of the newly uploaded file
}

HTTP 422: Unprocessable Entity

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "no_file",
	"message": "The file does not exist or is empty."
}

HTTP 500: Internal Server Error

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "internal",
	"message": "An internal server error occurred."
}

HTTP 413: Payload Too Large

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "file_too_large",
	"message": "The file you tried to upload is too large"
}

HTTP 500: Internal Server Error

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "writing",
	"message": "Something went wrong while writing the file to disk, the server may be out of storage space."
}

HTTP 413: Payload Too Large

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "name_too_long",
	"message": "File Name is too long, Max 255 characters allowed."
}

GET/file/{id}

Description

Returns the full file associated with the ID. Supports byte range requests.

When ‘?download’ is added to the URL the server will send an attachment header instead of inline rendering, which causes the browser to show a ‘Save File’ dialog.

Warning: If a file is using too much bandwidth it can be rate limited. The rate limit will be enabled if a file has ten times more downloads than views. The owner of a file can always download it. When a file is rate limited the user will need to fill out a captcha in order to continue downloading the file. The captcha will only appear on the file viewer page (pixeldrain.com/u/{id}). Rate limiting has been added to prevent the spread of viruses and to stop direct linking.

Pixeldrain also includes a virus scanner. If a virus has been detected in a file the user will also have to fill in a captcha to download it.

Parameters

Param	Required	Location	Description
id	true	URL	ID of the file to request
download	false	URL	Sends attachment header instead of inline

Returns

HTTP 200: OK

Requested file data

HTTP 404: Not Found

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "not_found",
	"message": "The entity you requested could not be found"
}

HTTP 403: Forbidden

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "file_rate_limited_captcha_required",
	"message": "This file is using too much bandwidth. For anonymous downloads a captcha is required now. The captcha entry is available on the download page"
}

HTTP 403: Forbidden

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "virus_detected_captcha_required",
	"message": "This file has been marked as malware by our scanning systems. To avoid infecting other systems through automated downloads we require you to enter a captcha. The captcha entry is available on the download page"
}

GET/file/{id}/info

Description

Returns information about one or more files. You can also put a comma separated list of file IDs in the URL and it will return an array of file info, instead of a single object.

Parameters

Param	Required	Location	Description
id	true	URL	ID of the file

Returns

HTTP 200: OK

{
	"success": true,
	"id": "1234abcd",
	"name": "screenshot.png",
	"date_upload": 2020-02-04T18:34:05.706801Z,
	"date_last_view": 2020-02-04T18:34:05.706801Z,
	"size": 5694837, // Bytes
	"views" 1234, // Amount of unique file views
	"bandwidth_used": 1234567890, // Bytes
	"mime_type" "image/png",
	"thumbnail_href": "/file/1234abcd/thumbnail" // Link to a thumbnail of this file
}

HTTP 404: Not Found

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "file_not_found"
}

List Methods

POST/list

Description

Creates a list of files that can be viewed together on the file viewer page.

Parameters

POST body should be a JSON object, example below. A list can contain at most 10000 files. If you try to add more the request will fail.

Example

{
	"title": "My beautiful photos", // Defaults to "Pixeldrain List"
	"anonymous": false / true, // If true this list will not be linked to your user account. Defaults to "false"
	"files": [ // Ordered array of files to add to the list
		{
			"id": "abc123",
			"description": "First photo of the week, such a beautiful valley"
		},
		{
			"id": "123abc",
			"description": "The week went by so quickly, here's a photo from the plane back"
		}
	]
}

Returns

HTTP 200: OK

{
	"success": true,
	"id": "yay137" // ID of the newly created list
}

HTTP 422: Unprocessable Entity

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "list_file_not_found",
	"message": "File Oh42No was not found in the database.",
	"extra": {
		"file_not_found": "0h42No" // The file you tried to add with this ID does not exist
	}
}

HTTP 413: Payload too large

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "too_many_files",
	"message": "This list contains too many files, max 10000 allowed."
}

HTTP 422: Unprocessable Entity

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "json_parse_failed",
	"message": "The JSON object in the request body could not be read."
}

HTTP 413: Payload too large

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "title_too_long",
	"message": "The title of this list is too long, max 300 characters allowed."
}

HTTP 413: Payload too large

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "description_too_long",
	"message": "The description of one of the files in the list is too long, max 3000 characters allowed."
}

HTTP 422: Unprocessable Entity

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "cannot_create_empty_list",
	"message": "You cannot make a list with no files."
}

GET/list/{id}

Description

Returns information about a file list and the files in it.

Parameters

Param	Required	Location	Description
id	true	URL	ID of the list

Returns

The API will return some basic information about every file. Every file also has a “detail_href” field which contains a URL to the info API of the file. Follow that link to get more information about the file like size, checksum, mime type, etc. The address is relative to the API URL and should be appended to the end.

HTTP 200: OK

{
	"success": true,
	"id": "L8bhwx",
	"title": "Rust in Peace",
	"date_created": 2020-02-04T18:34:13.466276Z,
	"files": [
		// These structures are the same as the file info response, except for the detail_href and description fields
		{
			"detail_href": "/file/_SqVWi/info",
			"description": "",
			"success": true,
			"id": "_SqVWi",
			"name": "01 Holy Wars... The Punishment Due.mp3",
			"size": 123456,
			"date_created": 2020-02-04T18:34:13.466276Z,
			"date_last_view": 2020-02-04T18:34:13.466276Z,
			"mime_type": "audio/mp3",
			"views": 1,
			"bandwidth_used": 1234567890,
			"thumbnail_href": "/file/_SqVWi/thumbnail"
		},
		{
			"detail_href": "/file/RKwgZb/info",
			"description": "",
			"success": true,
			"id": "RKwgZb",
			"name": "02 Hangar 18.mp3",
			"size": 123456,
			"date_created": 2020-02-04T18:34:13.466276Z,
			"date_last_view": 2020-02-04T18:34:13.466276Z,
			"mime_type": "audio/mp3",
			"views": 2,
			"bandwidth_used": 1234567890,
			"thumbnail_href": "/file/RKwgZb/thumbnail"
		},
		{
			"detail_href": "/file/DRaL_e/info",
			"description": "",
			"success": true,
			"id": "DRaL_e",
			"name": "03 Take No Prisoners.mp3",
			"size": 123456,
			"date_created": 2020-02-04T18:34:13.466276Z,
			"date_last_view": 2020-02-04T18:34:13.466276Z,
			"mime_type": "audio/mp3",
			"views": 3,
			"bandwidth_used": 1234567890,
			"thumbnail_href": "/file/DRaL_e/thumbnail"
		}
	]
}

HTTP 404: Not Found

{
	"success": false,
	"value": "list_not_found",
}

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