Ape Apps

Even with no API installed on their server at all, forum and website owners can utilize a forumfiend.json file to easily set up automatic configuration and customization parameters to control how their forum or website looks and behaves by default when run under Forum Fiend. Simply place file in the root of your website called forumfiend.json containing a valid formatted .json data object with any of the following parameters. All parameters are optional, and a complete example file is displayed at the bottom.

Field	Description
name	Overall name of the site or forum as it appears on the main Forum Fiend listing.
icon	An absolute URL to either a .png or .ico file that represents for forum or site.
banner	An absolute URL to a .png file that represents a sidebar banner image for the site, suggested resolution of 300x150.
color	A valid hex color (ex. #ff0000) representing the overall theme color of the forum or site.
ff_chat_id	Name of a chat channel on Ape Chat to be used by this forum or site. If specified, a chat slide-out will appear with the specified chat channel. Using chat requires an Ape Apps account.
g_analytics	A Google Analytics id for tracking views and impressions when your site is accessed using Forum Fiend.
start_url	An absolute URL that points to where Forum Fiend should open, could be the Forums section of your site.
disable_api	Either 1 or 0 (for yes/no). Default is 0. See details below.

Sample forumfiend.json file:

{

"name": "Epic Forums",

"icon": "https://epicforums.com/icon.ico",

"banner": "https://epicforums.com/banner.png",

"color": "#f44336",

"ff_chat_id": "epicforums",

"g_analytics": "UA-XXXXXXXX",

"start_url": "https://epicforums.com/forum/",

"disable_api": "0"

}

disable_api Field Info

Forum Fiend was originally built around the open source Tapatalk API and was thus able to interface with any site that had the Tapatalk API installed. Sometime around 2014/2015, Tapatalk got some of that sweet, sweet venture capital money and stopped publishing public information related to their API, and even had their lawyers send Ape Apps a cease and desist request over Forum Fiend.

Because of this, no further development has been made on the Tapatalk API interface for Forum Fiend, and the system is based around the last published open source edition of the API from around 2014. Therefore, the Tapatalk interface is no longer maintained or supported in Forum Fiend, and can not be guaranteed to work correctly on any install that is more recent than 2014.

Forum developers are encouraged to use the WebView interface (by setting disable_api to "1") and calling Forum Fiend's native features using the Javascript interface instead, which is documented elsewhere in this forum. If you still want your forum to use the Tapatalk interface, you can omit the disable_api field or set it to "0", but know that it has not been updated in a long time, is no longer receiving support or updates, and some features may not work properly. Please test your site in the app to verify.

Feel free to leave feedback/comments/suggestions on any features you would like to see added/improved/changed with the forumfiend.json interface.