Pinterest API Usability

Question

As you may know, pinterest api seems down now.( api.pinterest.com )In this site: http://tijn.bo.lt/pinterest-api, it says that readonly access still works. What does exactly mean ?

I can build an application using this api but cannot use pinning or creating my own board ?

Sorry if my question is too ridiculous, i am very newbie to create an application with an API..

Answer 1

If the API permits read-only alone, that means you can consume data from the source, but you cannot write to it. You could probably get a list of items from your board, but you wouldn't be able to programmatically push a new item to your board.

It's a one-way road, until they open up another lane.

Answer 2

The information posted on that site is a bit out of date.

The API was until recently allowing read/write access, but about two weeks ago Pinterest stopped issuing new access tokens via their original authentication scheme. The new scheme requires API users to generate an oauth signature to receive an access token (needed to use the API), and consequently the API is only accessible to those who have received a client_id and client_secret for their application from Pinterest.

Caveat: if you happen to have an old access_key issued using the old API, you apparently can still use that to make API calls, though I'm guessing those tokens will expire soon.