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BoardGameGeek

Interact with BoardGameGeek API (Built: 2025-05-08T04:06:46.611Z)

Actions5

Overview

This node interacts with the BoardGameGeek (BGG) API to retrieve information related to board games and their associated forum content. Specifically, the "Get Articles in Thread" operation fetches all articles (posts) within a specified forum thread on BoardGameGeek.

Common scenarios where this node is beneficial include:

  • Extracting detailed discussions or comments from a specific forum thread for analysis or archiving.
  • Monitoring community feedback or conversations about a particular topic or game.
  • Integrating forum content into other workflows or applications for enhanced user engagement.

For example, a user might input a thread ID corresponding to a discussion about a new board game expansion and retrieve all posts in that thread to analyze player opinions.

Properties

Name Meaning
Thread ID The unique identifier of the forum thread from which to retrieve articles. This is required.
Return Raw Response A boolean option to return the raw XML response from the BGG API instead of parsed JSON. Useful for debugging or custom parsing needs.

Output

The output JSON structure for the "Get Articles in Thread" operation includes:

  • id: The ID of the thread.
  • subject: The subject/title of the thread.
  • numArticles: The total number of articles/posts in the thread.
  • link: URL link to the thread on BoardGameGeek.
  • articles: An array of article objects, each containing:
    • id: Article ID.
    • username: Username of the author who posted the article.
    • link: Direct link to the article.
    • postDate: Date and time when the article was posted.
    • editDate: Date and time when the article was last edited (if applicable).
    • numEdits: Number of times the article has been edited.
    • subject: Subject/title of the article (may be empty).
    • body: Content/body text of the article (may be empty).

If the "Return Raw Response" property is enabled, the output will contain a single field rawResponse with the unprocessed XML string returned by the API.

Dependencies

  • The node requires internet access to call the BoardGameGeek XML API endpoints.
  • It uses an XML parsing library to convert XML responses into JSON format.
  • No special API keys or authentication tokens are needed as the BGG API is publicly accessible.
  • The node depends on n8n's HTTP request helper methods to perform API calls.

Troubleshooting

  • Missing or invalid Thread ID: If the Thread ID is not provided or invalid, the node throws an error indicating that the Thread ID is required.
  • Thread not found: If the specified thread does not exist or cannot be retrieved, an error "Thread not found" is thrown.
  • API rate limits or downtime: Since the node relies on the public BGG API, it may encounter errors if the API is down or rate-limited. Retrying after some time or checking API status is recommended.
  • Malformed XML or parsing errors: If the API returns unexpected data or the XML cannot be parsed, the node may fail. Enabling "Return Raw Response" can help diagnose such issues.
  • Empty articles array: Some threads may have no articles; the node will return an empty array in such cases.

Links and References

Discussion