Overview
This node interacts with the BoardGameGeek (BGG) API to retrieve forum threads related to a specific board game. It allows users to fetch threads from various forum categories associated with a game, such as General, News, Reviews, Rules, Sessions, Strategy, Variants, and Crowdfunding.
Typical use cases include:
- Gathering community discussions or feedback about a particular board game.
- Monitoring news or updates posted in the game's forums.
- Extracting user reviews or strategy tips shared in forum threads.
- Integrating BGG forum data into other workflows for analysis or notifications.
For example, a user might want to get the most recent active threads from the "Strategy" forum of a popular game to analyze player tactics or gather insights.
Properties
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Game ID | The unique identifier of the board game to retrieve forum threads for. |
| Forum Type | The category of the forum to get threads from. Options: General, News, Reviews, Rules, Sessions, Strategy, Variants, Crowdfunding. |
| Page | The page number of forum threads to retrieve (pagination). |
| Count | Number of threads to retrieve per page. |
| Sort By | How to sort the retrieved forum threads. Options: Most Recent Activity, Newest Threads, Most Active, Alphabetical. |
| Sort Order | The order to sort the results. Options: Ascending, Descending. |
| Return Raw Response | Whether to return the raw XML response from the API instead of parsed JSON. |
Output
The output JSON contains the following structure:
forumId: The ID of the forum queried.forumTitle: The title/name of the forum.threadCount: Total number of threads in the forum.postCount: Total number of posts in the forum.lastPostDate: ISO string representing the date/time of the last post in the forum.threads: An array of thread objects, each containing:id: Thread ID.subject: Title/subject of the thread.author: Username of the thread creator.numArticles: Number of articles/posts in the thread.postDate: ISO string of the thread's creation date.lastPostDate: ISO string of the last post date in the thread.
If the "Return Raw Response" option is enabled, the node outputs the raw XML response as a string under the rawResponse field instead of the parsed JSON.
Dependencies
- Requires internet access to call the BoardGameGeek XML API endpoints.
- Uses an XML parsing library to convert XML responses into JSON.
- No special authentication is required; the API is publicly accessible.
- No additional environment variables or credentials are needed.
Troubleshooting
- Missing or invalid Game ID: The node requires a valid Game ID to fetch forum threads. If omitted or incorrect, it will throw an error indicating that the Game ID is required.
- Forum type not found: If the specified forum type does not exist for the given game, the node throws an error stating the forum was not found.
- Empty or no threads returned: This can happen if the forum has no threads or the page/count parameters exceed available data.
- API rate limits or downtime: Since the node relies on the public BGG API, network issues or rate limiting may cause errors or timeouts.
- Raw XML parsing errors: If the API returns malformed XML or unexpected data, parsing may fail. Enabling raw response output can help diagnose such issues.
Links and References
- BoardGameGeek XML API documentation: https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/BGG_XML_API2
- BoardGameGeek website: https://boardgamegeek.com