A Guide To External APIS (HTTP Requests)

Nizkio · September 2, 2023, 12:30pm

Overview

Hey Developers!

Today I’m going to show you the basics of http requests. By the end of this tutorial, you’re guaranteed to have a functioning system that interacts with external APIS, taking your script further.

Screenshot_2-removebg-preview

Basics

Lets first create a script! Its recommended that this is a serverscript, not local. Once you’ve done that, we need to get httpservice! You can do this by entering the following into your script:
local HttpService = game:GetService("HttpService")

Once you’ve done that, it should look something like this:

Now, We need it to actually do something, right? Now that we’ve got the service, we can now add our external API URL, I’m going to be making a quote system, so we are going to need a API to request from. If you want to use the roblox API, check out the full list + documentation by clicking the arrow below this text.

Collected List Of Roblox APIS

YOU CANNOT USE THE ROBLOX APIS DIRECTLY. PLEASE REFER TO OTHER SERVICES SUCH AS ROPROXY

Anyways, we need to actually get the url from somewhere, right?
This is the service im going to use, read a full documentation of quotable via github.
Please add the following to your script: local URL = "URLHERE"

This is mine for reference:

Explanation:

GET /quotes/random

Get one or more random quotes from the database. This method supports several filters that can be used to get random quotes with specific properties (ie tags, quote length, etc.)

As said before, a full explanation is available via github.

Now that you’ve most likely got your API URL, we can finally get to scripting the system. To make this simple, I’ll be doing step by step tutorials on more common APIS.

Understanding Discord Webhooks In Roblox

Lets start making a webhook system for your game!

!! Discord blocked webhooks that are requested directly from roblox, a proxy is required. Read this before continuing.

Recommended Proxy(s)
https://webhook.lewisakura.moe/

ANYWAYS, lets start making the script. (if you don’t know how to make a webhook, I recommend reading this for more info

In your Roblox game, create a new script.
Use Roblox’s HttpService to make HTTP requests to the Discord webhook URL. Here’s an example of how to send a message:

local HttpService = game:GetService("HttpService")
local webhookUrl = "URL"

local message = {
    content = "Hello World!",
}

local headers = {
    ["Content-Type"] = "application/json",
}

local success, response = pcall(function()
    return HttpService:RequestAsync({
        Url = webhookUrl,
        Method = "POST",
        Headers = headers,
        Body = HttpService:JSONEncode(message),
    })
end)

if success then
    print("Message sent to Discord!")
else
    print("Failed to send message:", response)
end

Useful Information:

Triggering the Roblox Script:

You need to determine when you want to trigger the Roblox script to send a message to Discord. This can be based on in-game events, player actions, or any other condition that fits your game’s logic.

Testing:

To test the system, run your Roblox game and trigger the script. It should send a message to the specified Discord channel.

Security Considerations:

Ensure that your webhook URL is kept secure. Do not share it publicly.

Error Handling:

Implement proper error handling in your Roblox script to deal with cases where the HTTP request to Discord fails.

Rate Limiting:

Be aware of Discord’s rate limiting policies when sending messages via webhooks. If you send messages too frequently, you may be rate-limited.

By following these steps, you can set up a Discord webhook system that allows your Roblox game to send messages or data to a Discord channel using a webhook.

Using External APIS

Hello! This is a very easy step by step tutorial to help you create a quote system in roblox! Once you understand this you should be able to freely create awesome scripts without using api tutorials!

Part 1: Importing HttpService and Defining the API URL

local HttpService = game:GetService("HttpService")
local URL = "https://api.quotable.io/quotes/random"

We import the HttpService module, which allows us to make HTTP requests.
We define the URL variable, which stores the API URL for fetching random quotes.

Part 2: Initializing Variables

local LastSet = ""

We initialize a variable named LastSet to an empty string. This variable will store the last fetched quote.

Part 3: Defining the RequestRandomQuote Function

function RequestRandomQuote()

We start defining a function named RequestRandomQuote to fetch random quotes from the API.

Part 4: Initializing Local Variables

    local content
    local author

Inside the RequestRandomQuote function, we initialize two local variables, content and author, which will store the quote content and author.

Part 5: Using pcall for Error Handling

    local success, err = pcall(function()

We use pcall to handle potential errors during the HTTP request. The success variable will be true if the operation succeeds, and err will contain any error message if there’s an issue.

Part 6: Making an HTTP GET Request

        local response = HttpService:GetAsync(URL)

Inside the pcall function, we make an HTTP GET request to the API URL using HttpService:GetAsync() and store the response in the response variable.

Part 7: Parsing the JSON Response

        local responseData = HttpService:JSONDecode(response)

We parse the JSON response from the API into a Lua table named responseData using HttpService:JSONDecode().

Part 8: Extracting Quote Content and Author

        content = responseData[1].content
        author = responseData[1].author

We extract the content and author values from the response data and store them in the respective variables.

Part 9: Handling Errors

    end)

    if err then
        print(script.Name.." Failed HTTP, ERROR: "..err)
    else

We check if there was an error during the HTTP request. If there’s an error, we print an error message.

Part 10: Creating Formatted Quote Text

        local quoteText = content.." - "..author.." "

We create a formatted quoteText by combining the content and author with a hyphen and a space in between.

Part 11: Handling Undefined Content

        if content == "undefined" then
            quoteText = LastSet or "ERROR"
        end

If the content is “undefined,” we set quoteText to the last fetched quote (LastSet) or “ERROR” if there’s no previous quote.

Part 12: Printing the Quote and Updating LastSet

        print(quoteText)
        LastSet = quoteText
    end
end

We print the quoteText to the output console.
We update the LastSet variable with the new quote text.

Part 13: Continuously Fetching Quotes

while true do
    RequestRandomQuote()
    wait(20)
end

We create a loop that continuously calls the RequestRandomQuote function to fetch and print random quotes every 20 seconds.

Final Script:

local HttpService = game:GetService("HttpService")
local URL = "https://api.quotable.io/quotes/random"
local LastSet = ""

function RequestRandomQuote()
    local content
    local author
    local success, err = pcall(function()
        local response = HttpService:GetAsync(URL)
        local responseData = HttpService:JSONDecode(response)
        content = responseData[1].content
        author = responseData[1].author
    end)
    if err then
        print(script.Name.." Failed HTTP, ERROR: "..err)
    else
        local quoteText = content.." - "..author.." "
        if content == "undefined" then
            quoteText = LastSet or "ERROR"
        end

        print(quoteText)
        LastSet = quoteText
    end
end

while true do
    RequestRandomQuote()
    wait(20)
end

They’ll be a more detailed guide soon, these posts just take a very long time to write.
Anyways, this script will get a quote from the api url, and return it back to roblox then printing it into the output.

I apologise if this guide confused anyone. Its currently still being written, I just didn’t wanna lose my mind since I spent around 4-5 hours writing this. If you have any questions I’m completely open. And my replies will most likely be more detailed and answer your concern easily.

But thanks for reading! Hope this helps!