Open Source
Without the broad community of developers that has formed around FFXIV since its release, and the uncountable hours put into building and maintaining the tools and ecosystem we’ve come to expect, this API simply could not exist.
XIVAPI was born from the open source community, is released as open source, and will always contribute to the open source community. You can view related projects at xivapi. You can also view FFCafe related projects at thewakingsands.
The upstream XIVAPI project uses or is supported by the following projects:
- xivapi/static
- The official XIVAPI documentation website, including documentation and utilities, built with Astro.
- ackwell/boilmaster
- The upstream API server, responsible for everything under
/api. Boilmaster has been written from the outset to form an extensible and maintainable platform that can power XIVAPI for years to come. - xivdev/EXDSchema
- The default excel schema used throughout the API. Without EXDSchema and the prior art of the SaintCoinach schema, finding and utilising the content found in sheets would be significantly harder.
- Thaliak
- The game-version discovery service used by upstream XIVAPI. FFCafe’s server instead loads published ixion releases.
The FFCafe version also uses the following projects:
- thewakingsands/xivapi-v2
- The FFCafe version of the XIVAPI documentation website (this website).
- thewakingsands/boilmaster
- FFCafe’s API server. It loads merged sheet data from ixion releases and serves
icons and maps through a separate binary asset index. It also provides the
/i/route for retrieving images by icon ID. - thewakingsands/ixion
- FFXIV version management and data processing tool. It publishes merged sheet data and indexed icon/map resources consumed by FFCafe’s server.
As a web API, XIVAPI can be utilised without any further support libraries in any environment that is capable of making outbound requests. Libraries are available that build further language-specific utilities and support around the underlying API, maintained by the community:
- Eisenhuth/xivapi-swift: Swift
- xiv-gear-planner/xivapi-java: Java
The API also exposes an OpenAPI document at /api/openapi.json that is generated from the current API implementation, and powers the API reference at /api/docs.
XIVAPI is not perfect for every use-case - and doesn’t try to be! There is an incredibly broad selection of alternative tools and services available from across the FFXIV developer community. The list below is a small selection of these that may be better suited to what you are trying to achieve.
FFXIV’s official website, Lodestone, has publicly accessible pages with information about characters, free companies, and the like. A few libraries and/or services are available that can read this information for use.
- xivapi/nodestone: TypeScript, library or server.
- xivapi/godestone: Go, library.
- xivapi/NetStone: C#/.NET, library.
You can also write your own library using the shared css selectors found at xivapi/lodestone-css-selectors
The API is primarily intended for use on the web, where game files aren’t readily accessible. If you know your code will have access to an installation of the game, using a game data library will likely prove significantly faster and more capable than the API.
- NotAdam/Lumina
- C#/.NET. The most broadly used game data library in the community. Supports many game file formats, and offers a generated class library for ergonomic consumption of sheet data.
- ackwell/ironworks
- Rust. The data library powering XIVAPI. Modular, with support for common file formats and reading directly from game patch files.
While access to data is great if you know what you’re looking for, it can be daunting to look through. A few tools collate and/or provide an interface for research and exploration of the data available.
- NotNite/Alpha
- Alpha is a modern data exploration toolkit, containing a variety of tools for navigating game data.
- Godbert
- Data exploration tool primarily focusing on sheets. Part of SaintCoinach - while Godbert is a useful tool, it’s strongly recommended to use Lumina if building a new project in .NET.
- goaaats/ffxiv-explorer-fork
- One of the older tools, FFXIV Explorer remains a no-frills tool for navigating game file content.
- ResLogger2
- Centralised repository of all known asset paths in the game. Used widely by many of the tools and services above.
For data not available from static game files or lodestone, it may be possible to build the project as a plugin, where runtime information from a game session can be used in real time.
- Dalamud
- Dalamud is the predominant plugin ecosystem for FFXIV, and is an excellent starting point for building runtime tools and utilities.