Supported platforms

PocketSharp is a Portable Class Library (since 1.0.0), therefore it's compatible with multiple platforms:

  • .NET >= 4.0.3 (including WPF)
  • Silverlight >= 4
  • Windows Phone >= 7.5
  • Windows Store

You can find examples for Silverlight 5, WP8 and WPF in the PocketSharp.Examples folder.

Async Support

All public methods, which communicate with the Pocket servers are asynchronous. So they should be called with the preceding await keyword, and the encapsulated method marked with async.

In PocketSharp versions < 1.0.0 all methods lacked async support and were blocking.

Getting Started

Request a Consumer Key on Pocket.

Include the PocketSharp namespace and it's associated models (you will need them later):

using PocketSharp;
using PocketSharp.Models;

Initialize PocketClient with:

PocketClient _client = new PocketClient("[YOUR_CONSUMER_KEY]", "[YOUR_ACCESS_CODE]");

Do a simple request - e.g. a search for CSS:

await _client.Search("css").ForEach(
	 item => Debug.WriteLine(item.ID + " | " + item.Title)
  );

Which will output:

330361896 | CSS Front-end Frameworks with comparison : By usabli.ca
345541438 | Editr - HTML, CSS, JavaScript playground
251743431 | CSS Architecture
343693149 | CSS3 Transitions - Thank God We Have A Specification!
...

Create an instance

Constructor:

PocketClient(string consumerKey, string accessCode = null, Uri callbackUri = null)

consumerKey: The API key
accessCode: Provide an access code if the user is already authenticated
callbackUri: The callback URL is called by Pocket after authentication

Example:

PocketClient _client = new PocketClient(
	 consumerKey: "123498237423498723498723",
	 callbackUri: new Uri("http:⁄⁄ceecore.com"),
	 accessCode: "097809-oi987-izi8-jk98-oiuu89"
);

You can change the Access Code after initialization:

_client.AccessCode = "[YOU_ACCESS_CODE]";

Before authentication you will need to provide the callbackUri for authentication requests.
After authentication you will need to provide the accessCode.

Release History

  • 2.0.1 (2013-10-19) Catch HttpRequestExceptions and provide as InnerException for PocketException + Read Article from URI (method overload)
  • 2.0.0 (2013-10-17) Add Reader API
  • 1.5.1 (2013-09-30) RetrieveFilter.All didn't work; improve search speed
  • 1.5.0 (2013-09-28) add statistics and registration API
  • 1.4.0 (2013-09-21) rename Retrieve to Get + update IntelliSense documentation + add GetTags method
  • 1.3.0 (2013-09-19) get Item by ID + tag modification bugfixes
  • 1.2.1 (2013-09-18) correct parameter conversion for DateTime and Boolean
  • 1.2.0 (2013-09-17) simplified retrieve methods
  • 1.1.0 (2013-09-17) fix modification requests
  • 1.0.0 (2013-09-15) convert to PCL & implement async
  • 0.3.2 (2013-08-16) tag modification fixed and full retrieval of items for Retrieve method
  • 0.3.1 (2013-07-07) authentication fixes
  • 0.3.0 (2013-07-02) update authentication process
  • 0.2.0 (2013-06-27) add, modify item & modify tags
  • 0.1.0 (2013-06-26) authentication & retrieve functionality

Used Packages

Contributors

twitter/artistandsocial   Tobias Klika @ceee

Authentication

In order to communicate with a Pocket User, you will need a consumer key (which is generated by creating a new application on Pocket) and an Access Code.

The authentication is a 3-step process:

1) Generate authentication URI

Receive the request code and authentication URI from the library by calling string GetRequestCode():

string requestCode = await _client.GetRequestCode();
// 0f453f2d-1605-8584-28fd-39af8e
Uri authenticationUri = _client.GenerateAuthenticationUri();
// https://getpocket.com/auth/authorize?request_token=0f453f2d-1605-8584-28fd-39af8e&redirect_uri=http%253a%252f%252fceecore.com

The request code is stored internally, but you can also provide it as param in GenerateAuthenticationUri(string requestCode = null).

2) Redirect to Pocket

Next you need to redirect the user to the authenticationUri, which displays a prompt to grant permissions for the application (see image). After the user granted or denied, he/she is redirected to the callbackUri.

authentication screen

3) Get Access Code

Call Task<string> GetAccessCode(string requestCode = null)

string accessCode = await _client.GetAccessCode();
// fa8bfc16-69b3-4d22-7db7-84a58d

Again, the received access code is stored internally. Note that GetAccessCode can only be called with an existing request code. If you need to re-authenticate a user, start again with Step 1).

Important

Be sure to permanently store the Access Code for your user.
Without it you would always have to redo the authentication process.

Account Registration

The RegisterAccount method exists in Pocket API v3, but is currently undocumented.
The user cannot authenticate directly after registration, as the account has to be activated via an opt-in link, which is sent to the e-mail address.

bool isSuccess = await _client.RegisterAccount("myUsername", "me@mymail.com", "mypassword");

After registration you have to remind the user to check his/her mail account.

Get

Get list of all items:

List<PocketItem> items = await _client.Get();
// equivalent to: await _client.Get(RetrieveFilter.All)

Get a list with specific parameters (explanation in the Pocket Docs):

List<PocketItem> items = await _client.Get(
  State? state = null,
  bool? favorite = null,
  string tag = null,
  ContentType? contentType = null,
  Sort? sort = null,
  string search = null,
  string domain = null,
  DateTime? since = null,
  int? count = null,
  int? offset = null
);

It's best to use parameters as named parameters, to avoid typing null values:

List<PocketItem> items = await _client.Get(count: 10, offset: 20, sort: Sort.oldest);

Get item by ID:

PocketItem item = await _client.Get(1298198);

Find items by a tag:

List<PocketItem> items = await _client.SearchByTag("tutorial");

Find items by a search string.
PocketSharp uses an internal search, which is significantly faster than the Search API by Pocket.

List<PocketItem> items = await _client.Search("css");

Find items by a search string by already available items:

List<PocketItem> items = await _client.Search(myPocketItemList, "css");

Get all tags:

List<PocketTag> items = await _client.GetTags();

Get a filtered list:

List<PocketItem> items = await _client.Get(RetrieveFilter.Favorite);
// returns favorites only

The RetrieveFilter Enum is specified as follows:

enum RetrieveFilter { All, Unread, Archive, Favorite, Article, Video, Image }

Statistics

The Pocket API supports retrieval of a simple statistics object.

PocketStatistics statistics = await client.Statistics();
// PocketStatistics: [CountAll], [CountRead], [CountUnread]

Add

Adds a new item to your pocket list. Accepts four parameters, with uri being required. 

Task<PocketItem> Add(Uri uri, string[] tags = null, string title = null, string tweetID = null)

Example:

PocketItem newItem = await _client.Add(
	new Uri("http:⁄⁄www.neowin.net/news/full-build-2013-conference-sessions-listing-revealed"),
	new string[] { "microsoft", "neowin", "build" }
);

The title can be included for cases where an item does not have a title, which is typical for image or PDF URLs. If Pocket detects a title from the content of the page, this parameter will be ignored.

If you are adding Pocket support to a Twitter client, please send along a reference to the tweet status id (with the tweetID). This allows Pocket to show the original tweet alongside the article.

Modify

All Modify methods accept either the itemID (as int) or a PocketItem as parameter.

Archive the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.Archive(myPocketItem);

Un-archive the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.Unarchive(myPocketItem);

Favorites the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.Favorite(myPocketItem);

Un-favorites the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.Unfavorite(myPocketItem);

Deletes the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.Delete(myPocketItem);

Modify tags

Add tags to the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.AddTags(myPocketItem, new string[] { "css", "2013" });

Remove tags from the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.RemoveTags(myPocketItem, new string[] { "css", "2013" });

Remove all tags from the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.RemoveTags(myPocketItem);

Replaces all existing tags with new ones for the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.ReplaceTags(myPocketItem, new string[] { "css", "2013" });

Renames a tag for the specified item:

bool isSuccess = await _client.RenameTag(myPocketItem, "oldTagName", "newTagName");

Article Reader API

PocketSharp 2.0 implements a new Reader API.

This API does _not _use the official (and private) Article View API by Pocket. It is based on a custom PCL port of NReadability and SgmlReader, which are included in the solution.

What's it all about?

The Reader API extracts the main content of a website and returns the extracted content as HTML and it's associated title (which should already be available in the PocketItem).

This content can be encapsulated in a <body>-Tag and displayed as a readable website with a custom CSS (it's up to you!).

Implementation

As with all PocketSharp implementations you have to require the main namespace and it's model namespace:

using PocketSharp;
using PocketSharp.Models;

The PocketReader is a seperated class with it's own HttpClient. Create an instance of it:

PocketReader reader = new PocketReader();

PocketReader needs a PocketItem as a parameter to correctly identify its ID and Uri. With this requirement you can successfully query for an articles content.
Don't forget exception handling in case a website is down or not accessible.

PocketArticle article;
try
{
  article = await reader.Read(myPocketItem);
  // PocketArticle: {
  //   int PocketItemID
  //   string Content
  //   string Title
  //   string NextPageUrl
  // }
}
catch (PocketException exc)
{
  // handle exception
}