Keeping in Sync

Follow changes without polling hard

Most tools hold a set of novels, or a reader's library, and want to know when something changes. This is the cheap way to do it.

  1. Hold your ids. Keep each novel by its RandomTranslator id. A merged novel answers 404 not_found_merged with the id that replaced it: store that one instead. A deleted one answers 410 not_found_deleted: drop it.
  2. Read your library, not every novel. GET /user-novels/bookmarks (5 units a page) already carries, for each novel on your shelves, its chapter count, your place, your unread count and when its last chapter arrived. Add new_chapters=true to get only the novels with chapters you have not read. One call a few times a day is enough to find what updated.
  3. Use notifications for what is new to you. GET /user-novels/notifications is what the bell shows: chapter updates, replies and announcements.
  4. Do not ask more often than things change (the table below).

What changes when#

Data Changes
A novel's chapter count and last chapter When its source publishes and we next check the novel
Translations of new chapters Minutes to hours after the chapter arrives, or when a reader opens it
A novel's page facts (synopsis, status, tags) Rarely
Popular Up to every 10 minutes; movement is against the list about 24 hours ago
Genres, fandoms and tags with counts Every hour
Glossary When a moderator accepts a change
Recaps When a new arc or volume is summarised
Your library, place and notifications As you read

Feeds and sitemaps#

These need no key and cost no units.

  • https://randomtranslator.com/feed.xml: RSS of the 20 newest novels on RandomTranslator by arrival, rewritten every 5 minutes when it changes.
  • https://randomtranslator.com/sitemap.xml, https://cdn.randomtranslator.com/sitemap-novels.xml, https://cdn.randomtranslator.com/sitemaps/chapters.xml and https://cdn.randomtranslator.com/sitemaps/wikis.xml: every indexable page, with last-modified dates, rebuilt every 6 hours.

A chapter's page on the website (/novel/{id}/{slug}/chapter-{n}) is the place to read it; the API does not serve chapter text.