First part of CrossBrowserTesting api released - automate your automatic screenshots

Our new api allows you to automatically trigger screenshots to run when needed. For example, lets say you have a script that pushes pages into production each night. You can modify that script to automatically tell CrossBrowserTesting.com to take screenshots of that page. You can then mail the screenshots of the updated page to your QC department when the test completes so they will be able to verify the layout.

You can view the cross browser testing api documentation.

Some details:
- We are using basic authentication to authenticate access to the api
- The following methods are currently supported:
    screenshots/show - show the screenshot tests you have taken
    screenshots/<test id>/show - Returns versions of a test
    screenshots/<test id>/version/<version id>/show - show the results of a screenshot test
    screenshots/<test id>/version/<version id>/run - run a new screenshot test
- can return xml or json - xml is the default. Append a ?format=json to the end of url to get json.
- easy to call from curl. Example: curl --user username:password http://crossbrowsertesting.com/api/screenshots/show

Want to see it work? Go to http://crossbrowsertesting.com/api/screenshots/show and enter your user name and password. This will show you a list of all the screenshot tests you have run.

How to get started? The easiest way is to run a screenshot test, then view the screenshot results. At the bottom of each screenshot result page, you will see a url that says 'api syntax' and a link next to it. This link will show the calling syntax to access this particular page via the api.

We are calling this 'alpha / beta' until Jan 1st 2010 (ok, for the next 30 days - wow - 2010 sounds weird). During this time, we reserve the right to correct, ie change, the api. After Jan 1st 2010, we will lock down this version and it will be fine to use it in a production setting. We ask that you PLEASE CONTACT US and let us know if you are using the api. This will let us get an idea of who is using it, for what purposes they are using it, and allow us to get in touch with you if we need to make changes, etc.

We will be adding to the api over time. One of the next additions will be to allow launching of live interactive test sessions via the api.

We have begun relying on Twitter to announce changes, new capability, and service issues / outages. Please follow us

Thanks
Ken, Mike, and Tony
The CrossBrowserTesting Team
Follow us: http://twitter.com/xbrowsertesting

Note: the api cannot be used for reselling our services. If you are looking to resell our services, please contact us.