How can I watch a Foursquare venue for check-ins?

Question

The FourSquare API seems to be very user-centric: After logging in via OAuth I can see my friends check in, and which of my friends are currently checked into a given venue.

I'm looking for something more venue-centric, where I can get a list of everybody currently checked into a venue (friends and non-friends), or ideally receive a notification each time there is a new check-in at a specific venue. Is this possible with the existing V2 API?

Lynnettelynnworth

Answer 1

I know you asked this 2 months ago and surely found an answer already but to answer your question directly.

where I can get a list of everybody currently checked into a venue (friends and non-friends)

The FourSquare version 2 API has a venues endpoint

https://foursquare.com/dev/merchant/index_docs.html

A sample call will give you a stats field in the response

https://api.foursquare.com/v2/venues/5104

Stats: Contains checkinsCount (total checkins ever here) and usersCount (total users who have ever checked in here).

for more venue information, FourSuare has a subset to the version 2 API called the venues project with more venue driven data you can update and mine through.

https://developer.foursquare.com/venues/index

Openhanded

Yes, we've since discovered this independently, but I haven't had time to come back and add a quality answer. Thanks for doing so! – Lynnettelynnworth

Why checkinsCount is different than Total Visits for some of the venues. E.g. Türk Telekom Arena – Margaritamargarite

I found a note, not sure if related. Note: Check-in counts do not include "off-the-grid" check-ins or check-ins that are too far away from the venue. I don't know the meaning though. Source – Margaritamargarite

Answer 2

You can check the venue checkins and mayors, comments, etc. Easily with the foursquare API, just check the API documentation for which calls can you make.

I wrote a handy article about how to connect to the foursquare api and make calls to it through PHP, you can find it here http://ryokuweil.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/how-to-use-the-foursquare-api-v2-with-oauth-and-php/

Ivaivah

Answer 3

Authenticated calls /venues/herenow will return a list of people currently checked in. See https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/venues/herenow.html

To receive notifications when new users check-in to a venue, you need to have your application authorized by a manager of the foursquare venue, then enable your app (on foursquare.com/oauth) for the foursquare Venue Push API

Moores