Embeds API returning different results

[geoff-maddock]

I've noticed that on repeated calls to the embeds endpoint, I'm getting different results.

For instance, the URL
https://api.arcane.city/api/events/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb/embeds

Sometimes returns an empty response:

{
    "data": [],
    "total": 0,
    "current_page": 1,
    "per_page": 100,
    "first_page_url": "\/events\/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb\/embeds",
    "from": 1,
    "last_page": 1,
    "next_page_url": "\/events\/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb\/embeds",
    "path": "\/events\/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb\/embeds",
    "prev_page_url": "\/events\/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb\/embeds",
    "to": 0
}

And other times returns results in it's response:

{"data":["<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=4110359329/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>","<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/track=1031693397/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>","<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/track=2123621330/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>","<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/track=418530254/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>","<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3504787025/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>","<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=62143695/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>","<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=2054906209/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>","<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3049154075/size=large/tracklist=false/artwork=small//size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" allowfullscreen seamless></iframe>"],"total":8,"current_page":1,"per_page":100,"first_page_url":"/events/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb/embeds","from":1,"last_page":1,"next_page_url":"/events/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb/embeds","path":"/events/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb/embeds","prev_page_url":"/events/yahho-havana-syndrome-lilacweb/embeds","to":8}

What might be happening here and how can we fix it?

[geoff-maddock]

Some tests are returning a 200 almost immediately, but with no results.
Successful tests take 6-8s, and return 12 values.

So...it's slow for sure and that is also a problem. Probably caching the data, either on the browser side, or in the db in the API

However, there's also something at runtime that's causing a problem where it quits early. Maybe some response from bandcamp?

[geoff-maddock]

Looks like the fundamental problem is rate limiting from bandcamp - I'm making too many requests within a short amount of time.

I tried to get it to retry on a 429 "Too Many Requests", but it only made marginal improvements and it added lots of time to the request (18-30s).

Conceptualize a better way of doing this?

• Offline process that caches the embeds and does not block requests
• Frontend system that handles creating the embeds from the browser