The item system in Team Fortress 2 generates a ton of data. Up to this point we've provided access to this data through some hacked-together scripts that, frankly, were old and creaky before they went live. Ah, but now...
Pow! Shiny new web APIs that are officially supported. (Find out how to use them here.) This new system comes with a few new features:
- Output can now be provided as JSON, XML, or VDF (Key Values)
- The current item schema is available as an API call, so you don't have to dig items_game.txt out of a patched client
- It is much easier for us to add new APIs with the new system, so it should happen more often