JSON Book API is returning incorrect dates for some books

Developers
1

The date_published field for some books is returning an incorrect date. The book The Other Valley, for example, returns a date of November 8, 2024, which I believe is actually the date I added the book to my bookshelf.

Here is the complete response for one of my bookshelves showcasing this issue:

{
  "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1",
  "title": "Micro.blog - Finished reading",
  "home_page_url": "https://micro.blog",
  "feed_url": "https://micro.blog/books/bookshelves/20999",
  "_microblog": {
    "about": "https://micro.blog/about/api"
  },
  "items": [
    {
      "id": 163447,
      "title": "The Other Valley",
      "content_text": "",
      "url": "https://micro.blog/books/9781668023570",
      "image": "https://books.google.com/books/content?id=1cfEEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&source=gbs_api",
      "date_published": "2024-11-08T07:08:35+00:00",
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Scott Alexander Howard"
        }
      ],
      "_microblog": {
        "isbn": "9781668023570"
      }
    }
  ]
}
2

You’re right, it’s not using the finished date here. I’ll change it to use finished date for finished books, otherwise it’ll keep using the other date (usually when the book was created or added).

3

Oh, maybe it is working as intended then. I thought the date_published property was for when the actual book was published.

4

I think that means “date_published to your blog”.

5

For finished books it definitely goes by that, which can be manually set:

image
image1206×1656 108 KB

But for books on other shelves, I’m thinking it goes by the date it was first added to Micro.blog by any user. Because the latest book I added to my “want to read” shelf returns December 3, 2023 and the more obscure book I added before that is the date I added it to that shelf:

image
image1048×432 75.8 KB

It’s a bit confusing and inconsistent.