# Can the API return the topic's original author?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [5. Juli 2016 um 07:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837 "2016-07-05T07:52:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@keith1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/keith1)
#### Post date: [5. Juli 2016 um 07:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/1 "2016-07-05T07:52:03Z")
We’re creating featured tiles on my community: [realtimevfx.com](http://realtimevfx.com) and I’d love to include the name of the original topic creator on the tile, however we seem to only be able to get the “last\_power\_username” which isn’t quite what we’re looking for…
Is it possible to query the original author’s name?
---
### Author:  [@fantasticfears](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fantasticfears)
#### Post date: [5. Juli 2016 um 08:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/2 "2016-07-05T08:44:37Z")
How you made those tiles? Plugin or? And where did you find `last_power_username`?
---
### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [5. Juli 2016 um 11:10 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/3 "2016-07-05T11:10:41Z")
It would help if we knew what API call you were making, as if you call out to the topic.json, you can easily get that information (under `details.created_by`).
> [@Can the API return the topic's original author?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837.json):
>
> We’re creating featured tiles on my community: [realtimevfx.com](http://realtimevfx.com) and I’d love to include the name of the original topic creator on the tile, however we seem to only be able to get the “last\_power\_username” which isn’t quite what we’re looking for… Is it possible to query the original author’s name?
---
### Author:  [@Yegor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Yegor)
#### Post date: [16. Juli 2016 um 11:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/4 "2016-07-16T11:56:33Z")
Hello everyone!
I’m actually the guy who programmed the stuff for Keith (topicstarter).
@cpradio, thanks, at this moment I’ve ended up using the /t/{id}.json API call, but anyway…
This means, that I’ll need to make 8 separate (if I have 8 tiles) API requests to get the author username for each thread. Which takes more time…
To get the threadlist for our tiles I’ve used the /c/{id}.json call. Which has topic\_lists.topics object in the response.
I can’t understand why didn’t Discourse put the topicstarter username in each topic object? I don’t think that this is something complicated 😃 We have the “last\_poster\_username”, but don’t have the “topic\_starter\_username” there. Why?
---
### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [16. Juli 2016 um 12:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/5 "2016-07-16T12:27:09Z")
Wait… so when I load [https://meta.discourse.org/c/support.json](https://meta.discourse.org/c/support.json)
I see a `users` section at the very top and then for each topic I see something similar to
```plaintext
"topics": [
{
"id": 46837,
"title": "Can the API return the topic's original author?",
"fancy_title": "Can the API return the topic’s original author?",
"slug": "can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author",
"posts_count": 4,
"reply_count": 0,
"highest_post_number": 4,
"image_url": null,
"created_at": "2016-07-05T07:52:03.351Z",
"last_posted_at": "2016-07-16T11:56:33.660Z",
"bumped": true,
"bumped_at": "2016-07-16T11:56:33.660Z",
"unseen": false,
"last_read_post_number": 4,
"unread": 0,
"new_posts": 0,
"pinned": false,
"unpinned": null,
"visible": true,
"closed": false,
"archived": false,
"notification_level": 3,
"bookmarked": false,
"liked": false,
"views": 120,
"like_count": 6,
"has_summary": false,
"archetype": "regular",
"last_poster_username": "Yegor",
"category_id": 6,
"pinned_globally": false,
"tags": [
],
"has_accepted_answer": false,
"posters": [
{
"extras": null,
"description": "Original Poster",
"user_id": 19898
},
{
"extras": null,
"description": "Frequent Poster",
"user_id": 8810
},
{
"extras": null,
"description": "Frequent Poster",
"user_id": 8300
},
{
"extras": "latest",
"description": "Most Recent Poster",
"user_id": 22733
}
]
}
```
There is a poster’s section for each topic, that has one with the description of ‘Original Poster’, which identifies with a user id in the `users` section. Is that not what you need?
Sample of `users` section
```plaintext
"users": [
{
"id": 19898,
"username": "keith1",
"avatar_template": "https: //avatars.discourse.org/v3/letter/k/6de8d8/{ size }.png"
},
{
"id": 8810,
"username": "fantasticfears",
"avatar_template": "/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fantasticfears/{ size }/51902_1.png"
},
{
"id": 8300,
"username": "cpradio",
"avatar_template": "/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/cpradio/{ size }/4970_1.png"
}
]
```
---
### Author:  [@Yegor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Yegor)
#### Post date: [17. Juli 2016 um 08:46 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/6 "2016-07-17T08:46:54Z")
Wow, I should have digged more… Thanks, this looks like it! I’ll test it soon 🙂
Appreciated!
---
### Author:  [@Yegor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Yegor)
#### Post date: [17. Juli 2016 um 09:09 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/7 "2016-07-17T09:09:09Z")
Yeah, changed the things with success 😃 Thanks again.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [13. Februar 2019 um 10:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/8 "2019-02-13T10:29:26Z")
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [14. Februar 2019 um 00:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-the-api-return-the-topics-original-author/46837/9 "2019-02-14T00:16:18Z")