# Discourse always posts in general using API
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 18, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276 "2017-09-18T14:23:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dylanh724](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dylanh724)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276/1 "2017-09-18T14:23:36Z")
Whenever I post via the API, I tested it in Postman and it sends the right things to the right category.
However, when I more or less copy+paste the same thing with an http POST (via JavaScript), I get everything right…EXCEPT the category (which I thought was the easiest part):
I’m just truly stumped. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this wouldn’t send to the correct category?
- I’m posting it as a FORM data (and not JSON, like Postman/tutorial says to do)
- No special headers - it’s pretty vanilla
- I copy+pasted “category” to ensure I didn’t typo it (shown in screenshot). It IS an number, right? I’m about to try it as text
**UPDATE:**
> It IS an number, right? I’m about to try it as text
Error 422 when I try it as string. **It is definitely a number.**
**UPDATE 2:**
Wait a sec… I’m still getting 422 errors even when account is admin? I guess this is for a new post
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### Author:  [@dylanh724](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dylanh724)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276/2 "2017-09-18T14:57:48Z")
Ahhhh apparently error 422 is **rate-limiting**. The category “number” IS actually “text” (a string). Making bot account admin seemed to do the trick for the limiting (…[but why do I have to make it an ADMIN to edit rate limiting?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improve-add-friendly-json-api-error-messages-at-least-generic-ones/70272) Seems a bit of a dramatic upgrade for such) and “15” as the category as a string.
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276/3 "2017-09-18T16:34:41Z")
~~I believe the browser client submits the category as its name; supporting the id was an accident.~~
See also:
> [@Reverse engineer the Discourse API](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-reverse-engineer-the-discourse-api/20576):
>
> Discourse is backed by a complete JSON api. Anything you can do on the site you can also do using the JSON api. The API is documented at [docs.discourse.org](https://docs.discourse.org). You can also use the [discourse\_api](https://github.com/discourse/discourse_api) Ruby gem as a client library. However, not every endpoint is documented. To determine how to do something with the JSON API here are some steps you can follow. Example: recategorize a topic. Go to a topic and start editing a category: Open Chrome dev tools, switch to the Network tab, select …
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### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276/4 "2017-09-18T20:01:44Z")
> [@riking](#):
>
> supporting the id was an accident
If it was an accident - that sounds a little cray-cray…
> [@Posting to sub category not working for me](https://meta.discourse.org/t/posting-to-sub-category-not-working-for-me/63462/2):
>
> It’s best to use the category ID integer value as indicated by the docs here:
> [Discourse API Docs](http://docs.discourse.org/#tag/Topics%2Fpaths%2F~1posts%2Fpost)
>
> …
>
> I would stick with integer category ID numbers.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276/5 "2019-10-05T17:20:25Z")
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### Author:  [@blake](https://meta.discourse.org/u/blake)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276/6 "2019-10-05T21:53:48Z")
Just wanted to clarify that when creating a topic in a category via the API, you specify the category by id now, not by name.
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### Author:  [@blake](https://meta.discourse.org/u/blake)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-always-posts-in-general-using-api/70276/7 "2019-10-05T21:53:51Z")