# Topic views doesn't update on rest API requests
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** rest-api
**Created:** [December 19, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474 "2024-12-19T21:56:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jandres](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jandres)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/1 "2024-12-19T21:56:05Z")
In last Version 3.4.0.beta4-dev I noted that topic views doesn’t update when using rest API requests. Even putting headers like`Discourse-Visible, X-Requested-With` or even more
> ‘Discourse-Visible’: ‘true’,
> ‘Discourse-Logged-In’ : ‘true’,
> ‘Discourse-Present’: ‘true’,
> ‘Discourse-Track-View’: ‘true’,
> ‘Discourse-Track-View-Topic-Id’: 2214
I don’t know if this is a bug or is something that is programmed like that. But in previous version this behaviour didn’t happen
I would be very grateful if you could help me with this issue.
Thank you very much
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### Author:  [@jandres](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jandres)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/2 "2025-03-24T20:46:38Z")
Is this something that just happening to me ?
I would really appreciate any help you can give me with this problem. I’ve tried several things without success. I think I’ve set all the possible headers I’ve seen in the reverse engineering I’ve done, and the views still aren’t updating. I think there must be a header I’m missing.
By the way I’m using admin API keys instead of User api keys. I hope this is not a problem
Thank you very much
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/3 "2025-03-24T22:24:19Z")
API requests don’t track views, unconditionally, by design.
>
I guess you are after some feature request here to allow you to track views via our API, recategorizing.
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### Author:  [@jandres](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jandres)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/4 "2025-03-25T14:24:20Z")
hmmm 🤔
Thank you @sam but I wonder why before 3.4.0.beta-4 version it did it ?
> [@Request from API doesn't update User#last\_seen\_at](https://meta.discourse.org/t/request-from-api-doesnt-update-user-last-seen-at/108528/10):
>
> You can now set DISCOURSE\_VISIBLE=“true” on API requests, and Discourse will update the last\_seen time for the user [https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/af86cf46dc003f19ba52f71826f057884f1119ba](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/af86cf46dc003f19ba52f71826f057884f1119ba)
also if User::last\_seen\_at is updated why not the views ?
When you say a feature it means a plugin that allow me to track views via API ?
Thank you again
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2025, 2:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/5 "2025-05-12T02:42:52Z")
> [@Request from API doesn't update User#last\_seen\_at](https://meta.discourse.org/t/request-from-api-doesnt-update-user-last-seen-at/108528/10):
>
> You can now set DISCOURSE\_VISIBLE=“true” on API requests
@david can you clarify here, is there a change missing from request tracker?
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2025, 9:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/6 "2025-05-12T09:27:01Z")
Topic views have been migrated to use our “browser pageviews” system. That means that they no longer include any kind of API or crawler requests.
The DISCOURSE\_VISIBLE header relates only to the legacy pageviews system.
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### Author:  [@Nima1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Nima1)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2025, 7:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/8 "2025-11-16T07:25:46Z")
If you need API traffic (mobile apps, integrations, etc.) to count as topic views, I’ve published a small plugin that does exactly that:
🔗 **api-topic-views**
[https://github.com/gorfist/api-topic-views](https://github.com/gorfist/api-topic-views)
It hooks into `TopicsController#show` and counts eligible API/User API requests as topic views, with options for custom headers, rate limiting, crawler filtering, and user-aware tracking.
It’s still new and not fully battle-tested yet, but it should work well for most self-hosted setups. Feedback or PRs are very welcome!
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### Author:  [@jandres](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jandres)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-doesnt-update-on-rest-api-requests/343474/9 "2025-11-17T15:30:45Z")
Wow big thank you 👍 @Nima1
I am going to to test it, and I would leave you my feedbacks.