using meetup API to get nearby event information with event category

Question

Currently, I am using /2/open_events API to get nearby events information by using latitude, longitude and radium as parameter. However, what I want to do is separate the retrieved events information to different categories/topics (eg. Java, football, dance), so is there any way to get event category when I retrieve events information? I checked that there is a category blanket in host group information in the response of this API, which is optional. Unfortunately, most event information I retrieve back does not contain the optional information.

I also tried to use /2/topic_category API, but I have no idea how to match the category information to every event I get from /2/open_events.

So, 1. is there a way to get nearby event information (such as event venue, introduction) together with its category (using latitude, longitude and radium);       2. if 1 is impossible, is there a way to get event category info by using event ID as parameter?

Thanks. Please help me friends.

Answer 1

Currently, with the version 3 APIs, you can add 'group_topics' as a field.

The options I've found are as follows:

A.) Use v3 "find upcoming events" API
B.) Use v2 "open events", and then use v3 "get event" on each event.

Answer 2

It dumb, but meetup doesn't list all available categories by default.

Instead you must do a get request(through their web console) and it will return a full list

for example, to find out all categories you can use for requests

https://secure.meetup.com/meetup_api/console/?path=/2/topic_categories