Google OpenSocial API

whilst Google is acting strange lately (not loading…)

 might as well blog more..

 So, what is the Google OpenSocial API

OpenSocial is a set of APIs for building social applications that run on the web. OpenSocial’s goal is to make more apps available to more users, by providing a common API that can be used in many different contexts. Developers can create applications, using standard JavaScript and HTML, that run on social websites that have implemented the OpenSocial APIs. These websites, known as OpenSocial containers, allow developers to access their social information; in return they receive a large suite of applications for their users.

The OpenSocial APIs expose methods for accessing information about people, their friends, and their data, within the context of a container. This means that when running an application on Orkut, you’ll be interacting with your Orkut friends, while running the same application on MySpace lets you interact with your MySpace friends.

source 

Basically Open Social is a "bridge" that links the social networks that implement the Open Social API…

Examples of it are the Friendster apps you see around…

—- 

You can chose to build social apps or host one.

Since i’ll be building both, let’s start of with the foundation.. the Host.

To host OpenSocial apps, your website must implement the OpenSocial API Specification. In most cases, this means that you connect your own social network’s backends to the OpenSocial Service Provide Interace (SPI), to allow an OpenSocial app to access your site’s data.

In summary you have to have the following:

Shindig
   |
   `— java JDK/JRE 1.5 up
   |
   `— Subversion client to check out the Shindig code*
   |
   `— Apache Maven to build Shindig

*they currently don’t have tarballs or zips of their code. 

If you are encountering problems with svn please do not forget to setup your proxy server for svn

Setting up SVN proxy server 

you need not bother with the groups.. use the [global]

[global]
#http-proxy-exceptions = *.exception.com, www.internal-site.org
http-proxy-host = 10.106.1.26
http-proxy-port = 3128
http-proxy-username = usrname
http-proxy-password = qwertyword

as for Maven..

follow the vague instructions 

setup proxies again as well 

<settings>
   <proxies>
     <proxy>
       <active>true</active>
       <protocol>http</protocol>
       <host>10.106.1.26</host>
       <port>3128</port>
       <username>usrname</username>
       <password>qwertyword</password>
       <nonProxyHosts></nonProxyHosts>
     </proxy>
   </proxies>
</settings> 

Log in as super user

su

then try:

$M2/mvn -U install 

$M2 is an environmental variable in the Maven installation instruction.
mvn is suppose to be the bash command.
-U is to force it to update.
install is well, install…

$M2/mvn -U install should work, then after that…

cd (bash/shell/console) to your shindig folder -> java -> gadgets

and enter this command

$M2/mvn package 

$M2/mvn is our substiture for the mvn bash command.

this will install the package in the gadget (i dunno what package is that)

for my installation it pulled through smoothly, thank God.

Then enter this command to build and start the jetty server.

$M2/mvn jetty:run-war   

it will run the war file (i didn’t know that there was a .war extention until now) 

then that’s that…

we can now build the social app…

if problems persists… try to force update + run it:

$M2/mvn -U jetty:run-war 

you can try out the jetty/gadget server by entering this URL to your browser:

http://localhost:8080/gadgets/ifr?url=http://www.labpixies.com/campaigns/todo/todo.xml

it says it’s in port 8080, the jetty server runs of port 8080 by default. (i dunno where to set it up but at least it works) 

notice the url beside the ifr it is the URL of the "specs" of the app that it’s testing out.

specs is the term used to denote the source of the widget…