[OpenSocial] Re: why so difficult?

2009-02-13 Thread Gary

Howdy

More FC examples!!! WooHoo!

I wanted to do something with OpenSocial and OpenId etc. for a while
but was not sure where to jump into that ocean. FC was a great way to
get my feet wet. I set up a simple page and put some of the examples
on and then put a few example gadgets on iGoogle then my FC site. It's
starting to make sense.

I did stumble around at first. I did not get that I had to login to FC
and set up a site THEN log in again when I came back to manage my FC.
It seems simple now, but I was confused at first.

I just worked with someone that hit some bumps getting started. He did
not want to d/l the two files (he has learned that d/lding files can
be uhhh bad) and then we had to smooth some more bumps to get his
first app running, I used my site as an example and he was up and
social pretty quick.

He wants to hook a javascript database to his apps. I did not get any
details and am not sure how he can save the state of the d/b easily
with FC.

I installed shindig and my helloworld example from my FC test just
worked. I will be interested in any FC examples.

It's a lot to get all at once for me. I'll get there. Examples help a
lot :-)

Thanks

Gary
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[OpenSocial] Re: why so difficult?

2009-02-12 Thread Arne Roomann-Kurrik

I'm happy to hear these comments because I'm currently working on a
sample that does just this :)  Technically this is possible with the
client libraries and some workarounds today, but the FC team is
working on making this a lot easier for developers, and we're hoping
to have a fully functional demo site open sourced soon in order to
show you how this is possible.

~Arne


On Feb 12, 3:36 pm, cornelius  wrote:
> Hi
>
> lets take the friendconnect route that was mentioned
>
> signup + login is very easy just add the widgets (so far so good)
>
> but thats where the fun stops
>
> since these are done in iframe? theres no way for the underlying php
> app accessing this info
>
> So maybe an article on how to use php5, friendconnect and opensocial
> api to help add further functionality (from the underlying server
> layer not yet more javascript)
>
> Thanks
>
> P.S: seems ZDnet are thinking along the same 
> lineshttp://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1040
>
> On Feb 12, 10:20 pm, Chris Chabot  wrote:
>
> > Hey Gary,
>
> > It kind of makes sense when your familiar with the history of OpenSocial,
> > first we had a JavaScript API (gadgets) and people who offered that API
> > ("containers" as we call them), and then we added a REST API to allow for
> > all kinda of nifty things like using OpenSocial on mobile devices and/or in
> > server to server situations. Add some OAuth and OpenID to the mix, and
> > Google Friend Connect became possible, as well as many other interesting
> > applications.
>
> > You can really pick whatever makes sense to you. For people who have a great
> > idea it's a real time saver to make a social app, so you don't have to
> > attract an audience to your site, deal with advertising, writing login
> > handlers, a cms, etc etc.. Simple write an OpenSocial app, and put it on the
> > existing social sites and leverage their existing user base.
>
> > If you have a site where you would like to add social too it, if you have
> > the resources and technical know-how, using shindig gives you all the
> > freedom and flexibility you want, but again it does take a bit of work ..
>
> > For people who don't have the time, resources or background to do that,
> > FriendConnect is an amazing option, cut and paste some html and your already
> > a social site that can host OpenSocial apps, using GFC's login , friend
> > lists and posting activities back to those social networking sites (so their
> > friends see it, and visit your site too, great way to make the attention
> > circle connect).
>
> > And indeed, as the last option, using what we often refer to as "The Open
> > Stack", a combination of various technologies allowing people to
> > authenticate, grant access and retrieve social information in a portable and
> > open way (meaning "Open" as in: open source, open spec & open specification
> > processes) with technologies like OpenID for identity, OAuth for granting
> > access to resources, and PortableContacts and/or OpenSocial for social
> > information (friend lists, activities, messages, etc);
>
> > An example of such server to server scenario would be, well say that you had
> > a site with movie quotes ranked by popularity .. using OAuth and
> > OpenSocial's people end point, you could import someone's friend list and
> > show not only the general ratings, but also the much more valuable and
> > interesting ratings and comments of your friends.
>
> > Friend Connect in it's self is indeed also a great example of how to use
> > these technologies, OpenID (& a few others) for identity, OAuth for
> > permission, and OpenSocial's people and activities end points for as the
> > data exchange standard.
>
> > A fun resource to learn a bit more about what's happening in this 'Open
> > Stack' area is "the social web tv":http://thesocialweb.tv/
>
> > On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Gary  wrote:
>
> > > Great post,
>
> > > Are the 4 options in a faq?
> > > Is Friend Connect an example of option 3?
>
> > > and I wasv also feeling somewhat deflated. We have some small social
> > > groups, mostly mailing lists with some stuff on web pages and getting
> > > them more social sounds like a good idea. I tried Friend Connect and
> > > it went well to build a few hello world kinds of examples.
>
> > > I was about to install shindig (php version for that first test) but
> > > now think I need to also look more at OpenID and OAuth.
>
> > > Lots to look into.
>
> > > Gary
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[OpenSocial] Re: why so difficult?

2009-02-12 Thread cornelius

Hi

lets take the friendconnect route that was mentioned

signup + login is very easy just add the widgets (so far so good)

but thats where the fun stops

since these are done in iframe? theres no way for the underlying php
app accessing this info

So maybe an article on how to use php5, friendconnect and opensocial
api to help add further functionality (from the underlying server
layer not yet more javascript)

Thanks

P.S: seems ZDnet are thinking along the same lines 
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1040

On Feb 12, 10:20 pm, Chris Chabot  wrote:
> Hey Gary,
>
> It kind of makes sense when your familiar with the history of OpenSocial,
> first we had a JavaScript API (gadgets) and people who offered that API
> ("containers" as we call them), and then we added a REST API to allow for
> all kinda of nifty things like using OpenSocial on mobile devices and/or in
> server to server situations. Add some OAuth and OpenID to the mix, and
> Google Friend Connect became possible, as well as many other interesting
> applications.
>
> You can really pick whatever makes sense to you. For people who have a great
> idea it's a real time saver to make a social app, so you don't have to
> attract an audience to your site, deal with advertising, writing login
> handlers, a cms, etc etc.. Simple write an OpenSocial app, and put it on the
> existing social sites and leverage their existing user base.
>
> If you have a site where you would like to add social too it, if you have
> the resources and technical know-how, using shindig gives you all the
> freedom and flexibility you want, but again it does take a bit of work ..
>
> For people who don't have the time, resources or background to do that,
> FriendConnect is an amazing option, cut and paste some html and your already
> a social site that can host OpenSocial apps, using GFC's login , friend
> lists and posting activities back to those social networking sites (so their
> friends see it, and visit your site too, great way to make the attention
> circle connect).
>
> And indeed, as the last option, using what we often refer to as "The Open
> Stack", a combination of various technologies allowing people to
> authenticate, grant access and retrieve social information in a portable and
> open way (meaning "Open" as in: open source, open spec & open specification
> processes) with technologies like OpenID for identity, OAuth for granting
> access to resources, and PortableContacts and/or OpenSocial for social
> information (friend lists, activities, messages, etc);
>
> An example of such server to server scenario would be, well say that you had
> a site with movie quotes ranked by popularity .. using OAuth and
> OpenSocial's people end point, you could import someone's friend list and
> show not only the general ratings, but also the much more valuable and
> interesting ratings and comments of your friends.
>
> Friend Connect in it's self is indeed also a great example of how to use
> these technologies, OpenID (& a few others) for identity, OAuth for
> permission, and OpenSocial's people and activities end points for as the
> data exchange standard.
>
> A fun resource to learn a bit more about what's happening in this 'Open
> Stack' area is "the social web tv":http://thesocialweb.tv/
>
> On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Gary  wrote:
>
> > Great post,
>
> > Are the 4 options in a faq?
> > Is Friend Connect an example of option 3?
>
> > and I wasv also feeling somewhat deflated. We have some small social
> > groups, mostly mailing lists with some stuff on web pages and getting
> > them more social sounds like a good idea. I tried Friend Connect and
> > it went well to build a few hello world kinds of examples.
>
> > I was about to install shindig (php version for that first test) but
> > now think I need to also look more at OpenID and OAuth.
>
> > Lots to look into.
>
> > Gary
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[OpenSocial] Re: why so difficult?

2009-02-12 Thread Chris Chabot
Hey Gary,

It kind of makes sense when your familiar with the history of OpenSocial,
first we had a JavaScript API (gadgets) and people who offered that API
("containers" as we call them), and then we added a REST API to allow for
all kinda of nifty things like using OpenSocial on mobile devices and/or in
server to server situations. Add some OAuth and OpenID to the mix, and
Google Friend Connect became possible, as well as many other interesting
applications.

You can really pick whatever makes sense to you. For people who have a great
idea it's a real time saver to make a social app, so you don't have to
attract an audience to your site, deal with advertising, writing login
handlers, a cms, etc etc.. Simple write an OpenSocial app, and put it on the
existing social sites and leverage their existing user base.

If you have a site where you would like to add social too it, if you have
the resources and technical know-how, using shindig gives you all the
freedom and flexibility you want, but again it does take a bit of work ..

For people who don't have the time, resources or background to do that,
FriendConnect is an amazing option, cut and paste some html and your already
a social site that can host OpenSocial apps, using GFC's login , friend
lists and posting activities back to those social networking sites (so their
friends see it, and visit your site too, great way to make the attention
circle connect).

And indeed, as the last option, using what we often refer to as "The Open
Stack", a combination of various technologies allowing people to
authenticate, grant access and retrieve social information in a portable and
open way (meaning "Open" as in: open source, open spec & open specification
processes) with technologies like OpenID for identity, OAuth for granting
access to resources, and PortableContacts and/or OpenSocial for social
information (friend lists, activities, messages, etc);

An example of such server to server scenario would be, well say that you had
a site with movie quotes ranked by popularity .. using OAuth and
OpenSocial's people end point, you could import someone's friend list and
show not only the general ratings, but also the much more valuable and
interesting ratings and comments of your friends.

Friend Connect in it's self is indeed also a great example of how to use
these technologies, OpenID (& a few others) for identity, OAuth for
permission, and OpenSocial's people and activities end points for as the
data exchange standard.

A fun resource to learn a bit more about what's happening in this 'Open
Stack' area is "the social web tv": http://thesocialweb.tv/

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Gary  wrote:

>
> Great post,
>
> Are the 4 options in a faq?
> Is Friend Connect an example of option 3?
>
> and I wasv also feeling somewhat deflated. We have some small social
> groups, mostly mailing lists with some stuff on web pages and getting
> them more social sounds like a good idea. I tried Friend Connect and
> it went well to build a few hello world kinds of examples.
>
> I was about to install shindig (php version for that first test) but
> now think I need to also look more at OpenID and OAuth.
>
> Lots to look into.
>
> Gary
>
>
> >
>

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[OpenSocial] Re: why so difficult?

2009-02-12 Thread Gary

Great post,

Are the 4 options in a faq?
Is Friend Connect an example of option 3?

and I wasv also feeling somewhat deflated. We have some small social
groups, mostly mailing lists with some stuff on web pages and getting
them more social sounds like a good idea. I tried Friend Connect and
it went well to build a few hello world kinds of examples.

I was about to install shindig (php version for that first test) but
now think I need to also look more at OpenID and OAuth.

Lots to look into.

Gary


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[OpenSocial] Re: why so difficult?

2009-02-12 Thread yelims

Hi

sorry to appear to be bitchy earlier, i just felt a little deflated
with opensocial, your marketing dept sure did a good job :p

anyways i think i found what i needed and i described what i needed to
do here

http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-client-libraries/browse_thread/thread/9f64a8b34e066ba6

Regards



On Feb 12, 11:30 am, Chris Chabot  wrote:
> Hey yelims,
>
> First of all please take a deep breath, and please tell us what exactly you
> want to do, do you want to write OpenSocial applications, or do you want to
> allow your site to contain OpenSocial apps?
>
> In the first case, it does indeed save you from having to write logins and
> all that, the social network sites in which your application runs does all
> that for you, and using the OpenSocial API you can query for who's viewing
> the page, who owns the page, get friends, etc etc. A great start for
> learning about that is the 
> tutorial:http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/articles/tutorial/tutorial-0.8...
>
> In the second case, where you'd want to create an social network site, which
> can host OpenSocial applications, then the burden of implementing logins,
> and lots of other details, is upto you .. OpenSocial is a standard which
> allows an 'social gadget' to run on any social platform, but not a 'social
> network site' product, it's just the API for OpenSocial.
>
> If you want to create a container, you'll be happy to hear that there is a
> PHP version of shindig available, see the PHP directory 
> underhttp://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/shindig/trunk/also there is an
> example available of how to use this in 
> Partuza:http://code.google.com/p/partuza/(and a live demo is available 
> atwww.partuza.nl).
>
> There are some step-by-step guides for installing that available for mac and
> win, and a rough guide for *nix (to many varients to make a walk-through
> guide for, and most *nix admins don't really need it 
> either):http://www.chabotc.com/php/setting-up-shindig-and-partuza-on-a-mac/http://www.chabotc.com/generic/setting-up-shindig-and-partuza-on-wind...http://code.google.com/p/partuza/w/list
>
> There is a possible third and fourth scenario, from your email it's a little
> hard to judge what exactly your looking for, or what exactly you think
> OpenSocial is or should do.
>
> Option 3 is using hybrid OpenID and OAuth to allow users to authenticate
> their identity (for example let google verify that I'm 'Chris Chabot' and my
> gmail id is 'chab...@gmail.com'), and get an oauth access token to get
> access to, for instance, our OpenSocial people end point, so that you could
> also retrieve (and by storing the oauth access token, keep refreshing every
> day/week/whatever) the friendlist for that person. This doesn't alleviate
> the need for making your own local database and storing the ID's, but it
> does make the login easier, allows people to not have to remember another
> login and password, and take their friend lists with them to your site too.
>
> If that's what your interested in (do note this isn't 'OpenSocial' but
> 'OpenID, OAuth, and OpenSocial for the friend lists'), these are a great
> starting point:
> The spec:http://code.google.com/p/step2/
> announcement:http://googledataapis.blogspot.com/2009/01/bringing-openid-and-oauth-...
>  live demo:http://googlecodesamples.com/hybrid/
> php example 
> code:http://code.google.com/p/gdata-samples/source/browse/#svn/trunk/hybrid
> and also a great resource for getting started is Plaxo's 'A Recipe for
> OpenID-Enabling Your Site' :http://www.plaxo.com/api/openid_recipe
>
> This technique (hybrid openid and oauth) is pretty new but has been a huge
> success in the initial live 
> trials:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/comcast_property_sees_92_success...
>
> You can also use similar techniques to login to social network's REST API's
> using 2 or 3 legged OAuth and importing social information from those social
> sites, there's a preview of a new PHP library for doing those kind of things
> available 
> at:http://opensocial-php-client.googlecode.com/files/opensocial-php-clie...
>
> The fourth option is 'Google FriendConnect', for which the main URL 
> is:http://www.google.com/friendconnect/FriendConnect is intended for if you
> really don't want to write any authentication code or store anything in your
> local databases, and just want to add 'social' to your site without any
> headaches of implementation, it allows people to loging with their openid,
> google, yahoo or aim account and connect their friend lists from various
> social networks (at the moment a somewhat short list, but much more is
> coming in the near future). Again this isn't to be confused with
> 'OpenSocial', it does use OpenSocial under the covers to get friend lists
> and post activities and does allow you to host OpenSocial apps on your site
> through FriendConnect, but it's not at all the second case I've described
> above, it's letting Google taking care of all those details for yo

[OpenSocial] Re: why so difficult?

2009-02-12 Thread Chris Chabot
Hey yelims,

First of all please take a deep breath, and please tell us what exactly you
want to do, do you want to write OpenSocial applications, or do you want to
allow your site to contain OpenSocial apps?

In the first case, it does indeed save you from having to write logins and
all that, the social network sites in which your application runs does all
that for you, and using the OpenSocial API you can query for who's viewing
the page, who owns the page, get friends, etc etc. A great start for
learning about that is the tutorial:
http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/articles/tutorial/tutorial-0.8.html

In the second case, where you'd want to create an social network site, which
can host OpenSocial applications, then the burden of implementing logins,
and lots of other details, is upto you .. OpenSocial is a standard which
allows an 'social gadget' to run on any social platform, but not a 'social
network site' product, it's just the API for OpenSocial.

If you want to create a container, you'll be happy to hear that there is a
PHP version of shindig available, see the PHP directory under
http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/shindig/trunk/ also there is an
example available of how to use this in Partuza:
http://code.google.com/p/partuza/ (and a live demo is available at
www.partuza.nl).

There are some step-by-step guides for installing that available for mac and
win, and a rough guide for *nix (to many varients to make a walk-through
guide for, and most *nix admins don't really need it either):
http://www.chabotc.com/php/setting-up-shindig-and-partuza-on-a-mac/
http://www.chabotc.com/generic/setting-up-shindig-and-partuza-on-windows/
http://code.google.com/p/partuza/w/list

There is a possible third and fourth scenario, from your email it's a little
hard to judge what exactly your looking for, or what exactly you think
OpenSocial is or should do.

Option 3 is using hybrid OpenID and OAuth to allow users to authenticate
their identity (for example let google verify that I'm 'Chris Chabot' and my
gmail id is 'chab...@gmail.com'), and get an oauth access token to get
access to, for instance, our OpenSocial people end point, so that you could
also retrieve (and by storing the oauth access token, keep refreshing every
day/week/whatever) the friendlist for that person. This doesn't alleviate
the need for making your own local database and storing the ID's, but it
does make the login easier, allows people to not have to remember another
login and password, and take their friend lists with them to your site too.

If that's what your interested in (do note this isn't 'OpenSocial' but
'OpenID, OAuth, and OpenSocial for the friend lists'), these are a great
starting point:
The spec: http://code.google.com/p/step2/
announcement:
http://googledataapis.blogspot.com/2009/01/bringing-openid-and-oauth-together.html
 live demo: http://googlecodesamples.com/hybrid/
php example code:
http://code.google.com/p/gdata-samples/source/browse/#svn/trunk/hybrid
and also a great resource for getting started is Plaxo's 'A Recipe for
OpenID-Enabling Your Site' : http://www.plaxo.com/api/openid_recipe

This technique (hybrid openid and oauth) is pretty new but has been a huge
success in the initial live trials:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/comcast_property_sees_92_success_rate_openid.php

You can also use similar techniques to login to social network's REST API's
using 2 or 3 legged OAuth and importing social information from those social
sites, there's a preview of a new PHP library for doing those kind of things
available at:
http://opensocial-php-client.googlecode.com/files/opensocial-php-client-1.0preview.zip


The fourth option is 'Google FriendConnect', for which the main URL is:
http://www.google.com/friendconnect/ FriendConnect is intended for if you
really don't want to write any authentication code or store anything in your
local databases, and just want to add 'social' to your site without any
headaches of implementation, it allows people to loging with their openid,
google, yahoo or aim account and connect their friend lists from various
social networks (at the moment a somewhat short list, but much more is
coming in the near future). Again this isn't to be confused with
'OpenSocial', it does use OpenSocial under the covers to get friend lists
and post activities and does allow you to host OpenSocial apps on your site
through FriendConnect, but it's not at all the second case I've described
above, it's letting Google taking care of all those details for you, and
very easily add social features to your site. It already has a very exciting
range of options, but it'll get a lot more very exciting features in the
days to come (unfortunately I can't comment on what exactly, other then that
it'll be really cool :)


So there you have it, 4 different answers for 4 different questions, I hope
one of them fits your requirements and clears up what OpenSocial is and how
you can leverage the various aspects of it :)