Julian Bond wrote: > It looks to me like a good starting point for potential Container > systems is to implement as much as possible of the Data Apis in our own > sites. yes? > > I'm sure we're not alone in having *much* more data available than is > defined in the gData namespace. For example the People Data API; I'm > very tempted to add FOAF and VCARD namespaces to the Atom data and then > use it to expose all the extra data. Looking at this from the gadget > writer's point of view this could lead to a proliferation of > non-standard data and namespaces. They'll be caught up in a race to code > for and understand more and more extensions that might or might not be > available when the Gadget is hosted in a specific Container. > > Let's make this completely clear with a very simple example. Orkut > doesn't have a field for Skype ID. Skype ID is not in the GData > namespace. But Skype ID is a field or value in many, many social > networks. If I'm writing a gadget to show Skype status, is there any > standard way to expect the ID to be passed back to me? Is there any > standard way for a Container developer to expose the Skype ID? > > What's Google's view on all this? > > The OpenSocial data syntax is based on an open standard (Atom, RFC 4287) with well defined extension points. OpenSocial data as defined today is itself just a compatible extension of the base Atom format, and of course there can be others added in.
My personal take is that there shouldn't be any problem in adding additional optional fields using the defined Atom extension mechanisms, though obviously you can't expect every container to honor them. It would be helpful to have a forum for discussing such extensions so that no one reinvents the wheel, and I think that would be one good use of this mailing list (and the API mailing list of course). John --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OpenSocial Container Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-container?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
