The MySpace platform, unveiled today, has too many limitations and differences from the OS spec to allow developers to build cross- (social)-platform apps. This is setting a very dangerous precedent for the future of OpenSocial and Google needs to step in right now and force MySpace (and the other networks) to comply with the spec. Allow me to explain:
As it stands now, MySpace is the least common denominator among the OpenSocial implementations. This means that in order to write cross- platform apps, developers have to limit themselves to only using features that MySpace chooses to support. If you let every site pick and choose their own pieces of OpenSocial, you will soon end up with a pretty small common denominator. Here are the current limitations of the MySpace platform (as far as I can tell after spending the entire afternoon reading their docs and forums): 1). No way to host your own gadget XML file (for now, it only lets you paste the HTML/JS content into a web form). You also have to enter code for each surface separately. 2). Can't import external JS files from your servers. MySpace provides their own version of jQuery but if you want to use GWT or any other JS library (or, more importantly, your own libraries), you're out of luck. I guess you have to mash everything into one giant file. Furthermore, Myspace is crippling your ability to write Javascript by running your code through Caja even though it's already in an iframe. 3). The Persistence and Activity APIs are not implemented. If developers have to build and host their own database just for MySpace you might as well get rid of Persistence API support from other networks. No one wants to work with 2 or more different data models. This is Google's chance to step in and prevent OpenSocial implementations from mirroring what happened with the web browsers (and worse). (Note: this is a cross-posting from http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-api/t/025e87bd6869696f I wanted to also share my thoughts here as there isn't much activity on the OpenSocial forum) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Orkut Developer Forum" 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-orkut?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
