Opensocial Haifa Seminar - 2008.04.08

Introducing OpenSocial “Building Social applications with OpenSocial”

Ari Leichtberg

Software Engineer Google

Agenda

What is OpenSocial and Why is it important?

A Technical Overview of OpenSocial

JavaScript APIs

Container Software - Shindig

REST APIs

Where to find more information on OpenSocial

Agenda

JavaScript APIs

REST APIs

What is OpenSocial?

OpenSocial is a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web

It is being developed by Google in conjunction with partners from the Web/Social Application development community

Why OpenSocial is Important?

The Web is better when it's social

Isn’t the Web social already?

100s of millions of users already have signed up for social networks around the world

That’s great, but we believe it can get better

The problem of social network development As each social website opens its environment to developers, it exposes an API “ .. But what if you want to build an application that will run on multiple social websites?” Problem: Developers have to learn multiple APIs to publish in multiple environments Solution: OpenSocial allows developers to write applications to a common standard API that will run on multiple websites!

OpenSocial solves this problem

What can OpenSocial do for the Web?

It’s about more , more , more

More applications can be built by developers

More websites can run these applications

More users can use these applications

For Web developers this equates to distribution , distribution , distribution!

OpenSocial is not Google Social

Making the web more social, not just Google

The evolution of OpenSocial…

“ Working with open standards and open partners in a collaborative fashion to build the best technology”

Engineers and developers talking to engineers and developers

OpenSocial in the US Pictures of hackerthon Partner Hackathon at SixApart in San Francisco Pictures of container meeting Numerous Hackathons held both at Google and at Partners sites

On Site Google Hackathons

We supplied Power, Wifi, & Pizza!

OpenSocial in India Pictures of hackerthon Hacking in Delhi Pictures of container meeting Did a multi-city tour in Fall 07 - introducing OpenSocial

Kicking off Hackathon in Bangalore

OpenSocial Container Provider Meeting

Who’s working on OpenSocial? Over 200 other influential companies… amiando Animoto Appirio Bebo Bleacher Report BonstioNet Brad Anderson Bunchball, Inc BuyFast Cardinal Blue Software Chakpak Chronus Corporation Ci&T Inc come2play CurrentTV E-junkie Engage.com eTwine Holdings, Inc. Fendoo Ltd Flixster FotoFlexer Friendster Grimmthething Guerreiro Consult HedgeStop.com Hi5 Hungry Machine Hyves IG.com (Division of Brasil Telecom)‏ iFamily, Inc iLike Imeem Indeed.com KlickSports, Inc. LabPixies Ltd. LimitNone LinkedIn LjmSite LoveMyGadgets LuvGoogleGadgets Mesa Dynamics, LLC Mixi MuseStorm Inc MySpace Netvibes NewsGator Nike Ning NY Times Shelfari O Globo Online Oberon Media Oracle Orkut Outside.In PayPal Plaxo PROTRADE Puxa Qloud RockYou Salesforce.com …

OpenSocial is not just for friends

There is an untapped Enterprise potential

Instead of friends just sharing photos, messages business partners can interact via social networks

Google is now partnering with many influential business application providers

OpenSocial Roadmap

Version 0.5 was released in a “developer release” on Nov 1st.

First “sandbox” was made available on Orkut

Version 0.6 was released in December

Initial version of Shindig server software was launched as Apache incubator project

Other sandboxes came live - Hi5, Ning, Plaxo …

Version 0.7 (production) was released in January

MySpace, Hi5, Orkut officially launching “very soon”

Gartner Technology Hype Cycle

Open Social Hype Cycle

Current status on (a few) containers hi5 - launched developer platform recently (80 million users): http://www.hi5networks.com/developer/ MySpace - Developer Platform live and beta Apps Gallery available: http://developer.myspace.com orkut – Sandbox available, launch in test phase, apps available to a subset of users (Estonia) - rolling out further in the coming weeks ning, plaxa – sandboxes available

Agenda

JavaScript APIs

REST APIs

OpenSocial APIs overview

People and Friends Data API Access friends information programmatically

Activities Data API See what you’re friends are up to Share what you are doing

Persistence Data API

Server is optional

Share data with your friends, the world

The core OpenSocial services include:

OpenSocial APIs overview

Built on industry standards

XML

Javascript / HTML

REST – XML/HTTP, Gdata, JSON, - tbd.

Core Services - People & Friends /** * Request for friend info when the page loads. */ function getData() { var req = opensocial.newDataRequest(); req.add(req.newFetchPersonRequest(VIEWER), 'viewer' ); req.add(req.newFetchPeopleRequest(VIEWER_FRIENDS), 'viewerFriends' ); req.send( onLoadFriends ); }; Getting info on you and your friends :

Core Services - People /** * Callback function for returned friend data. */ function onLoadFriends (response) { var viewer = response.get( 'viewer' ).getData(); var html = 'Friends of ' + viewer.getDisplayName() + ‘:<br><ul>’; var viewerFriends = response.get( 'viewerFriends' ).getData(); viewerFriends.each(function(person) { html += '<li>' + person.getDisplayName() + '</li>';}); html += '</ul>'; document.getElementById('message').innerHTML = html; }; Getting info on you and your friends :

Core Services - Activities /** * Posting a simple text activity */ function postActivity(text) { var params = {}; params[opensocial.Activity.Field.TITLE] = text; var activity = opensocial.newActivity(params); opensocial.requestCreateActivity(activity, opensocial.CreateActivityPriority.HIGH, callback ); } postActivity("This is a sample activity, created at " + new Date().toString()); Posting an Activity :

Core Services - Persistence /** * Storing data */ function populateMyAppData() { var req = opensocial.newDataRequest(); var data1 = Math.random() * 5; var data2 = Math.random() * 100; req.add(req.newUpdatePersonAppDataRequest("VIEWER", "AppField1", data1)); req.add(req.newUpdatePersonAppDataRequest("VIEWER", "AppField2", data2)); req.send(requestMyData); }; Requesting to persist data:

Core Services - Persistence /** * Fetching data */ function requestMyData() { var req = opensocial.newDataRequest(); var fields = ["AppField1", "AppField2"]; req.add(req.newFetchPersonRequest( opensocial.DataRequest.PersonId.VIEWER), "viewer"); req.add(req.newFetchPersonAppDataRequest("VIEWER", fields), "viewer_data"); req.send(handleReturnedData); } Requesting to persist data:

Core Services - Persistence /** * Displaying persisted data */ function handleReturnedData(data) { var mydata = data.get("viewer_data"); var viewer = data.get("viewer"); me = viewer.getData(); // me is global var var data = mydata[me.getId()]; htmlout += "AppField1: " + data["AppField1"] + "<br/>"; htmlout += "AppField2: " + data["AppField2"] + "<br/>"; var div = document.getElementById('content_div'); div.innerHTML = htmlout; } Displaying the fetched ( persisted ) data:

0.7 Highlights

Production ready!

Viral growth

requestShareApp(), requestSendMessage()‏

Feature support querying

supportsField()‏

Standardized person fields

location, affiliations, status, profile pictures, DOB, etc.

Gadget specs re-namespaced

ie. gadgets.IE_Adjust_Frame_Height

Better environment support

methods to determine locale

Built in JSON support

Demonstration

Building some simple OpenSocial apps in Orkut

Displaying your friends

Give gifts to your friends

Show what you've given

Show what you've received

Reviewing other OpenSocial applications

Agenda

JavaScript APIs

REST APIs

OpenSocial’s Container - Shindig

What is Shindig?

“ OpenSource software that allows you to serve OpenSocial applications”

Is currently an Apache Software Incubator project

Heavy partner involvement: Ning championed

Open source reference implementation of OpenSocial & Gadgets technologies

It’s Goal:

“ To serve as an easy to use OpenSocial “container in a box”

Shindig Components Shindig Gadget Server Gadget Container JavaScript OpenSocial Container JavaScript Gadget Rendering Servlet

Gadget Server

Renders gadget XML (i.e. from gmodules.com)‏

Gadget Container JavaScript

OpenSocial Container JavaScript

JavaScript environment for people, activities, persistence

Shindig in Action Running the application Request is made from Client Data is returned and rendered Application Installation Gadget XML is loaded and cached on OpenSocial Container Gadget XML Source

Agenda

JavaScript APIs

REST APIs

OpenSocial’s REST APIs

Why are REST APIs needed?

“ What if you don’t have a JavaScript environment?”

Progress is now being made on the specification for OpenSocial REST APIs!

A new proposal is been published

Posted in “ opensocial-and-gadgets-spec ” Google Group

Currently receiving feedback

With REST APIs OpenSocial can go Mobile!

The OpenSocial Mobile environment potential is obviously huge

Since OpenSocial based on common Web standards programming is straightforward

HTML/JavaScript

Flash/Flash Lite

REST APIs (Upcoming)‏

Agenda

JavaScript APIs

REST APIs

opensocial.org

Start getting involved early!

A non-profit entity jointly proposed by Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google

Now available to developers and website owners

Latest specifications

Opportunity to participate in specs discussions (REST API)‏

Links to other resources

Where to find more info on OpenSocial http://www.opensocial.org Specification http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/ http://code.google.com/opensocial http://code.google.com/p/opensocial-resources Sandboxes http://developer.myspace.com/ http://www.hi5networks.com/developer/ http://opensocial.ning.com/ http://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/gadgets/ http://code.google.com/apis/orkut/ For container developers http://opensocialapis.blogspot.com/2007/12/lets-get-this-shindig-started.html http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/ http://code.google.com/p/google-caja

Where to find more info on OpenSocial This slide deck: slideshare.net/arileicht

Questions?