Making the most of OpenSocial

Erik Eldridge

Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN)ETech (FreeTech) 09

Image credit: jpctalbot, http://www.flickr.com/photos/laserstars/504917310/sizes/l/

What is it?

• A community developed standard for social network APIs

What’s it do for me?

• Less to learn

• More containers

• Bigger audience

• Extensible

Where to start? (simple)

• Opensocial.org

Where to start? (a bit more)

Your server

+

{your code using OpenSocial}

+

{container, e.g. yap*, orkut, myspace}

=

OpenSocial app

*supports OpenSocial JS API only

Simple ExampleHello my name is:<div id="message"></div><script>function request() {

var req = opensocial.newDataRequest();req.add(req.newFetchPersonRequest("OWNER"), "get_owner");req.send(response);

};function response(dataResponse) {

var owner = dataResponse.get('get_owner').getData();var html = 'Hello my name is: ' + owner.getDisplayName(); document.getElementById('message').innerHTML = html;

};request();</script>//credit: http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/docs/0.8/devguide.html#Build_request

Containers

• hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, orkut, …

• http://wiki.opensocial.org/index.php?title=Containers

Numbers

• 20+ containers

• Hundreds of millions of users

Strategy

• According to BuddyPoke (39M users in 1 year)*:– Deploy on every container possible– Use crowd-based localization services

• General:– Use JavaScript to minimize server hits – Use server-side code to insulate against container

differences

* As noted at WeekendApps 2/09.

Cross Container

• Open Social code resources: http://code.google.com/p/opensocial-resources/wiki/ComplianceTests

• Tutorial:http://sites.google.com/site/io/opensocial-across-containers

Links

• Opensocial.org• Google’s docs on getting started:

code.google.com/apis/opensocial/gettingstarted.html

• OpenSocial across containers video:http://sites.google.com/site/io/opensocial-across-containers

• My notes from BuddyPoke’s talk at OpenSocial WeekendApps (2/09): http://erikeldridge.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/opensocialweekendapps-buddypoke/