Assemble the social web with zembly

393 Pages·7.481 MB·English

by  Anderson, Gail;Anderson, Paul;Webster, Chris;Fast, Todd

Assemble the
Social Web with
zembly
This page intentionally left blank
Assemble the
Social Web with
zembly
GAIL ANDERSON AND PAUL ANDERSON
WITH TODD FAST AND CHRIS WEBSTER

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ISBN-13: 978-0-13-714431-0
ISBN-10: 0-13-714431-8
Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Courier in Stoughton, Massachusetts.
First printing December 2008
Contents
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Chapter 1 What Is zembly? 1
1.1 Social Programming 2
1.2 zembly’s Environment 4
1.3 zembly’s Audience 6
1.4 Publishing and Scaling with zembly 7
1.5 Monetizing with zembly 8
1.6 Coming to zembly Soon 8
Meebo 8
OpenSocial 8
Scripting Languages 9
A Final Thought 9
Chapter 2 zembly Basics 11
What You Will Learn 12
Examples in This Chapter 12
2.1 Exploring the Samples 13
Using Clone 15
Widget Actions 16
Tags on zembly 16
AmazonProductSearchWidget—Widget Preview 17
Embedding AmazonProductSearchWidget 18
Sharing Your Widgets with Clearspring 19
v
vi Contents
2.2 About You—Your Home Page 20
Your Profile 21
People—Adding Contacts 22
2.3 Your Keychain and Service Providers 24
2.4 Creating Your First Service: LoanPaymentService 25
Specifying Parameters in a Service 27
Error Handling 29
Testing LoanPaymentService 30
Capturing Example Return Data 30
Saving Drafts 31
Using the JavaScript Editor 31
Publishing LoanPaymentService 32
Calling LoanPaymentService 32
2.5 Creating Your First Widget: LoanPaymentWidget 34
Uploading an Image 36
Including Library Prototype JS 37
Building LoanPaymentWidget 38
Using CSS for Styling 38
Calling LoanPaymentService in Your Widget 39
Previewing and Publishing 41
Embedding LoanPaymentWidget 42
2.6 Drafts, Versions, and Timelines 42
Edit History 42
Viewing Versions 44
Online/Offline Status 44
2.7 Putting It All Together—Using the WeatherBug API 45
Using Your Keychain 46
Building WeatherBugService 47
Using E4X and JavaScript 48
Calling WeatherBugService 50
Building WeatherBugWidget 51
Chapter 3 Building Flickr Widgets 55
What You Will Learn 55
Examples in This Chapter 56
Contents vii
3.1 Using Flickr 56
3.2 Building a Slide Show Widget 57
Looking at the Source 59
Using CSS Styles 59
Working with JavaScript 61
Sharing Your Widget 66
Embedding Your Widget in a Web Page 67
3.3 Building a Service for Your Flickr Photos 67
Getting a Flickr Application Key 68
Creating Service FlickrPeopleService 68
Using Find & Use to Add JavaScript 69
Testing and Publishing 71
3.4 Creating a Flickr User Slide Show Widget 71
Specifying Widget Parameters When You Embed 72
Creating Widget MyFlickrRandomSlideshow 73
Reusing JavaScript Code 74
Chapter 4 Building Zillow Widgets 79
What You Will Learn 79
Examples in This Chapter 80
4.1 Using Zillow 80
4.2 Building a Zillow Service 82
Obtaining a Zillow API Key 82
Zillow Property IDs 82
Building a Zillow-based Service with Parameters 83
Using E4X and JavaScript 84
4.3 Building a Zillow Widget 88
Creating RecentSalesWidget 89
Embedding RecentSalesWidget 92
4.4 Building a Google Maps Mashup 92
Exploring Google Maps API 93
Designing Widget RecentSalesMashup 94
Creating Widget RecentSalesMashup 95
viii Contents
Chapter 5 Facebook Basics 101
What You Will Learn 101
Examples in This Chapter 102
The New Facebook Design 102
5.1 About Facebook 103
What Is a Facebook Application? 103
Canvas Page 104
The Facebook User 105
Friends 105
Your Profile 105
Applications and Application Settings 106
Profile Boxes 108
Left-Hand Column 109
Application Tabs 110
Application Access 111
Email and Notices 112
Story Types and News Feed Templates 112
Profile Publisher 113
Application Info Sections 114
5.2 Creating a Facebook Application 114
Facebook Application Wizard 115
Core Services and Widgets 120
5.3 Loan Calculator—Your First Facebook Application 121
Deleting Home and Creating a New Widget 121
Editing Widget Home (NewWidget) 122
Uploading Resource Image 123
Including Library Prototype JS 124
Previewing and Publishing Widget Home 124
Configuring Home 124
Running Your Application in Facebook 125
Facebook Application Defaults 126
Enhancing Your Application on Facebook 127
Making Your Application Accessible 129
5.4 zembly and Facebook—A Closer Look 130
Exploring the Facebook APIs 131
Facebook Code Testing Tools 133
Contents ix
Application Context and Permissions 134
Controlling the Allow Access Process 136
5.5 BuddyPics—Using FBML and FBJS 137
FBML Overview 138
The BuddyPics Application 139
Adding Content to Your Profile 141
Building the BuddyPics Facebook Application 141
Creating Dynamic Content with FBML 142
BuddyPics Home Widget (FBML) 143
Service GetFriendInfo 153
Testing a Facebook Service 155
Service UpdateProfileBox 157
Summary of Differences with FBML Widgets 158
The HTML Alternative 160
What’s Next 160
Chapter 6 Facebook Integration 161
What You Will Learn 162
Examples in This Chapter 162
6.1 Capital Punishment—A Challenging Facebook Application 162
Cloning the Facebook Application 164
The Capital Punishment Home Widget 164
Service UpdateProfileBox 181
Publishing Feed Stories 182
Sending Challenge Invitations 186
Application FriendChooser 191
6.2 Using the Facebook Data Store and FQL 191
Facebook Data Store Model 192
Data Model for Capital Punishment 193
Facebook Data Store Admin Tool 193
Service CreateDataStore 196
Service SaveScore 198
Using FQL with DataStoreAdmin 199
Services FBMLGetMyScores and FBMLGetFriendScores 201
Service DeleteScore 204
Widget SeeScores 205