Home > Store

Building OpenSocial Apps: A Field Guide to Working with the MySpace Platform

Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.

Building OpenSocial Apps: A Field Guide to Working with the MySpace Platform

Book

  • Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
Not for Sale

Description

  • Copyright 2010
  • Edition: 1st
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-321-61906-4
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-321-61906-8

“The authors did a great job covering the various ins and outs of OpenSocial, and especially the specific MySpace quirks. If you are a new social networking application developer or even someone who just wants to write better OpenSocial Apps, then this book has what you are looking for.”

–Cassandra Doll, Software Engineer, Google

The Insider’s Guide to Writing OpenSocial Applications for MySpace–and Beyond!

 

When you write OpenSocial applications for MySpace, you can reach millions of users overnight. Building OpenSocial Apps shows you how, one step at a time. Whether you’re building casual widgets or feature-rich, professional applications, this book will teach you everything you need to know.

The authors are the leading experts on OpenSocial and MySpace and have personally helped construct the MySpace platform and OpenSocial standards. In this indispensable book, they walk you through the entire process of building apps, from signing up through building complex apps that can scale to thousands of users and interoperate on more than fifty social networks, such as Hi5, Orkut, and LinkedIn. They demonstrate today’s best practices for building OpenSocial applications and present dozens of tips for leveraging both MySpace and OpenSocial to their fullest. Coverage includes

  • Installing and working with the MySpace Developer Platform
  • Retrieving, parsing, and displaying user data, friend lists, and photos
  • Sending App invitations and notifications
  • Building mashups that communicate with third-party web services
  • Marketing your App and building your user base
  • Designing for performance, scalability, and fault tolerance
  • Securing MySpace and OpenSocial apps, and protecting users’ privacy
  • Building apps that display ads and accept micropayments

A companion web site (opensocialtictactoe.googlecode.com) includes an extensive library of downloadable source code and other support materials.

Extras

Author's Site

Please visit the author's web site at opensocialtictactoe.googlecode.com.

Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

Getting Basic MySpace Data in Applications

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 2 and Index)

Table of Contents

Foreword xvi

Acknowledgments xviii

About the Authors xix

Introduction xxi

Part I: Building Your First MySpace Application

Chapter 1: Your First MySpace App 3

Creating the App–“Hello World” 3

Installing and Running Your App 7

Summary 7

Chapter 2: Getting Basic MySpace Data 9

The Two Concepts That Every Developer Should Know 9

MySpace Data 10

Starting Our Tic-Tac-Toe App 10

Error Handling 24

Summary 27

Chapter 3: Getting Additional MySpace Data 29

How to Fetch a Friend List and Make Use of the Data 29

Fetching Media 39

Using opensocial.requestPermission and opensocial.hasPermission to Check a User’s Permission Settings 43

Summary 45

Chapter 4: Persisting Information 47

App Data Store 47

Cookies 56

Third-Party Database Storage 64

Summary 65

Chapter 5: Communication and Viral Features 67

Using opensocial.requestShareApp to Spread Your App to Other Users 67

Using opensocial.requestSendMessage to Send Messages and Communications 74

Getting Your App Listed on the Friend Updates with opensocial.requestCreateActivity Basics 79

Sending Notifications 88

Summary 90

Chapter 6: Mashups and External Server Communications 91

Communicating with External Servers 91

Mashups 92

Adding a Feed Reader to Our App 93

Adding an Image Search 112

Posting Data with a Form 114

Summary 114

Chapter 7: Flushing and Fleshing: Expanding Your App and Person-to-Person Game Play 117

Turn-Based Games 117

Supporting Person-to-Person Game Play 133

Finishing and Clearing a Game 144

“Real-Time” Play 146

Advantages and Disadvantages of

App Data P2P Play 148

Summary 148

Part II: Other Ways to Build Apps

Chapter 8: OAuth and Phoning Home 153

What Is OAuth? 153

Secure Phone Home 157

Spicing Up the Home and Profile Surfaces Using makeRequest 173

Summary 174

Chapter 9: External Iframe Apps 177

REST APIs 178

Sending Messages Using IFPC 208

Summary 212

Chapter 10: OSML, Gadgets, and the Data Pipeline 213

The Big Picture 213

Writing a Gadget 214

OpenSocial Markup Language (OSML) 225

Putting It Together: OSML Tic-Tac-Toe 226

Summary 238

Chapter 11: Advanced OSML: Templates, Internationalization, and View Navigation 239

Inline Tag Templates 239

Working with Subviews 245

HTML Fragment Rendering 248

Data Listeners 250

Internationalization and Message Bundles 255

Future Directions 260

Summary 261

Part III: Growth and How to Deal with It

Chapter 12: App Life Cycle 265

Publishing Your App 265

Managing Your App 274

Managing Developers 279

Suspension and Deletion of Your App 280

Summary 281

Chapter 13: Performance, Scaling, and Security 283

Performance and Responsiveness 283

Design for Scale 292

Stability and Fault Tolerance 299

User and Application Security 300

Summary 303

Chapter 14: Marketing and Monetizing 305

Using MySpace to Promote Your App 306

User Base and Viral Spreading 309

Ads 311

Micropayments 316

Interviews with Successful App Developers 318

Summary 326

Chapter 15: Porting Your App to OpenSocial 0.9 329

Media Item Support 330

Simplification of App Data 341

REST APIs 343

Summary 348

References 351

Index 355

Updates

Submit Errata

More Information

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020