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Posts tagged API
Ext JS 5, Sencha Fiddle and Parse.com
Nov 25th
As I’ve used Sencha Fiddle, I’ve really come to enjoy how simple it makes testing ideas, exploring aspects of Ext JS, and debugging my code. One of the really nice features is the ability to simulate AJAX requests. While this is REALLY nice for simulating the loading of remote data, one place where it has a gap is in testing a fully-rounded workflow…for example, loading data from the server, modifying it, sending it back to the server, and receiving a successful response.
For these kinds of tasks, there a few options. First, you can set up your own server which your Fiddle code can talk to, either via CORS or JSONP. While this works, it’s a pain. Most of the time the stuff I’m doing in Fiddle is not that involved, so having to mess with a server just for remote communications is a little onerous.
Another option is Parse.com. Using this service, you can create and manage cloud-based data structures. And using their RESTful API, you can retrieve this data, as well as all the other standard CRUD operations.
Integrating Parse.com with your Ext JS app (or Sencha Touch app) is RIDICULOUSLY easy. I’m going to assume you’ve already set up your More >
SocialMe: A Social Networking Experiment in Sitecore
Nov 17th
In a recent post, I linked a video that outlined my initial experiences with building XAML applications for the Sitecore desktop. Coming off that experience, I was super excited to try out another application–SocialMe is the result.
Basically, SocialMe allows Sitecore users to save social networking credentials (currently Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook) to their Sitecore user profile, which can be leveraged on a web site to display custom content for that particular user–recent tweets, uploaded photos, and most recent Facebook status.
Anyway, here is an overly-long video that describes this in fuller detail, as well as provides a demo of what it allows you to do.
Possibly Related Posts- My First Sitecore Desktop Application
- Writing My First XAML Application (Tutorial)
- Working with Custom User Profile Properties
My First Sitecore Desktop Application
Oct 12th
Over the weekend, I downloaded Sitecore Xpress and spent some time developing a Sitecore Desktop application based on XAML, C# and the Sitecore API. Here's the result:
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Quick Look at ScrnShots' API
Jun 4th
A few months ago, I ran across ScrnShots. It's basically a service for uploading, tagging and sharing screenshots of websites. This is pretty useful for me given my profession :).
One of the things, however, that has always impressed me about the site is how easy and fun to use it is. It features really deep networking capabilities, the tagging is pretty robust, and everything is fast, fast, fast!
Of course, while uploading from the site is easy, I've been waiting with baited breath for them to release an API. Well, recently this happened, and I couldn't be more excited!
The API is alot like Twitter's in that it uses Basic Authentication for user-specific http calls. While not the most secure form of authentication, it is ridiculously easy, especially if you're using ColdFusion whose cfhttp tag has a built in mechanism for managing it.
So tonight, I spent a couple minutes digging into the API, and came away with an easy function for uploading, tagging and providing a description and link for an image. And of course, if you're using ColdFusion, it's cake!
Here it is:
<cfhttp url="http://www.scrnshots.com/screenshots.xml" method="POST" charset="utf-8" username="existdissolve" password="password" multipart="yes"> <cfhttpparam name="enctype" type="header" value="multipart/form-data"> <cfhttpparam name="screenshot[uploaded_data]" type="file" file="#filearea#" mimetype="image/jpeg"> <cfhttpparam More >
ColdFusion and Twitter
May 28th
Over the last several months, I've gotten into Twitter ALOT. I find it to not only be fun, but it is also an interesting social experiment. I've been surprised by how many great resources I've come across because of my followers quickly twittering something they think is cool/helpful.
Naturally, the next stage in my relationship with Twitter is to crack into its API to manipulate from my own applications. Turns out this is surprisingly easy to do. All of Twitter's functions are relatively simple and require very little to accomplish what you want to do.
So my case study was the most obvious: post an update to my "status." In ColdFusion, the entire process takes 6 lines. 6 LINES! Here they are, in all their simplistic glory:
<cfset update = "Hey, this is an update to my twitter status"><cfhttp url="http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml" method="POST" charset="utf-8" username="existdissolve" password="mypassword"> <cfhttpparam name="user" value="existdissolve" type="formfield"> <cfhttpparam name="password" value="mypassword" type="formfield"> <cfhttpparam name="status" value="#update#" type="formfield"></cfhttp>
For this function, you do have to create a basic authentication, which merely requires passing your username and password along with the status message. Very simple, but very cool!
So yeah, that's about it. There's a whole slew of functions in Twitter's API, but hopefully this shows More >
