Posted by Cassie Doll, Software Engineer
We're pleased to tell you that the OpenSocial JavaScript API version 0.6 has been defined, which updates the initial OpenSocial release to include what we've heard to be the most immediate pain points. As per the
release notes
, the main changes are:
- Gadgets can now be container-aware, if necessary, to build tighter integration.
- Developers can easily have apps that let users navigate between different surface, such as profile and canvas pages.
- Tighter permission controls for reading the Viewer object from the datastore as well as an optional end-user prompting mechanism.
- Introduced opensocial.makeRequest, which replaces _IG_FetchContent, allows both POST and GET, and includes an option for OAuth signing or authentication
- Cleaned up the Activities class: removed the Stream class, removed the summary field, and removed folders (which were deprecated in 0.5 anyway)
We've also put together an
overview and specification document
, that describes how to comply with and extend OpenSocial, and further explains the background concepts and principles. With this definition in place, the containers are now able to update their sandboxes so application developers can write apps against 0.6. For example, after the holidays, the Orkut sandbox should be updated to 0.6 by mid-January. In the meantime, the
in-memory sample container
has already been updated to reflect the 0.6 specification.
Now that 0.6 is out there, we're looking for feedback on the
JavaScript Priority List
of functionality that we're thinking about for OpenSocial 0.7. The goal of this next iteration is to meet the minimum requirements for the initial consumer launches. We've listed each proposed change and bucketed them according to the following priority:
1 = Top priority. This will almost certainly make it into the next iteration (in this case, 0.7).
2 = High Priority. We will do our best to make this happen in the next iteration.
3 = Medium priority. These are likely candidates for a future iteration, but unlikely for 0.7.
4 = Lower priority. These almost certainly won't happen for 0.7, but are still on the radar.
We'd love to hear your feedback on the
OpenSocial API group
. In particular, please let us know if there is something you're counting on for a public launch that isn't listed as a priority 1 or 2.
P.S. A quick note for those of you who are building apps in the Orkut sandbox, we've just published an
Orkut-focused developer guide
as well, so check it out.