We're happy to announce that hi5 now has a place to test OpenSocial applications. The feature set is limited, but we will be rapidly upgrading and supporting all features of the OpenSocial specification.
Gaining Access
All developers are welcome to test OpenSocial on hi5. To access our beta server you will need to create a hi5 account and then join the hi5 platform development group.
Once you've done that you can access our OpenSocial implementation by doing the following:
What Works
Only basic functionality works at the moment. You can get profile data for viewer/owner and friends lists of the same. Currently this is restricted to only retrieving publicly available information. We are working on a comprehensive solution to validating application requests and auto-registering API keys on the fly.
Most of the basic Google Gadget functionality works. Our proxy injects the correct JavaScript into your gadget and passes it off to gmodules.com for further processing.
Our container supports both html (iframe) and html-inline gadgets.
You can add gadgets to your profile page or your home page. Canvas pages are available by clicking on the title of the application in either of these pages.
What's Broken
Well, just about everything else. Until we have a decent security model in place, we will not be supporting application persistence, updating feeds, or retrieving private data for the viewer. Some of these features are mocked up, which means the calls may be successful, but data will not persist.
We've been testing exclusively on Firefox during this time. IE support may or may not work. Also, please consider installing firebug, just in case some debug code finds it's way to the javascript we publish.
Some iGoogle/Google Gadgets features may or may not work. We know that frame resizing is broken.
We also do not support the RESTful API at all. We plan to skip AuthSub and move straight to OAuth authentication. Furthermore our API server does not support the URL layout of the OpenSocial Data API. This is being addressed via the following bug reports:
Roadmap
What we work on will be heavily influenced by developer partners. Here's a short prioritized list of our plans to make OpenSocial work with hi5:
We hope that container authors will be able to consult what we've done and use that as a basis for creating their own containers. Furthermore, we hope that this is an interim step to a full, generic open-source container project.
Simultaneously we are working on implementing the RESTful Data API as part of the hi5 API server.
Get Involved
The developers here at hi5 are going to do our best to support all developers. To make this efficient, please use the following avenues:
Gaining Access
All developers are welcome to test OpenSocial on hi5. To access our beta server you will need to create a hi5 account and then join the hi5 platform development group.
Once you've done that you can access our OpenSocial implementation by doing the following:
You will now be in the hi5 Developer Website. There are a few sample applications and some Google Gadgets. This page also allows you to add any application -- just paste the URL of your OpenSocial xml file into the provided form.
- Visit http://developer.hi5.com/
- Log in with your hi5 account, if you are not already logged in.
- Click on Add hi5 Developer Application
- If you aren't registered as a developer, you will have to first do so (even if you already have a hi5 account.)
What Works
Only basic functionality works at the moment. You can get profile data for viewer/owner and friends lists of the same. Currently this is restricted to only retrieving publicly available information. We are working on a comprehensive solution to validating application requests and auto-registering API keys on the fly.
Most of the basic Google Gadget functionality works. Our proxy injects the correct JavaScript into your gadget and passes it off to gmodules.com for further processing.
Our container supports both html (iframe) and html-inline gadgets.
You can add gadgets to your profile page or your home page. Canvas pages are available by clicking on the title of the application in either of these pages.
What's Broken
Well, just about everything else. Until we have a decent security model in place, we will not be supporting application persistence, updating feeds, or retrieving private data for the viewer. Some of these features are mocked up, which means the calls may be successful, but data will not persist.
We've been testing exclusively on Firefox during this time. IE support may or may not work. Also, please consider installing firebug, just in case some debug code finds it's way to the javascript we publish.
Some iGoogle/Google Gadgets features may or may not work. We know that frame resizing is broken.
We also do not support the RESTful API at all. We plan to skip AuthSub and move straight to OAuth authentication. Furthermore our API server does not support the URL layout of the OpenSocial Data API. This is being addressed via the following bug reports:
JETTISON-26
ENUNCIATE-98
Roadmap
What we work on will be heavily influenced by developer partners. Here's a short prioritized list of our plans to make OpenSocial work with hi5:
- Security model to allow applications to securely read/write private information.
- Add read-only activity data feeds.
- Add application data storage methods.
- Add writing to activity feed.
- Add all of the various filtering methods.
- Extend the amount of data we provide.
http://code.google.com/p/hi5-opensocial/
We hope that container authors will be able to consult what we've done and use that as a basis for creating their own containers. Furthermore, we hope that this is an interim step to a full, generic open-source container project.
Simultaneously we are working on implementing the RESTful Data API as part of the hi5 API server.
Get Involved
The developers here at hi5 are going to do our best to support all developers. To make this efficient, please use the following avenues:
- Post to the hi5 Platform Development Group
- File bugs you find on the hi5-OpenSocial issue tracker
- Read all about OpenSocial on Google's OpenSocial Site
- Join the OpenSocial-api or OpenSocial-container groups
- Send the hi5 team email at api-request@hi5.com
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