IMDB - Mininova searcher

I just finished making a base script for IMDB - Torrent searcher which is a GreaseMonkey script.

People usually have the habit of reading reviews of movies on IMDB and then going and searching it on torrent websites. This addon provides links to lookup torrents on the left navigation panel.

I was enthralled at receiving 30 installs within the first two hours. :)

Steps:
1) Install GreaseMonkey addon on Firefox. Restart Firefox.
2) Go here and install the script
3) Visit an IMDB movie page for changes.

OpenSocial - (contd)

Second part

Now, we can go ahead and add some Javascript and use the OpenSocial library to do some basic stuff.

The intent is to prepare a Hello Viewer application. When the widget loads,it will greet the viewer with their name, which s/he has mentioned in orkut profile.

As before all HTML and Javascript content go inside the <![CDATA[ tag.
All Javascript should be inside the tag. The final code looks like this.

<script type="text/javascript">
function onLoadViewer(dataResponse) {
var viewer = dataResponse.get('viewer').getData();
var html = viewer.getDisplayName();
document.getElementById('viewer_id').innerHTML
= html;
};
function getData() {
var req = opensocial.newDataRequest();
req.add(req.newFetchPersonRequest
('VIEWER'),'viewer');
req.send(onLoadViewer);
};
_IG_RegisterOnloadHandler(getData);
</script>

This particular line tells that, the very first function that would get executed when the gadget loads would be getData()

_IG_RegisterOnloadHandler(getData);

In the getData() method, we first create an OpenSocial DataRequest Object.
Now, there are several methods provided by Google, which we can call on this. Find a list and some samples here.

In this example, I am adding a key value pair of Viewer's ID and the name.
newFetchPersonRequest() creates an item to request a profile for the specified person ID.
Now, a request is sent using

req.send(onLoadViewer);

This sends a data request to the server in order to get a data response.
Also instates that the function which will be processing the response we get from the send(), will be done within onLoadViewer() method.

Now, in the onLoadViewer() method, I collect the dataResponse object and use the getter methods available to retrieve data.

Then, the response is populated dynamically inside the placeholder <div> "viewer_id" using the innerHTML attribute.

Further, experiment with the methods available in the library.
Have fun :)

PS :Pls do post comments/queries/requests.

OpenSocial - A dummies guide

What is OpenSocial

OpenSocial is a set of common APIs that will work on many different social websites, including MySpace, Plaxo, Hi5, Ning, orkut, and LinkedIn, among others. In addition, this allows developers to learn one API, then write a social application for any of those sites. Learn once, write anywhere, if you will. And because it's built on web standards like HTML and JavaScript, developers don't have to learn a custom programming language.

What you need to know

* How to form a well-formed XML
* Javascript
* Google API Documentation

In fact, if you are familiar with iGoogle Gadget development, this would be a cakewalk for you.

How to start?

1) Register for Sand box Access here :
http://code.google.com/support/opensocialsignup/

You’ll get back a mail (takes approximately 8-10 hours depending on your luck :P) when your access is granted.

2) Create an account in one of the social networks mentioned above, preferably Orkut, since this tutorial revolves around it, and there are more people involved in Orkut, in case you are stuck up somewhere.

3) Now you can go ahead and access the URL
http://sandbox.orkut.com/Home.aspx
Now , you have a link to each of your applications (which we are soon going to add) and also, to the main applications page in the left navigation bar.

Note : While developing, make sure you are in sandbox mode, else you wont be able to view these menu items.

4) Now, you need some "friends" who also have access to sandbox.. So either befriend any fellow-developer or ask any friend of yours to join hands 
There are people willing to add you in the OpenSocial and Orkut SandBox communities.

This is primarily because, in all the People gadgets, only people registered in sandbox are shown (for now)

5) Now, we need a proper development environment. Basically, you can code in any text editor you like. For Viewing it in Orkut, you will need to upload your files to a directory in the web. If you do not have your own webspace, no problems. You can use GooglePages as an alternative. Basically, the files need to be uploaded somewhere over the web where google can access it.

Now, Let me get to a much simpler, faster and more efficient way of doing the above procedure, courtesy none other than google themselves!

Its called the Google Gadget Editor (GGE). You can load source code of gadgets by URL into this color-coded editor, make changes, and preview the gadget on the fly.
Access it Here

You can either use it there or I prefer it adding it to my personalized Google homepage (Sign in to iGoogle)
Click here to add it to your iGoogle homepage.

Now, Play around a bit with this gadget to get familiarized. Apart from getting a live preview of your work so far, your application can be saved on to google’s server and hence it removes the need to upload the file.

Let’s get into some action now.

As all programming languages do, let me start off with the HelloWorld application, then we’ll move on to a HelloViewer application which can send a request to google and get back the name of the "viewer" of that Gadget, after all who doesn’t likes being greeted by his name!

This is pretty much the XML you require for HelloWorld.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Module>
  <ModulePrefs title="hello world example" />
  <Content type="html">
     <![CDATA[
       Hello, world!
     ]]>
  </Content>
</Module>

Now, you can save this as "HelloWorld.xml".

People who know XML will be bored reading the below paragraph, but I still recommend slogging through ;)
Line 1 in the above code mentions the XML encoding and version we are using. You needn’t worry too much on this, for now. But just be aware that a "well-formed" XML requires this to be here. Remember XML is case sensitive, ModulePrefs is not the same as Moduleprefs. And, All attributes MUST be quoted.

In XML, we have custom tags. In the above framework, the custom tags tells Google’s parser, some things:

<Module> tag indicates that this XML file is going to contain a gadget.
<ModulePrefs> tag contains information about the gadget such as its title, description, author, and other optional features. A more detailed <ModulePrefs> would look like

<ModulePrefs
title="Hello Viewer"
description="Hello Viewer Application"
author="Bajal"
author_email="myemail@yahoo.com"
author_location="Bangalore,India"
height="200" scrolling="true"
screenshot="xxx.jpg" thumbnail="yyy.jpg"
>


The line indicates that the gadget's content type is HTML.
<![CDATA[ ...insert HTML here... ]]> is used to enclose HTML when a gadget's content type is html. It tells the gadget parser that the text within the CDATA section should not be treated as XML. The CDATA section typically contains HTML and JavaScript.

There cannot be any "Open" tags in a well-formed XML. So any tags you opened should necessarily be closed. There are several offline and online tools available for validating your XML for well-formedness. But the simplest way must be to just open the XML in your browser. Internet Explorer can display it in a tree structure and is a good tool for this. (Yes, you read it right, Internet Explorer :D )

Now that we that you understand the code, we can check if it really works. Copy past the above lines of code onto the "editor" view in GGE. Now click on “preview” tab. If you get a message "Hello World", you just made your first opensocial gadget!
Now, save this using File->Save. Give a filename of your choice.

Next step is to get it on to Orkut Sandbox. For this we need the URI of the application. You can get this by right-clicking on the filename on right top side and choosing "Copy link location" in FF (or "Copy shortcut" in IE). Now go to Applications view in Orkut.
In the textbox, paste the URI we just copied, (eg. http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/
file/111057482205912844609/MyOrkutApp.xml) and click on add.

Now it will show up in the Applications list, also a new link to this application is shown on the left navigation bar. See, I told you its easy. :-)

Read further documentation in http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial/

I'll be back soon with the Hello Viewer application tutorial soon, where you can do stuff more than just printing out plain text.

Incessant Spider

incessant (in-ˈse-sənt)
adj. unceasing, continual, repeated.

Spider
A program that roams the World Wide Web, seeking documents to be indexed in a database that can then be examined for matches by search engines. Also called a crawler, robot, or bot.



Find links, information and tutorials for the latest developments in web here.
Enjoy.