OpenSocial

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OpenSocial is a collection of programming interfaces for applications in web-based social networks . OpenSocial is developed by Google and was released on November 1, 2007.

Applications that use the OpenSocial API are interoperable with any other social network that supports it, so functions from sites such as Myspace and Friendster can be linked. At the start of OpenSocial, only the business network XING and the invitation and ticket service amiando were present from Germany .

From December 2009 the OpenSocial API was also supported by the now closed networks StudiVZ , SchülerVZ and MeinVZ .

technology

OpenSocial essentially consists of two parts. On the one hand from the OpenSocial API , which provides interfaces for uniform access to the social network. The API itself consists of 3 core components.

  • Data enables the access and exchange of personal data .
  • People allows the "view" of the social graph from the "point of view" of a person. Thus, for example, person-specific relationships (so-called relationships) can be queried.
  • Activities for text-based communication between people

On the other hand, OpenSocial consists of the so-called OpenSocial gadgets , which use the OpenSocial API to obtain content from the social network and describe how it is to be displayed and managed by the web browser . From a technological point of view, OpenSocial Gadgets are based on Google Gadgets and extend them with non-proprietary interfaces for access to the OpenSocial API using JavaScript functions or the OpenSocial REST protocol. In principle, gadgets consist of a basic XML framework that encapsulates HTML text, JavaScript code and any CSS references.

Both components together enable a simpler, uniform and interoperable option for developing applications in the context of social networking , so-called social apps . OpenSocial applications are therefore intended to replace the previously proprietary solutions.

OpenSocial applications

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OpenSocial applications are developed using open standards such as B. HTML , XML and JavaScript . All OpenSocial applications require a so-called container for their execution and display . This serves the applications as a kind of runtime environment that integrates the OpenSocial API. There are basically three types (so-called social design patterns) of applications.

Social mashups

OpenSocial applications of this type are designed to be extremely narrow and merely combine the content and functions of other applications using RSS - Web Feed or Ajax . The execution takes place within the social network, whereby no external server is necessary as a container. The advantage is the good scalability in terms of resources, whose limited availability must always be taken into account. For the development of social mashups, HTML, JavaScript, CSS , OpenSocial templates and Flash can be used (combinable) .

Social application

Applications of this type can provide very extensive functionality and, in contrast to the social mashups, are hosted on an external server, which is responsible as a container for processing and rendering the data. One such server project was developed and promoted by the Apache Software Foundation called Shindig . The disadvantage of such a social application is the poor scalability in terms of resources, since if the application is very popular (not least because of the range of functions), the capacity limits of the server can be reached quickly. A social application can be implemented using a variety of options, including HTML, JavaScript, CSS, OpenSocial Templates, Flash, PHP , Python , Java , Perl , .NET or Ruby .

Social website / social mobile application

These applications are executed outside of the social network. Nevertheless, both are called "social" because they obtain data from social networks using the OpenSocial API via the REST or RPC API. For this purpose, the user grants direct access to his data using OAuth .

OpenSocial REST protocol

The OpenSocial REST protocol was designed for communication between servers and enables the exchange of personal data, relationship information and activities between OpenSocial hosts or containers. An example of this are OpenSocial applications that are no longer just implemented as gadgets, but are generated on the server side and B. using JSP or ASP via the REST protocol to access data from an OpenSocial container. In this way, “tailor-made” applications can be implemented for one person. Developers also benefit from a large number of existing client utility libraries in the most common server-side languages ​​such as B. Java , PHP or Ruby , which are made available through the REST API.

history

development

OpenSocial is reportedly backed by web developer Brad Fitzpatrick , the founder of LiveJournal . After selling Six Apart in 2005, Danga Interactive , which operates LiveJournal, Fitzpatrick developed OpenID . In 2007, Fitzpatrick left Six Apart to continue working on integrating social networks for Google.

Rumor has it that OpenSocial is part of a larger project by Google on the subject of social networks called "Makamaka", which in Hawaiian means "close friend with whom you can communicate freely" .

Since January 1, 2015, Opensocial has been further developed in a W3C working group.

Implementations

In 2015 there were over 20 containers that integrate OpenSocial. In addition to representatives such as MySpace, StudiVZ or XING for users, there were also some containers specifically for developers and their needs.

background

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OpenSocial is mentioned as a platform-independent alternative to Facebook .

After Facebook began to publish interfaces in May 2007 and allow third parties to write applications for Facebook, Facebook was seen as a challenger to Google to establish a universal "web operating system".

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Launch partner of OpenSocial
  2. ↑ Community: VZ networks open to apps - SPIEGEL ONLINE
  3. ↑ Enterprise OpenSocial Whitepaper - OpenSocial (English)
  4. ^ Makamaka in Hawaiian Dictionaries
  5. ↑ http://www.w3.org/blog/2014/12/opensocial-foundation-moves-standards-work-to-w3c-social-web-activity/
  6. ↑ New rules for Internet companies - End the wild west times on social media. Retrieved on March 27, 2019 (German).