Before you start

Learn what to expect from this tutorial and how to get the most out of it.

About this tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn about the OpenSocial API and what it takes to implement both the server and client sides of OpenSocial applications. You will build a complete OpenSocial application using Project Zero and highlight a number of useful technologies along the way.

Objectives

Web clients can communicate with an OpenSocial application using any HTTP or Ajax library they choose. In this tutorial, you will use the Dojo JavaScript library to build clients with the intent of illustrating how you might build clients with other libraries or the standard XMLHttpRequest object. The server-side implementation of the OpenSocial APIs will be created using Project Zero; specifically, you will write Groovy scripts that read and write Atom-formatted data using Zero's Atom library. After completing this tutorial, you should understand what is necessary to implement OpenSocial on Zero or any other Web framework. As always, you can re-create the sample application by following along, step-by-step, or you can download the completed application right now (see Downloads).

Prerequisites

It is assumed that you have downloaded Project Zero and built one or more simple applications with it. You should understand Zero's command-line tools and how to build Atom feeds and relational databases. Finally, you should be able to debug HTTP-based applications with a Web browser; it is not a strict requirement, but we do recommend using Firebug (see Resources) for tracking down bugs in your application.

System requirements

To run the code provided in this tutorial you will need the Java® Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher, Project Zero M3, and a Web browser.

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Table of contents

• Before you start
• Introducing OpenSocial
• Designing OpenSocial applications for Zero
• Start implementation
• Creating the database schema
• Testing SQL with the Zero database set-up tool
• Implementing OpenSocial logic with Groovy (Part 1)
• Implementing OpenSocial logic with Groovy (Part 2)
• Implementing OpenSocial logic with Groovy (Part 3)
• Creating RESTful resources with Groovy (Part 1)
• Creating RESTful resources with Groovy (Part 2)
• Configuring security for OpenSocial
• Testing the server side
• Implementing OpenSocial clients on Zero
• Creating the registration form
• Creating the login form
• Exposing OpenSocial data with the profile page
• Creating new friendships on the Profile page
• Testing the client side
• Conclusion
• Download
• Resources
• About the author

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