REST and RPC protocols available on the sandbox

Posted by Jason Cooper, orkut team

Since the orkut application platform's April rollout, developers have been able to build applications on top of orkut user data using the OpenSocial JavaScript API. Version 0.8 of the OpenSocial specification added REST and RPC protocols, which enable developers to build applications that interact with OpenSocial containers over HTTP.

Today, I'm pleased to announce the availability of REST and RPC protocols in the orkut sandbox. Currently, these APIs can fetch profile information and app data as well as update app data, and more features are planned.

(Note: The REST and RPC protocols allow for the same operations, but the RPC protocol supports submitting multiple data requests in one container request, similar to the existing JavaScript API, which results in faster and more efficient applications.)

All REST and RPC requests must be digitally signed by the issuer, which allows orkut to verify that they are coming from a trusted application. Generating these signatures requires a secret key, which is known only to you and orkut. You can request a secret key by submitting a gadget URL to https://www.google.com/gadgets/directory/verify and verifying ownership of this gadget. More information on this process and authentication in general is available in the new REST Protocol Developer's Guide.

Last but not least, a set of client libraries have been made available for PHP, Java, Ruby, and Python to simplify development using these new protocols. The libraries provide a convenient wrapper for the underlying low-level APIs and abstract away the tedious tasks of constructing the request URL, signing the request, and parsing the returned data. For more on these libraries, please see the official announcement on the OpenSocial API blog.

This past summer, we played host to some incredible university students around the world - from 14,000 feet (or 4,500 meters!) up in the Swiss Alps to the land down under in Sydney, Australia. Our interns are only at Google for a few months, but their impact and presence remain long after they leave. They are key players in our daily innovation and have the opportunity to make big contributions. So, we wanted to tell their story. After all, they are Googlers Beta. To learn more about how you can become a Google intern, please visit www.google.com/jobs/students/intern. We are now accepting applications for Summer 2009.

Name: Matt Pokrzywa
Hometown: Pleasantville, NY
Department: Software Engineer - Google Checkout
Education: BS in Computer Science at Cornell University

My Story:
My internship experience can be best described as "work hard, play hard." Spending this summer at Google has allowed me to work on some really tough challenges and work with some of the smartest people in the world. I was placed on a small team on Google Checkout and from the first day onward, I knew the work I was doing was real engineering work that otherwise would have been assigned to a full time engineer. I even joined my team for a week trip to Mountain View to do a technical deep dive with the Google Sites team. While having such responsibilities was difficult and often times stressful, working at Google offered so many ways to break the tension. Whether it was playing ping-pong or Guitar Hero with my coworkers, or getting out to explore Manhattan with my fellow interns, Google provided so many awesome ways to relax and just chill out.
Besides being so much fun, working at Google was a learning experience like no other. I can honestly say I learned more in my 14 weeks here than I did the entire previous school year. I was fortunate enough to be assigned projects that allowed me to explore so many areas of Google technology. I worked with frontend web design, backend server programming, and I actively took part in brainstorming and design sessions to define the future of our product. On top of becoming a better programmer, working at Google has made me a better designer and problem solver in general.

Having interned in other technology companies before, I have to say that the Google internship experience blew all the others away. The quality of the code and the documentation, the brilliance of everyone around you, and the incredibly fun and relaxed company culture is something you'll not experience anywhere else.

Posted by Jessica Bagley, University Programs Team

[NFGB] Link - from orkut Developer Blog Related From Google Blogs: Announcing v0.8 JavaScript support on production Sandbox update Sandbox update Sandbox update