Featured Discussions - Build2024-03-29T11:34:15Zhttps://build.ning.com/forum/topic/list?feed=yes&xn_auth=no&featured=1Sort by featured datetag:build.ning.com,2012-01-27:6308082:Topic:164172012-01-27T19:32:58.854ZDevinhttps://build.ning.com/profile/Devin
<p>I'm pleased to announce several new features to the Ning API:</p>
<ul>
<li>Blog Post endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order /BlogPost/featured</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Photo endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order /Photo/featured</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>User endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order /User/featured</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Comments endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order…</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>I'm pleased to announce several new features to the Ning API:</p>
<ul>
<li>Blog Post endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order /BlogPost/featured</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Photo endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order /Photo/featured</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>User endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order /User/featured</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Comments endpoint<ul>
<li>New featuredDate property</li>
<li>New sort order /Comment/featured</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Be sure to checkout the <a href="http://developer.ning.com/docs/ningapi/1.0/changelog/2012-01-27.html">complete changelog</a>. It contains examples and an explanation of the tag changes.</p>
<p>If you find any issues please report them in the <a href="http://build.ning.com/forum/categories/ning-api-bugs-and-suggestions/listForCategory">bugs section of the forum</a>.</p> New Friend and Tag endpointstag:build.ning.com,2011-11-18:6308082:Topic:136012011-11-18T21:22:08.083ZDevinhttps://build.ning.com/profile/Devin
<p><br></br>I'm pleased to announce several new features and improvements to the Ning API:</p>
<ul>
<li>New Tag endpoint<ul>
<li>Allows developers to access all the tags attached to a content item.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>New Friend endpoint<ul>
<li>Get the list of your friends</li>
<li>Get the list of friends for another member</li>
<li>Add a friend</li>
<li>Remove a friend</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Blog Post endpoint updates<br></br><ul>
<li>Add tags on creation</li>
<li>Update…</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><br/>I'm pleased to announce several new features and improvements to the Ning API:</p>
<ul>
<li>New Tag endpoint<ul>
<li>Allows developers to access all the tags attached to a content item.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>New Friend endpoint<ul>
<li>Get the list of your friends</li>
<li>Get the list of friends for another member</li>
<li>Add a friend</li>
<li>Remove a friend</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Blog Post endpoint updates<br/><ul>
<li>Add tags on creation</li>
<li>Update tags</li>
<li>Filter by tag</li>
<li>Renamed the tags field to topTags</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Photo endpoint updates<br/><ul>
<li>Add tags on creation</li>
<li>Update tags</li>
<li>Filter by tag</li>
<li>Renamed the tags field to topTags</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Activity endpoint updates<br/><ul>
<li>Include CreateTopic event in results</li>
<li>Include CreateTopicComment event in results</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><br/> Be sure to checkout the <a href="http://developer.ning.com/docs/ningapi/1.0/changelog/2011-11-18.html" target="_blank">complete changelog</a>. It contains examples and an explanation of the tag changes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over the next week I'll be updating the Ning API client libraries to include these new features. Make sure to follow the projects on GitHub and send us your pull requests!</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/ning/ning-api-php" target="_blank">PHP Client</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/ning/ning-api-java" target="_blank">Java Client</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/ning/ning-api-python" target="_blank">Python Client</a></li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>If you find any issues please report them in the <a href="http://build.ning.com/forum/categories/ning-api-bugs-and-suggestions/listForCategory" target="_self">bugs section of the forum</a>.</p> Ning Tech Talks Meetup - Building a scalable content storetag:build.ning.com,2011-04-04:6308082:Topic:28122011-04-04T16:07:04.132ZDevinhttps://build.ning.com/profile/Devin
<p>We've launched <a href="http://about.ning.com/techtalks/" target="_blank">Ning Tech Talks</a>, a technology series we plan to host to regularly. It’s free and open to everyone interested in learning and discussing technology topics. We will have speakers from Ning and other companies sharing their experience. We'll also have plenty of pizza and beer, so be sure to bring your appetite.</p>
<p>Our first talk is next Wednesday, April 6. We have our own Brian McCallister presenting Ning’s…</p>
<p>We've launched <a href="http://about.ning.com/techtalks/" target="_blank">Ning Tech Talks</a>, a technology series we plan to host to regularly. It’s free and open to everyone interested in learning and discussing technology topics. We will have speakers from Ning and other companies sharing their experience. We'll also have plenty of pizza and beer, so be sure to bring your appetite.</p>
<p>Our first talk is next Wednesday, April 6. We have our own Brian McCallister presenting Ning’s experience in building a scalable content store. As we have scaled the Ning Platform, we have implemented multiple versions of the content store to store text data with completely different designs and have learned a lot in the process. It should be a great discussion and we're looking forward to seeing you there! For the first 30 or so minutes of the Meetup, we'll have lightning talks of 5 minutes each, presented by attendees on topics of their own choice. You can let us know if you are interested to speak and propose your topic when you RSVP. You can <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/org/979099051" target="_blank">RSVP through Eventbrite</a> and/or also by joining the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Ning-Tech-Talks/" target="_blank">Ning Tech Talk Meetup</a>.</p>
<p>RSVP and join us on April 6th at 6pm PT at Ning’s HQ in downtown Palo Alto, CA. (It’s a 5 min walk from the Palo Alto Caltrain Station). We look forward to seeing you there! If you have any questions, please let me know or contact jcr {at} ning {dot} com.</p> Social Sign-In and the Ning APItag:build.ning.com,2010-11-24:6308082:Topic:7012010-11-24T18:58:33.000ZDevinhttps://build.ning.com/profile/Devin
<p>With the launch of <a href="http://blog.ning.com/2010/11/introducing-social-sign-in.html" target="_blank">Social Sign-In</a>, members of your Ning Network no longer need to create a password when joining your Ning Network.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A problem arises when your application prompts the member for their email address and password when generating an access token. Members who have joined your Ning Network using Social Sign-In haven't setup a password yet.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The current…</p>
<p>With the launch of <a href="http://blog.ning.com/2010/11/introducing-social-sign-in.html" target="_blank">Social Sign-In</a>, members of your Ning Network no longer need to create a password when joining your Ning Network.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A problem arises when your application prompts the member for their email address and password when generating an access token. Members who have joined your Ning Network using Social Sign-In haven't setup a password yet.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The current workaround is to ask members to setup a password using the profile settings page located at:</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: andale mono,times;"><a href="http://examplenetwork.ning.com/profiles/settings/editProfileInfo">http://examplenetwork.ning.com/profiles/settings/editProfileInfo</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>We are planning to support 3-legged OAuth, which is the redirection based "Grant permissions to the application" dialogs users are used to already. With that setup, applications will never need to deal with member passwords.</p>
<p> </p> New Version Of The Ning API PHP Library Now Livetag:build.ning.com,2010-11-11:6308082:Topic:6172010-11-11T22:45:45.000ZBen Plowmanhttps://build.ning.com/profile/BenPlowman
<div>I’ve just finished pushing some exciting changes to our PHP client over at <a href="https://github.com/ning/ning-api-php/">our github project</a>. Below are some of the highlights.</div>
<div><br></br><h2><b>Simplified Tokens</b></h2>
</div>
<div>In the previous version of the PHP client, you were forced to generate your own tokens and then pass in 4 tokens and a subdomain the the NingApi() constructor. This was cumbersome and unintuitive, so the constructor has been…</div>
<div>I’ve just finished pushing some exciting changes to our PHP client over at <a href="https://github.com/ning/ning-api-php/">our github project</a>. Below are some of the highlights.</div>
<div><br/><h2><b>Simplified Tokens</b></h2>
</div>
<div>In the previous version of the PHP client, you were forced to generate your own tokens and then pass in 4 tokens and a subdomain the the NingApi() constructor. This was cumbersome and unintuitive, so the constructor has been simplified.</div>
<div><br/></div>
<div>Now, you can define only the default attributes in the NingApi.php file like this:</div>
<code>// Ning network subdomain (ie. 'apiexample' in apiexample.ning.com)<br/>
public $subdomain = '';<br/>
// Ning user email address<br/>
protected $email = '';<br/>
// Ning user password<br/>
protected $password = '';<br/>
// Consumer key found at [subdomain].ning.com/main/extend/keys<br/>
protected $consumerKey = '';<br/>
// Consumer secret found at [subdomain].ning.com/main/extend/keys<br/>
protected $consumerSecret = '';<br/>
</code> <br/>
<div>After filling out those values, you can create a NingAPI object like this:</div>
<code>$ningApi = new NingApi();</code><br/>
<div>And that’s it! Nothing else to pass in (unless you want to). All the request tokens are generated behind the scenes.</div>
<div><br/></div>
<div>If you want to change consumer tokens, user information, or subdomain during execution, you can leave the NingApi.php file alone and just use one of these methods:</div>
<code>$ningApi->setSubdomain(‘apiexample’);<br/>
$ningApi->login(‘email’,’password’);<br/>
$ningApi->setConsumerTokens(‘consumerKey’,’consumerSecret’);</code><br/>
<div><h2><b>Expanded, Content-Aware Functionality</b></h2>
</div>
<div>Another weakness of the previous version of the API was that it was hard to discover what was possible to do with the API. This has been bulked up so that there are content types within the NingApi object which have a set of actions you can perform for that content type.</div>
<div><br/></div>
<div>Here is a screenshot from my IDE:</div>
<div><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1273307786?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
</div>
<div><br/></div>
<div>Here are all the content types available:</div>
<code>$ningApi->activityItem<br/>
$ningApi->blogPost<br/>
$ningApi->broadcastMessage<br/>
$ningApi->comment<br/>
$ningApi->network<br/>
$ningApi->photo<br/>
$ningApi->user<br/>
$ningApi->video</code><br/>
<div>The argument array structure is the same as in the previous version. For example, to create a new Blog Post on the network, you would do this:</div>
<code>$args['description'] = "Test blog post description.";<br/>
$args['title'] = "Test blog post title.";<br/>
$ningApi->blogPost->create($args);<br/>
</code> <br/>
<div>And you’re done! All the functionality is there. You can use fetch() to get a content object, delete() to delete one, update(), create(), etc., are all there.</div>
<div><br/><h2><b>Singleton Access</b></h2>
</div>
<div>If you so choose, you can save yourself having to create the NingApi() object, by using it as a singleton. To create that blog post above, all you would need to call is this:</div>
<code>NingApi::instance()->blogPost->create($args);<br/>
</code> <br/>
<div>This method works easiest if you declare everything in the NingApi.php file, otherwise you will have to initialize your access credentials in the same request using things like this:</div>
<code>NingApi::instance()->setSubdomain(‘subdomain’);</code><br/>
<div><h2><b>Backwards Compatibility Note</b></h2>
</div>
<div>In order to move forward with abstracting tokens, the constructor does not allow the same arguments as it did previously, breaking its backwards compatibility.</div>
<div>Where before the NingApi() constructor looked like this: <code>__construct($subdomain, $consumerKey, $consumerSecret, $accessToken = NULL, $accessTokenSecret = NULL)<br/></code> <br/>
<div>It now looks like this:</div>
<code>__construct($subdomain=null, $consumerKey=null, $consumerSecret=null, $email=null, $password=null)<br/>
</code> <br/>
<div>All other methods, e.g. $ningApi->post(), are the same as before and should still work.</div>
<br/><div><h2><b>Let me know if you see bugs</b></h2>
</div>
<div>Everything is pretty well unit-tested, but let me know if you see stuff that does not work or is not backwards compatible as expected.</div>
<div><br/></div>
<div>If you have ideas for further enhancements, I’d love to hear those as well!</div>
</div>
<div>-Ben</div> OpenSocial Applications on Profile Pagestag:build.ning.com,2010-10-07:6308082:Topic:1882010-10-07T22:10:56.000ZDevinhttps://build.ning.com/profile/Devin
Network Creators now have the option to place OpenSocial applications on member profile pages. Previously, profile views were limited to the "My Apps" area within a member's profile. When enabled, Profile Apps and the profile view of Ning Apps will be rendered directly on profile pages. …<br></br><br></br><p style="text-align: left;"><a class="noborder" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1273307784?profile=original" target="_blank"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1273307784?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="500"></img></a></p>
Network Creators now have the option to place OpenSocial applications on member profile pages. Previously, profile views were limited to the "My Apps" area within a member's profile. When enabled, Profile Apps and the profile view of Ning Apps will be rendered directly on profile pages. <br/><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><a target="_blank" class="noborder" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1273307784?profile=original"><img width="500" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1273307784?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">You don't need to make any changes to your OpenSocial application to enable this functionality. To activate it, the Network Creator simply needs to enable OpenSocial applications on profile pages on the My Network -> Members -> Controls page.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a class="noborder" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1273309084?profile=original" target="_blank"><img width="500" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1273309084?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Note that the default behavior is still to display the profile view on the "My Apps" page, and it's up to the Network Creator to enable direct profile page display.<br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update:</span><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">You can encourage Network Creators to enable the profile view by sending them <a href="http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/profile-apps-on-profile-pages">the Creators post explaining the changes</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<br/>