10 August 2012
Api and mashups
Week 5 question
1) Familiarise yourself with the range of API's in the Google Maps family
2) Find a site of significance via google maps
3) Imagine a unique service that could be provided linking maps to other programmes or data.
What is an API?The editors from 'Programmable Web' (viewed 10 August 2012) suggests an API (application programming interface) to have a set of functions that one computer program makes available to other programs so they can talk directly.
Seeking a deeper understanding on how APIs work, I found the description of the Facebook API to clarify this.
"The Facebook API is a platform for building applications that are available to the members of the social network of Facebook. The API allows applications to use the social connections and profile information to make applications more involving, and to publish activities to the news feed and profile pages of Facebook, subject to individual users privacy settings. With the API, users can add social context to their applications by utilizing profile, friend, page group, photo, and event data. The API uses RESTful protocol and responses are localized and in XML format" 'Facebook API' (viewed 10 August 2012).
Site of Significance A site of significance that shows google mapping is 'mibazaar' (viewed 10 August 2012).
The site has 3 API's.
Mibazaar site provides information on celebrities. Details such as where the celebrities are from, star popularity through TV/web and how much the individual earns.
My idea for an API
A Google Maps API would be a great implementation in an App for a music concert or festival. I could imagine a service providing mashups and APIs being of 'value' servicing people who will attend different types of events. The mashup site will then allow the user to feel at ease knowing they can pre-programme for the event they are attending. There will be a need to obtain the App through good marketing when people know of its availability.
Some of the key features would include:
Week 5 question
1) Familiarise yourself with the range of API's in the Google Maps family
2) Find a site of significance via google maps
3) Imagine a unique service that could be provided linking maps to other programmes or data.
What is an API?The editors from 'Programmable Web' (viewed 10 August 2012) suggests an API (application programming interface) to have a set of functions that one computer program makes available to other programs so they can talk directly.
Seeking a deeper understanding on how APIs work, I found the description of the Facebook API to clarify this.
"The Facebook API is a platform for building applications that are available to the members of the social network of Facebook. The API allows applications to use the social connections and profile information to make applications more involving, and to publish activities to the news feed and profile pages of Facebook, subject to individual users privacy settings. With the API, users can add social context to their applications by utilizing profile, friend, page group, photo, and event data. The API uses RESTful protocol and responses are localized and in XML format" 'Facebook API' (viewed 10 August 2012).
Site of Significance A site of significance that shows google mapping is 'mibazaar' (viewed 10 August 2012).
The site has 3 API's.
- Google Mapping - Google map code embedding,
- Yahoo Geocoding Web Service - This allows you to find the specific latitude and longitude for an address,
- YouTube - It provides the capability to search for videos, retrieve standard feeds, and see related content.
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| figure 1: mibazaar (viewed 10 August 2012) |
My idea for an API
A Google Maps API would be a great implementation in an App for a music concert or festival. I could imagine a service providing mashups and APIs being of 'value' servicing people who will attend different types of events. The mashup site will then allow the user to feel at ease knowing they can pre-programme for the event they are attending. There will be a need to obtain the App through good marketing when people know of its availability.
Some of the key features would include:
- Google Map display of the venue,
- who's playing on what stage, where and when, lost and found, St Johns Ambulance, location of restrooms,
- alerts and reminders to go off prior to start of individual concert event. An addition to a Map will help predict the time it will take to get from the point where you are at to the next place you want to be,
- a programme planner could automatically be created when the user types in the band names they wish to see while at the concert,
- Others logged on will be able to see if anyone from their contact list is at the venue (but only if they allow it) through using their Google Maps API.
I would use a mashup of combining data from BOM(Bureau of Meteorology), Google Maps for venue and location services, public services affecting the area such as news, internal sources of data including customer alerts.
figure 2: example of working Google Map.
View Larger Map
Figure 3 shows example of where you would go and get the Australian Bureau of Meteorology API.
The button on the left that suggests clicking it tracks the API. The site offers a search menu to find other APIs, mashups and code developers. It is an informative website.
Figure 4 shows a search page for an API.
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| figure 4: search page for a news API (viewed 6 August 2012) |
References
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Mashups in the Enterprise (viewed 6 August 2012)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb906060.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb906060.aspx
http://www.mibazaar.com/top100celebrities/
Facebook API (viewed 10 August 2012)
http://www.programmableweb.com/api/facebook
Programmable Web (viewed 10 August 2012)
http://www.programmableweb.com/faq#Q2
http://www.programmableweb.com/search/news
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