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Tag: OAuth 2.0

  • Google Details Easy OAuth 2.0 Implementation In Google Play

    Did you see that Google Play has reached 25 billion downloads? Google attributes this to Google Play now rolling out to the majority of Android 2.2 and above enabled devices. For those developers taking advantage of Google Play’s continued momentum, Google has just one bit of advice – use OAuth 2.0.

    By now, developers are aware of OAuth 2.0 and its many advantages. Google points out that “the Internet already has too many usernames and passwords.” To cut down on needless complexity, Google has been pushing the use of OAuth 2.0 to process transactions on Google Play. They also have a few perks in it for those who do choose to use it.

    Google says that they are making OAuth 2.0 authorization available to all Android apps that want to access Google APIs. There is a catch – these apps must features good user experiences and security. Apps that fulfill this request will be able to access OAuth 2.0, alongside an OAuth 2.0 token generator thanks to the Google APIs Client Library for Java.

    For developers new to OAuth 2.0, Google has put together a nice tutorial of how to implement automatic token generation. They detail all the steps necessary to get OAuth 2.0 up and running in your Android app. They do point out that several things may go wrong, but they also feature contingency plans for when things do go wrong.

    For more information, check out this great developer session from Google I/O that tackles OAuth 2.0:

  • OAuth 2.0 Playground Hits The Chrome Web Store

    The OAuth 2.0 Playground is one of those tools that makes life easier for developers. Google made it so that they could play around with the OAuth 2.0 protocol and related APIs. There’s a new kid on the figurative block now and his name is Google Drive.

    Google announced that the Google Drive API is now available in the OAuth 2.0 Playground. This will allow developer to test out apps that use the Drive API before pushing it out to market. The Playground is somewhat limited, however, as it only allows developers to access files that their own app has created or files that were opened through the Google Drive interface by their app. There was no way to open a file from the Drive UI through the OAuth 2.0 Playground.

    To help rectify this problem, Google has created a simple and elegant solution – a Chrome Web Store app. You can now grab the OAuth 2.0 Playground app which features Google Drive integration. Once installed, the OAuth 2.0 Playground app will become a part of Google Drive. Once there, it will be able to open any Drive file in the Playground.

    Using the OAuth 2.0 Playground app is super simple. Just go to the file that you want to open with the Playground, right click and go to “Open with.” If you have the Playground app installed, it should give you an option to open the file with the app. It gives the Playground access to the file and then you’re redirected to the OAuth flow to start poking around.

    The new app should help developers in their creation of Drive-enabled apps. Google Drive apps have the potential to change how we collaborate on projects. Use this new functionality to your advantage to show people the power of real-time collaboration over the cloud.

    You can grab the OAuth 2.0 Playground app at the Chrome Web Store. Have fun experimenting and playing around with the APIs.

  • Klout Upgrades Its API To Be Faster And Stronger

    Klout is one of those services that’s important to those invested in the social media industry. It’s a service that rates your social media performance across a number of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc and gives you a rating. As Klout points out, it’s main focus is giving this information to businesses to offer rewards to customers who are actively sharing their products across these social services.

    More and more businesses are asking for Klout’s information and they have answered the call. The company is pushing a big upgrade to its API. It’s about time as well since the service is now pulling about 1 billion API calls a day. A graph provided by Klout shows the service was only pulling about 7.7 million API calls back in July of 2010. Last month, the service pulled almost 30 billion API calls. That’s a massive jump and they need a new API to handle all of those requests.

    Klout Upgrades Its API To Version 2

    The Klout API is officially moving up to version 2 to huge influx of call requests. The company has also increased its number of partners using its information to 6,000 from just 2,000 a year ago. The Klout for iPhone app has been using the new API, but now it’s available to developers to use.

    The new version of the Klout API features the following upgrades:

    Instead of being Twitter-focused, it’s now “Klout-focused;” we offer a service that translates identifiers from Twitter to Klout IDs to facilitate speed and to incorporate influence from other networks in the future.

    The new API is faster, asynchronous and has a new caching system.

    Because it’s based on our internal architecture, we’ll soon release new features to the API.

    All of the new features are enabled by Klout using a new “oAuth2-authentication system” for users of the service. Soon people will be able to +K Tweets, tumblr posts, what have you to increase the Klout of that person.

    If you want to get in on the Klout API v2 party, you can sign up for a key now on the developer’s page. While you’re waiting, you can get a head start by reading the documentation.

    [h/t: TechCrunch]

  • WordPress Announces REST API For App Creation

    WordPress is one of the more popular, if not most popular, blogging tools out there. Like anything popular, people want to make applications with it which require an API. WordPress is making that bit easier for you with the announcement of a new API.

    WordPress announced today on their blog the release of their new WordPress REST API. It promises to let users create content using all the sites on the WordPress.com network as well as Jetpack-enabled sites in the near future.

    What does the new API give developers access to? You can access posts and comments, and follow, like and reblog content for users. As for other features, you can also access the sites’s Freshly Pressed content through the API.

    One of the first apps to use the REST API is the WordPress app for Windows 8. You can check it out here. It looks really nice as most Windows 8 apps usually do.

    WordPress Announces REST API For App Creation

    To make using and adding data on WordPress easier, the API uses OAuth2 protocol to authenticate requests for data. Public data can be accessed, however, through unauthenticated requests. You will need to use authenticated requests when making new posts or comments. It also uses a standardized JSON object when returning data.

    The really nice news is that the REST API self-documents itself. The Developer Resources Blog will automatically update whenever the WordPress team adds new endpoints. In more nice news, it also includes a console inside the browser for running queries and seeing data in real time.

    The API is available now for your development needs. You can even sign up for OAuth2 tokens without having to wait through an approval cycle. So why wait, get cracking on some cool new WordPress applications.

  • Google: OAuth 2.0 Playground Gets New Features

    Google launched the super handy OAuth 2.0 Playground last december which lets developers play around with the OAuth 2.0 protocol and APIs that use it. Never the one to let good enough stay good, Google has added new features that turn the good into great.

    The list of new features added to OAuth 2.0 playground is extensive and includes many helpful tools for the developers who use it. The first change is adding support for client-side flow in OAuth 2.0. You can do this by changing the configuration from “server-side” to “client-side.”

    There is now support for newer OAuth 2.0 drafts. The support is extended to an authorization header with a Bearer prefix and the access_token URL parameter locations. This change makes playground compatible with most APIs that support OAuth 2.0.

    Using your current access token, you can now display all available API operations. To do this, click on the “Find available Request URIs” button. This should be bring all operations with their associated HTTP methods and URIs.

    Whenever you request an access token in OAuth 2.0 Playground, you are given a finite number of seconds until that access token expires. You can now check a box that will automatically refresh your access token before it expires.

    The responses are fielded to you in an HTTP response. You can click on the links inside it, however, to repopulate the “Request URI” field to set up the next operation.

    All the changes brought to OAuth 2.0 Playground are here to make your time with it easier and quicker. It’s all about optimizing your time and code. These new additions should do that swimmingly.