OpenSocial

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenSocial?: OpenSocial is a set of common APIs for building social applications across many websites. OpenSocial consists of both JavaScript APIs and Google Data APIs.
How does OpenSocial help?: The existence of this single programming model helps both developers and websites. First, developers only have to learn the APIs once in order to build applications that work with any OpenSocial-enabled website. Second, because any website can implement OpenSocial, developers have a broad distribution network to reach users. Websites also benefit by engaging a much larger pool of third party developers than they could without a standard set of APIs.
Is this Google's social network?: No, we're just providing some technologies so the web as a whole can become more social, because that's clearly what users are interested in. Our products, like Orkut, are only one of the number of websites implementing OpenSocial. This is an effort which we hope will benefit the entire web community.
Will you be open sourcing OpenSocial? Under what license?: Currently, the sample code is released under the Apache 2.0 license. Additionally, we have Creative Commons licensed all of the OpenSocial documentation, so you are welcome to reuse and remix as appropriate. In the future, we are planning to open-source the components that are required to run OpenSocial on your own website.

What is the basic architecture of a social application that uses the OpenSocial API?: OpenSocial applications use Google's gadget architecture but with extensions that provide programmatic access to social data within its container environment. Similar to Google Gadgets, OpenSocial apps are hosted XML documents with HTML/JavaScript within their bodies. Social apps have most of the infrastructure of Google Gadgets available to them but with a few minor exceptions.
Where do OpenSocial apps run?: One of the initial environments for social apps which use the OpenSocial APIs is Orkut. Other OpenSocial enabled websites are expected to launch support for developers soon.

How do I create social apps using OpenSocial?: Social apps are initially created in the same manner as Google Gadgets: with your favorite text editor or within the Google Gadget Editor. They then can be augmented with the OpenSocial JavaScript APIs, where they can fetch and post social data about friends and activities.
Does OpenSocial require any special markup languages or plug-ins?: No. OpenSocial uses standard JavaScript, HTML, and XML.
What resources do I need to create an OpenSocial gadget?: Other than a good idea and a few minutes to write JavaScript and HTML, you don't need any. Google will do all the hosting for you if you want, but you are also free to use your own servers.
Can OpenSocial apps use Flash?: Yes. Similar to Google Gadgets, it is possible to embed Flash content into a social app.
Can OpenSocial apps interact with other websites?: Yes, social apps have the ability to fully interact with outside 3rd party applications using standard web protocols.
What other JavaScript libraries can I use?: All of them! Dojo, Prototype, JQuery, GWT, etc.
What languages can I use on my server?: All of them! PHP, Ruby on Rails, Java, etc.


e.g. "ajax apis" or "open source"