OpenSocial Network Programming

OpenSocial is not really simple, even somewhat confusing due to its technology heritage as it kind of got re-purposed from gadgets API to play catch-up with other social application containers. For that reason any book on the subject is welcome. Although to be fair there are only few examples in the book and even less working ones, it took significant changes to get most of the code examples running on just one of the many available OpenSocial containers. If you want to write apps that do more than sending a HelloWorld to a friend you are probably interested in the REST API and server side code with a DB. Unfortunately not much is covered in this book on that subject. It feels like the authors have rushed to get the book out to be the first ones to cover the OpenSocial techno. Don't count on updates of the code from the site, I have downloaded it a few times just to see if they would updated the files. The answer is no, it still has all the same many syntax errors as the printed code. I am clearly disappointed by the book compared to other API related books but at the time of this review it is the only one available on the topic so for that reason I still gave it 2 stars! ## Summary: ## Too Many Words, Not Enough Code, Too Many Errors... but 1st Book Available on OpenSocial to be fair... Opensocial Is A Set Of Common Application Programming Interfaces For Web-based Social Network Applications. As The First Book On Opensocial, This Valuable Resource Discusses The Unique Area Of Social Networking And The Needs And Different Attributes Of Social Network Applications. You?ll Get Step-by-step Instructions For Creating Opensocial Applications For Multiple Platforms And Explore Application Development And Deployment Using Integration Technologies Like The New Sun Zembly Platform. Plus, You?ll Examine Newer Technologies Like The Sun Platform That Allows Even Non-programmers The Ability To ?mash Up? Applications. This book will cover new platforms used in social networks featuring OpenSocial, and new emerging platforms and technologies. A discussion of what social network programming is brings both the advanced programmer and beginner up to speed on what are needs and goals of social network applications OpenSocial network programming -- Introduction to OpenSocial -- Gadget XML and Gadget API -- JavaScript API -- OpenSocial RESTful API -- Programming fundamentals -- Sample applications -- Performance, scalability, and monetization -- OpenSocial templates, markup, and emerging technolgies Provides information on creating social network applications using OpenSocial.