Queued: API Challenges

SitePen’s new Queued application works very well with the Netflix API, but the smoothness of this functionality was the result of a lot of research, and trial and error. In fact, this experience led me to propose that future project timelines should budget extra time when working with an unfamiliar API—and even more time when that API is brand new and untested. Netflix released one of the more exciting APIs in recent months and SitePen began to work with it right away. The Netflix team did great work on their API and they were also very helpful with us when we had questions or there was a bug on their end. I can imagine the challenges of setting up a (Netflix) REST API with an existing system and a large and complex library of items was not simple. Integration with the Netflix API presented its own set of challenges to us.

Continue reading

Introducing OAuth in DojoX

As web applications, services and mashups evolve, a perennial problem begins to assert itself—the issue of authorization (or in layman’s terms, making sure both application and service know who you are). A number of different approaches have been developed; one such approach is the OAuth specification, which is designed as a fool-proof way of validating requests.

Because of the growing popularity of the OAuth protocol, we’ve added support for it to the Dojo Toolkit in the form of dojox.io.OAuth—which can be used to sign any request made with the Dojo Toolkit’s various Ajax methods, including XHR, IFrame and Script transports.

Continue reading