Plings I/O – Preamble
This Friday will see the first @plings I/O since the Developer Day all those months ago at the @google UK offices. At last years developer day we spent loads of time talking about all the cool stuff we envisaged being able to do with the @plings Input API and Output API. This time around we are not only going to be thinking about the things we could make, but also sharing the learning from what has been developed so far.
The things I am going to be sharing with the other @plings techies who are attending include...
- The PlingsKit League
This was an small application I pulled together a few months back to collect statistical information across the authorities involved about how many activities had been put on @plings with aim of creating a league table. The table updates on a daily basis showing which authority is "top of the table". - Plings Selecta!
The Selecta is all about picking out the @plings that are relevant to you from whatever is going on in your area and then saving them to a new feed which you can use in your application. It's kind of a @plings sieve so you only get the bits you want. This is only version one and I am going to be doing some further work on this in the future so all feedback is welcomed! - Quality Mate
After reading a few blogs from the guys over at Substance about the quality of @plings that were coming in via the input API I quickly pulled together this very basic tool to analyse @plings across a given authority using a variety of different criteria. Again this is a first version and any feedback would be welcomed!
I'll also be sharing the PHP Library for the Output API - details of which you can find here in my previous blog post!
We're also going to be seeing an array of applications from other developers and companies who have been beavering away on the @plings project. Who knows, maybe we'll have a new app to share with you by the end of the day!
You can follow everything that goes on at Plings I/O on twitter by searching for the tag #plingsio.
As always, comments, ideas and anything else welcomed!
Plings Output API Library (PHP)
A few months back after having read a document that @timdavies had produced about making it easier for developers to work with the Plings Output API I decided to have a go at putting together a PHP library for doing just that.
I'm going to do a brief tutorial on how to use the library I've produced (along with some input from David C - especially his sort function!). You can download the library from here or you can go to the Google Code page. In the file you will get an example page which shows some of the functionality the library includes.
Let's begin at stage one, in your PHP file add the following code to include the library file.
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<?php
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include("plingsAPI.php");
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?>
Then you need to call the library. To do this you use the following code.
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<?php
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$feed = new plingsAPI;
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?>
You can use whatever variable you like to hold the library but in this case we are going to use $feed.
Now this is where it starts to get interesting! You'll either need to register for an API key by contacting the Plings team or use the development key which is "5A605302-FC5BC526-4473C6AB-B4D9009B-RQMKMLDM". Once you have your API key you declare it by adding the following to your file.
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<?php
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$feed->ApiKey = "5A605302-FC5BC526-4473C6AB-B4D9009B-RQMKMLDM";
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?>
Once you are at this stage you can start to add your variables to actually make your call happen. The library works in 7 modes which are...
- authority
- venue
- provider
- postcode
- town
- ward
- activity
For the purposes of this tutorial we are going to work on an authority query. To declare this you would use the following two lines of code, the first defines that you wish to use authority mode and the second selects the authority you want (a full list of authority codes can be found here).
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<?php
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$feed->ApiMode = "authority";
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$feed->LACode = "00EY";
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?>
All that is left now is to select the number of days you would like to return results for. In this tutorial we are going to look at the next 7 days. Add the code below to complete your variables!
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<?php
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$feed->NumDays = 7;
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?>
There are other variables written into the script however for the purposes of this basic tutorial I'm going to leave those out so as to just give you a start on the road to a Plings Output query.
The final bit of your file needs to include the following to complete the process!
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<?php
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$activities = $feed->getMyPlings();
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?>
In your $activities variable you now have the XML feed returned from Plings which you can manipulate in whatever way you see fit. There is also a function built into the library which allows you to display some basically formatted data. To include this add the code below.
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<?php
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foreach($activities->activities->activity as $activity){
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}
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?>
You should now have a fully functioning page displaying data from the Plings output API in a very simple format. Within the file you downloaded at the start of this tutorial there is an example file as well as another PHP function to sort your Plings XML, but that's another tutorial!
Good luck building something with Plings data and don't forget to share what you build with the @plings team and here too!
Connected Generation 2010
On Friday I attended the Connected Generation conference in Bristol organised by @timdavies and @katie_bacon (big thanks to them) to talk about the uses of social media when working with young people. I'm going to pull together some of my thoughts that came out of the day in this post.
One of the big talking points that came out of several of the sessions I attended was Facebook and the possible uses it presents, especially some really good input from @stevieflow and @andyxmas about the new Open Graph API which you can read about on Andy's blog!
There was a discussion surrounding how Connexions services could potentially use Facebook. One of the attendees explained that in his service Facebook had been used to contact young people with no destination for the September Guarantee to ask what they were planning on doing. A moderately heated discussion built up around the ethics behind this, should we be using Facebook as a tool to "stalk" young people who we can't otherwise contact? Maybe there is some mileage in doing consultation directly with young people about how they would feel if their local Connexions service contacted them over Facebook without warning or them "opting in" to engaging through social media?
Another brilliant suggestion which came out of the Facebook discussions is taking photos at events you are holding for young people and making them available on Facebook only to encourage young people to become "fans" of your organisation. This throws up issues surrounding consent for photos to be shared in this way and also possibly the implications for this media becoming "out of control" from both your organisations perspective and the young persons perspective.
I came away from Friday with a vast raft of ideas that I want to delve into a little deeper and hopefully as things develop I will be able to share the learning through this blog.
One statement that will really stick with me from the day is something which @jo_jo66 (Youth Worker in Gateshead Young Women's Outreach Project) said in her presentation - "online youth work is the most valuable tool I've used in a long long time" - Let's not forget that!