Google Gadget + OpenSocket = Facebook app

I converted my scifAI Google Gadget to a Facebook app via OpenSocket. It was a relatively painless procedure, though I did have to make allowances for the way Facebook rendered the app. Also, the code generated by OpenSocket still has some issues with the app's canvas height, so I also added the comments for a particular post just to use some of the extra space.

My pet peeve is that an iframe app in Facebook needs a "screenshot" that must be clicked before the app is activated. I don't know if this is a technical or business requirement, but it sure makes the end-user experience suck. I guess it's time to learn FBML.

Put it in your Facebook profile here or view the source code here.

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scifAI Google Gadget

In celebration of World Poetry Day (right...), I published my first Google Gadget, for scifAI. Here it is:

Drop this on any web page using the code generated here.

You can, of course, add this to your iGoogle page as well. Go ahead, you know you want to. ;-)

Source code is over here. (Smaller version here, code here.)

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Tumblr hack: Author's Notes via Google Docs

This is a very basic HOWTO on retrieving a particular item in a Google Docs spreadsheet from your blog (not necessarily Tumblr), something that I could have used a few days ago. I use this over at my scifaiku site to show author notes for particular posts. *

1. Create a new spreadsheet


2. Use the first row to label the fields


3. Enter some data


4. Publish the spreadsheet


5. Go to More publishing options


6. Select RSS from the File format dropdown


7. Click Generate URL and copy the resulting URL


8. Modify the URL from something like
   http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/
o<numbers>.<numbers>/od6/public/basic?alt=rss
   
   to something like (one line)
   
   http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/
o<numbers>.<numbers>/od6/public/basic?
alt=json-in-script&callback=notesLoaded&sq=postid%3D{PostID}
   
   where sq is a structured query (in this case, the postid field must be equal to the current Tumblr post id)
   


9. Create a JSON call using the above URL, and put this near </body> (one line):
   
<script src="http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/
o<numbers>.<numbers>/od6/public/basic?
alt=json-in-script&callback=notesLoaded&sq=postid%3D{PostID}" type="text/javascript"></script>



10. Specify an output location using a named div
    <div id="authnotes_load"></div>
    
    If you want a nice "loading" animation to put inside this div, get one from ajaxload.info
    


11. Write the callback handler:
    

    function notesLoaded(obj) {
      var notediv = document.getElementById('authnotes_load');
      if(typeof(obj['feed']['entry']) != 'undefined') {
         // 10 length of 'authnote: ', the first column
         var note = 
         obj['feed']['entry'][0]['content']['$t'].substring(10);
         notediv.innerHTML = "<p><span>author's notes :"
         +  "</span> " + note + "</p>";
      } else
        notediv.innerHTML = '';
    }

Adjust the above to taste. Enjoy!

You can see this in action here. A modified version is used at the main scifAI page ("42").

* Update: Deprecated in favor of just using Disqus comments.

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