BillDay.com » Site Stuff http://billday.com Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:59:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Off road mapping via OS RouteMapper and the Health Graph http://billday.com/2011/11/23/off-road-mapping-via-os-routemapper-and-the-health-graph/ http://billday.com/2011/11/23/off-road-mapping-via-os-routemapper-and-the-health-graph/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:44:13 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3843 Mark Kelsey (@freddy4th) is a doctor and a programmer with some great ideas for using the Health Graph (@healthgraphapi). This week we feature him and his first published Health Graph app, OS RouteMapper (@osroutemapper), in our ongoing series on Health Graph partners.

Bill Day: Please tell us about yourself and your company.

Mark Kelsey: I am a doctor by profession and an amateur self taught programmer. I have developed a number of web applications and software packages which we use within my medical practice and I now also work for a software company which develops clinical decision support software. Work on my Health Graph app OS RouteMapper is therefore a bit of a sideline at the moment, though with my medical background I have lots of ideas for how the Health Graph API could be used to help people manage their medical conditions.

BD: What’s the “elevator pitch” for why someone should use your app?

MK: OS RouteMapper allows people to view their Runkeeper activities on Ordnance Survey maps within the UK. These maps are world renowned for being very detailed and in particular provide excellent detail off road. They are therefore particularly useful for walkers, cyclists or runners who don’t stick to roads! Outside the UK, the app uses OpenStreetMaps Cycle Maps which in many areas are much more detailed than Google maps, again particularly useful off road.

BD: How did you get started using the Health Graph API?

MK: After using Runkeeper to track my cycling activities, I wanted to view my activities on more detailed maps so I could see where I’d been (I’m often cycling at night along dark tracks!) and plan where else to ride.

Before the Health Graph API was released, I developed a web site that would allow me to upload GPX files to show on an OS Map. When the Health Graph API was released it was a natural development to automatically get the activities off Runkeeper. I was surprised by how many people started using the app when I published it and when I saw that people from other countries were using it I added the support for OpenStreetMaps Cycle Maps. After seeing how easy it was to integrate with the Health Graph API, I have thought of lots of other ideas about how the data could be used in different ways.

BD: How has using the Health Graph benefited you?

MK: At the moment this is just a sideline for me but I think some of the ideas I have may have even greater appeal to lots of people and may become a commercial opportunity.

BD: Which portions of the Health Graph API do you use, and why?

MK: I mainly use the activities feed and in particular the path of each activity is used to plot the route on the map. The street team feed is also used to enable users to view street team members’ activities on the maps.

BD: What do you like about the Health Graph? What would you like to see changed?

MK: It is very easy to integrate with the Health Graph and the documentation is very clear, even for an amateur programmer like me! One addition I would appreciate is the ability to view the user’s saved routes as this is currently not available. I would also like to develop the ability for users to plan routes using my maps and save them back to the Runkeeper / HealthGraph site as a route.

BD: If you could request any crazy new feature from the Health Graph, what would it be? How would you use it?

MK: With my background as a doctor, I would really love to see some integration with clinical systems and devices so that users can see data (e.g. blood glucose measurements, BP readings, Weight readings etc.) that their doctor has on the clinical system, and they can see the effect of their exercise on their medical conditions. This could extend to things like blood glucose monitors so patients can automatically upload data. I think this kind of thing could really help telemedicine develop in the future.

BD: Can you share any future plans for your app? What’s coming next that your users will be excited about? Does the Health Graph play a role in that, and if so, how?

MK: In the immediate future, I am developing a way for users to compare their performance over parts of their routes i.e. split times, so that even if they don’t follow exactly the same route twice, they can compare their performance over the parts of the route that are the same. As stated above I have a number of other ideas that I think would work well with the Health Graph and build on it. I am hoping to develop these.

BD: Is there anything else we should know about you or your application?

MK: You can follow future developments on Twitter at @osroutemapper!

Cross-posted from the Health Graph blog.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/11/23/off-road-mapping-via-os-routemapper-and-the-health-graph/feed/ 0 Senior Web Developer position http://billday.com/2011/11/11/senior-web-developer-position/ http://billday.com/2011/11/11/senior-web-developer-position/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:23:45 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3819 Passing this along for Nick Berra at Inceed. Nick has a client needing two senior Java developers for short term contract-to-hire positions.

SENIOR WEB DEVELOPER

The successful candidate will be responsible for developing, testing, enhancing and maintaining Java/J2EE applications. This role will participate in the design, development and test phases of the application development lifecycle. This is a technical role which requires object-oriented programming skills, understanding of J2EE application architecture, XML and Web application security.

Responsibilities include:

  • Develop, test, debug and document web based Java/J2EE applications in accordance with system architecture requirements.
  • Apply industry standard object-oriented programming best practices and J2EE design patterns.
  • Plan, initiate and conduct unit testing of applications as well as facilitate system testing.
  • Support and troubleshoot production applications.
  • Understand system performance associated with the introduction of new technologies.
  • Strong problem solving skills; find solid solutions to complex problems quickly.
  • As a part of a project team, share technical and product knowledge with other team members.
  • Participate in technology/tools evaluation and software technical proof of concepts.

Qualifications:

  • Bachelors Degree in related field preferred, work experience may be substituted.
  • Java certification preferred.
  • 5+ years experience in a similar role preferably in a mid-size to large corporate environment.
  • Experience with Web Content Management Systems (WCMS) a plus.

Skills and knowledge:

  • Expert knowledge of Java (J2SE and J2EE), XML, HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, CSS, PL/SQL, and open source projects (Spring, Log4j, AJAX, Subversion, Ibatis, etc.).
  • Familiarity with J2EE design patterns, software architecture concepts and web application security.
  • Excellent object-oriented programming skills and strong analytical and design skills.
  • Strong interpersonal skills.
  • Must possess the ability to read and interpret technical specifications, use case scenarios, test cases, and software requirements.
  • Knowledge and understanding of relational database design and programming using Oracle 9i.
  • Strong written and oral communication skills.

Please tell Nick I sent you if you’re interested.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/11/11/senior-web-developer-position/feed/ 0 New content locations on X.com http://billday.com/2011/09/26/new-content-locations-on-x-com/ http://billday.com/2011/09/26/new-content-locations-on-x-com/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:10:46 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3628

By now you've probably noticed that PayPal has launched its reworked X.com site in anticipation of merging in the eBay and Magento developer sites in the near future.

All in all, this is a good thing.  But there are some issues that you, as a developer community member, should be aware of.  The biggest in my opinion is the fact that many content locations have now changed, and redirects are not in place for all of them to automagically transport you to the correct new location.

Here are a couple of examples I've bumped up against with my own writing and content:

First, my blog posts formerly appeared in the DevZone section at https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/devzone/blog with date strings included in their path; they are now located at https://www.x.com/developers/community/blogs/billday without any date strings.

For example, my July highlights post which was formerly at https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/devzone/blog/2011/08/04/summertime-and-the-highlights-are-easy is now at https://www.x.com/developers/community/blogs/billday/summertime-and-highlights-are-easy.

Second, my X.commerce articles were formerly published with URLs such as https://www.x.com/docs/ with a DOC number at the end, e.g. https://www.x.com/docs/DOC-3752 for the final part of my "Alternative Payment Systems" series.

Articles are now published at URLs beginning with https://www.x.com/content/, with the hyphenated article title appended. For the article above, for instance, the new location is https://www.x.com/content/alternative-payment-systems-part-6-comparing-options.

What should you do if you're looking for a particular piece of content and can't find it?  I'd suggest searching for the title of the missing item using the "search x.commerce ecosystem" search box in the upper right of X.com pages.  So far that's turned up everything I needed to find.

What other rough edges have you found in the site redesign?  Please give the X.com team your feedback by leaving a comment on the full X.com post.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/09/26/new-content-locations-on-x-com/feed/ 0 Notes from the week of 2011-09-25 http://billday.com/2011/09/25/notes-from-the-week-of-2011-09-25/ http://billday.com/2011/09/25/notes-from-the-week-of-2011-09-25/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 10:59:00 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/2011/09/25/notes-from-the-week-of-2011-09-25/

RunKeeper and the Health Graph API

PayPal X Platform

Big data

APIs and development

  • Researchers successfully hack SSL http://t.co/njh1f7vO (and use their trojan to decrypt a @PayPal authentication cookie, no less) #
  • How to supercharge your favorite web apps with If-This-Then-That http://t.co/buwzbqQQ (easier than it sounds) #
  • Note to self: Setup tweet-to-Google+ as soon as there's a G+ IfTTT channel supporting that action #
  • “Your API is not a website!” @apigee webinar video and slides http://t.co/NAthF352 #
  • "Thinking like a platform…helps your business prepare for disruptive forces you cannot possibly predict" http://t.co/V9MUOavK #

Personal things

Running

]]> http://billday.com/2011/09/25/notes-from-the-week-of-2011-09-25/feed/ 0 X.commerce Innovate conference speakers and tracks http://billday.com/2011/09/23/x-commerce-innovate-conference-speakers-and-tracks/ http://billday.com/2011/09/23/x-commerce-innovate-conference-speakers-and-tracks/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:10:45 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3624 We're less than one month away from the X.commerce Innovate Developer Conference and if you're attending, it's time to start sorting out which speakers you'd like to listen to and maybe meet and discuss your questions, issues, or problems with.

The conference schedule is available online (click here to access).  The main conference runs October 12th and 13th.  There is also a special developers-only "X dev camp" slated for October 14th; if interested, you need to apply for it when you register to attend the conference.

You can also access information on all of the speakers including the session speakers as well as keynoters.  For my money, the sessions are "where it's at", so I'm studying the session speaker pages carefully to figure out whose sessions I might want to attend.

Perhaps the best way currently available to navigate and plan your conference is to look at the speakers broken out by track (click here), then click on each of those speakers to learn more.  It would be even better if there were links from the speaker pages to detailed session information, but as of now that information appears to be MIA.

Honestly, I find myself wishing that Innovate had a conference attendee session planner akin to the one that O'Reilly uses for their conferences.  For example, see the "Customize Your Own Schedule" feature in their Android Open conference schedule page to see what I mean.  (Yes, I'll be attending Android Open the same week as Innovate, so both of their scheduling features are front-of-mind for me right now.)

Will you be attending Innovate?  What speakers look interesting to you if so?

Click here to read and leave comments on the complete post on X.com.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/09/23/x-commerce-innovate-conference-speakers-and-tracks/feed/ 0 Google+ API launches for public data http://billday.com/2011/09/20/google-api-launches-for-public-data/ http://billday.com/2011/09/20/google-api-launches-for-public-data/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:10:11 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3606 Google has launched the first iteration of their new Google+ API, and it's built on REST, JSON, and OAuth.

The new API was announced on the Google+ Platform blog thusly:

Google+ gives users full control over their information, supporting everything from intimate conversations with family to public showcases and debates. This initial API release is focused on public data only — it lets you read information that people have shared publicly on Google+.

The announcement provides several example API calls, including getting a user's public profile and retrieving their most recent public posts.  For more information on all of the API capabilities, click here to access the accompanying developer site including Google+ API documentation.

The announcement goes on to discuss how this first API release uses RESTful HTTP requests and JSON responses, standard payload formats, and OAuth 2 for secure access to user data such as which user is using the app.  It also links to libraries for languages including Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, and more.  Read the post for full details.

So what are developers saying about this first release?  Honestly, many aren't terribly impressed with the limited functionality available in this release.  Something's better than nothing, but by not allowing any access to information a user has marked as private to one or more of their Circles, Google has effectively neutered their API out of the gate.  It seems clear that a future release of the API must include access to Circles for the API to be viable long term.

What do you think about the Google+ API?  Useful web API goodness, or an irrelevant API for an also-ran social service? 

Please leave a comment on the complete X.com post with your thoughts.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/09/20/google-api-launches-for-public-data/feed/ 0 Magento resources http://billday.com/2011/08/21/magento-resources/ http://billday.com/2011/08/21/magento-resources/#comments Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:13:45 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3554

A few weeks ago I wrote about the announcement of the merger of the eBay, PayPal, and Magento developer platforms and communities under the X.commerce banner.  I followed that up with a post on eBay resources to help PayPal X community members get up to speed with eBay development.

Now that Magento’s officially a part of the X.commerce family, I think it’s time to share some resources to help everybody learn about Magento’s ecommerce solutions.

Here are some of the top level sites and information you should check out as you dive into Magento:

  • First, you may need information on what the Magento ecommerce platform enables.  Go to the Magento “Features” page for answers including a video introducing you to the Enterprise Edition’s features.  This page also links to information comparing the three editions (from the free, open source Community Edition up through the Enterprise Edition) and their pricing.
  • The Magento wiki contains links for detailed information on store setup as well as articles targeted both at designers and at developers.  I highly recommend spending some time reading through this material as you familiarize yourself with the system and how to use it.
  • The Magento forum is the place to go to get answers to any questions you don’t see addressed in the high level product FAQ or elsewhere on the Magento site.
  • Subscribe to the Magento blog for the latest official information.  Click here for the feed.
  • Get social with Magento via their @magento Twitter feed and Facebook page.

Click here to read the complete post on the PayPal X Developer Network and leave your own questions or Magento resource suggestions for other community members.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/08/21/magento-resources/feed/ 0 Bitcoin: Money without Governments http://billday.com/2011/08/18/bitcoin-money-without-governments/ http://billday.com/2011/08/18/bitcoin-money-without-governments/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 07:05:55 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3547 I recently completed a six part series examining alternative payment systems and comparing them to the PayPal X Platform. As I wrapped that up, I asked readers to weigh-in on which topic they’d like to read about next. I received votes for several topics on the list including a request for coverage of the eBay APIs (watch for more from me on that coming soon). But the one request that caught me off guard was for an article on Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a relatively new digital currency. But there’s much more to it when you dig a bit under the covers. Shall we?

What is Bitcoin?

Here’s the high level description of what Bitcoin is and provides from its Wikipedia page:

Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009, based mainly on a self-published paper by Satoshi Nakamoto. (It) enables rapid payments (and micropayments) at very low cost, and avoids the need for central authorities and issuers. Digitally signed transactions, with one node signing over some amount of the currency to another node, are broadcast to all nodes in a peer-to-peer network. A proof-of-work system is used as measurement against double-spending and initial currency distribution mechanism.

The Bitcoin site WeUseCoins.com provides a high level video overview of what Bitcoin is, how the coins are created, and what you can buy with them (click here if the YouTube video fails to load below).

For more detail, you can also watch a short Ignite presentation from the current Principal of the Bitcoin project, Gavin Andresen (@gavinandresen). Click here to watch Gavin’s presentation on YouTube if the embed below isn’t working for you.

You can get a feel for the frequency of Bitcoin transactions by watching them occur via the Bitcoin Monitor site.

Interested in the nitty gritty of how the system works? You can dig deeper by reading Nakamoto’s original “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” paper (click here for PDF). There is also a Bitcoin wiki with links to much more information, a FAQ, discussion forums, and developer information; click here to jump to the wiki. You can also link to more information on the Bitcoin project and community via Bitcoin.org.

One very important thing to note:

The Bitcoin system is based upon public-key cryptography. Without the crypto, you’d have no Bitcoin. Bitcoin being crypto-currency leads to some interesting properties, not the least of which is that it cannot be inflated by a central bank or governmental authority. This means that Bitcoins have commodity-like properties similar to gold and other precious metals.

Bitcoin’s being based upon public key cryptography also means that there are concerns about it being used for nefarious purposes. Governments and organizations interested in cryptography, money laundering, and cyber attacks are taking close looks at Bitcoin. We’ll discuss these issues more later.

Acquiring and storing Bitcoins

In order to use Bitcoins, you must first have a Bitcoin wallet.

You can either download a piece of wallet software to install on your computer (click here for links to download the official Windows, Mac, or Linux client or here to grab the source from GitHub) or use an online wallet. There are options for the latter listed on the “Getting Started with Bitcoin” page from WeUseCoins.

The official Windows wallet starts up like this (note that the provided Bitcoin Address has been removed from this screenshot):

Here’s an example online wallet, Instawallet, which creates a new wallet for you by default when you visit their homepage:

To continue using the same Instawallet in the future, you would need to bookmark the unique wallet URL assigned to you. The Instawallet site notes that you should only view this option as a “spare change” wallet, rather than store a large amount of Bitcoinage here.

Whether you choose to use a downloaded wallet or an online one, there are some potential gotchas to consider. If you lose your downloaded wallet, say through a system crash or theft, you also lose any coins stored in it. Likewise if you use an online wallet such as Instawallet and lose the URL or authentication information for that wallet, or the service provider disappears, or anything else keeps you from reaching your online wallet, you may also loose coins. So be sure you have a backup and security strategy in place to avoid any problems later.

Whichever approach you choose, once your wallet is ready you will have a new Bitcoin Address. You use this address to send and receive coins.

So how can you get some Bitcoins to try the system out? There are several options listed on the aforementioned “Getting Started with Bitcoin” page. But perhaps the easiest option is to use a free service from Gavin Andresen, Free Bitcoins. Gavin’s service will transfer a small amount of coinage (0.001 Bitcoin, or BTC, as I write this) for free to whatever receiving Bitcoin Address you specify. The only catch is that you do need a Google account (free to acquire if you don’t already have one).

For example, I entered my Google account information and Bitcoin Address for Instawallet into the Free Bitcoins “faucet” and it sent 0.001BTC my way.

After a little bit of time for the network communication and computations to happen in the background, the Bitcoinage appeared in my Instawallet.

There are a number of other ways you can add coins to your wallet. You can earn them, purchase them in a market (check out Bitcoin Charts for a view into the various markets and currency-to-Bitcoin purchases), and even buy them over the counter (OTC). Bitcoins can also be created via a process known as “mining“, but for most consumers and merchants interested in Bitcoins for commerce but not in becoming a mining business, the amount of computational horsepower required may be prohibitive (see this ZDNet article for more on mining).

Using and accepting Bitcoins

However you acquired your Bitcoins, once you have some you will probably want to start using them. There are a wide and growing variety of legitimate services and merchandise being sold today for Bitcoins. Visit the “Trade” page on the Bitcoin wiki to see a list of many of the available items.

What if you want to accept Bitcoins as a method of payment? The same wiki contains a Merchant Howto to help you get started. It provides information on both manually accepting Bitcoin and automating Bitcoin based purchases. And you can automate purchases via existing shopping cart solutions (for example a Magento Payment Gateway Plugin) or programmatically yourself using a JSON-RPC interface.

For more information on the Bitcoin ecosystem, I would recommend reading through the linked resources on Dave Mackey’s “A Bitcoin Primer“.

Threats and opportunities

As Bitcoin has gained somewhat wider acceptance and much wider visibility, criticism has been heaped upon it. There have been exchange data issues, threats against the system because of its use in black market purchases for illegal items such as drugs, and claimed heists of large sums of Bitcoinage. There has also been some incredible speculation which saw the value of 1 BTC, as expressed in US dollars, climb nearly 1000% in a single month earlier this year!

Things have gotten so heated in this space that even the CIA is studying up on Bitcoin. So what are the significant threats and opportunities for Bitcoin?

One major threat to Bitcoin’s longterm success is ease of use. Needing to have a working knowledge of “crypto-currency” and “peer-to-peer” may not turn off techies, but it certainly confuses a lot of other people. If people can’t understand Bitcoin, they won’t use it. If not many people use Bitcoin, it will continue to see non-sticky value jumps versus other currencies. And large swings in value lead to a further lack of confidence in any currency or commodity.

The opportunity inherent in this problem lies in making the Bitcoin system very easy to use. Implementers need to concentrate on bulletproof clients and merchant software if they hope to maximize Bitcoin uptake. And for goodness sake, hide the cryptography details and never use the acronym “p2p” in getting started guides and consumer-oriented documentation!

Another threat to Bitcoin’s viability is that it has in fact been used in certain high profile illicit markets. The opportunity here is for legitimate Bitcoin users and supporters to educate their governmental representatives on the many legitimate uses of Bitcoin. Just as with dollars or any other currency or commodity, Bitcoin is inherently neither good nor evil. But unlike the other more established value stores and means of commerce, Bitcoin is terribly new, and therefore poorly understood, which in some cases leads to fear. Education is the only way out of that.

Click here to read the complete article on the PayPal X Developer Network including discussion of the biggest potential impediment to Bitcoin’s long-term viability.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/08/18/bitcoin-money-without-governments/feed/ 1 X.commerce Android Apps the Easy Way, Part 2: Accessing Web APIs http://billday.com/2011/08/10/x-commerce-android-apps-the-easy-way-part-2-accessing-web-apis/ http://billday.com/2011/08/10/x-commerce-android-apps-the-easy-way-part-2-accessing-web-apis/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:15:54 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3522 This is the second installment in my series showing you how to use Google’s App Inventor for Android tool and eBay web APIs to build mobile commerce applications for Android-based devices.

The previous article introduced App Inventor, how to setup the software and start using it, how to share App Inventor projects and apps, and some of App Inventor’s limitations. If you don’t already have App Inventor installed, please revisit the previous article and work through the setup and testing steps so you are ready to follow along below.

This time, I will focus on the available App Inventor components and especially on how to access RESTful web APIs using the “Web” component. This will set you up to succeed with building an Android eBay commerce app in the final two articles of the series.

App Inventor components

Click here to access the full App Inventor reference documentation. This contains information on the various components you can select from in the App Inventor Designer as well as docs for the blocks available in the App Inventor Blocks Editor. (If you need a refresher on the Designer or the Editor, please refer to part 1 of this series.) The reference pages also discuss some of the key concepts to wrap your head around if you want to have smooth sailing in building Android apps with App Inventor.

For now, let’s focus on the available components. The reference pages break the components out into groups just as they are arranged in the Designer interface. The groups are:

It’s worth your time to at least skim through the various components so you can get a feel for what operations are possible and which components you would use to carry them out. For more information, you can refer to community submitted App Inventor tutorials on a variety of topics and sticking points by clicking here.

Now that you have a high level understanding of the various components available to you, let’s get started creating an app to interact with an example arbitrary web API using the “Web” component.

Creating app components

To start, launch App Inventor (click here or navigate to http://appinventor.googlelabs.com). Create a new project. I’ve called mine “Web_API_Example”.

Suppose that we want to build an Android application that asks its user to enter some location of interest. This may be a street address, a ZIP code, or something even more vague such as a landmark name. We’d like to enable the user to enter whatever location they like, then have our app query the freely available Yahoo PlaceFinder to attempt to geocode the given location and return useful location information about it. We can then display whatever information we want from the response, for instance the latitude and longitude coordinates. How would we build an app like that?

First note that in order to use PlaceFinder, you need to have a Yahoo Application ID. This is used to identify your application in caes of policy abuse or over usage and is a typical requirement of many web APIs these days. No problem, click here to create one.

Once you have your ID, you are ready to create your app. Drag a TextBox1 component into the Designer app screen for the location field, a Button1 to submit that location to PlaceFinder, a TableArrangement1 to contain the resulting latitude and longitude value and label components, and a Web component to submit the entered location to the PlaceFinder via HTTP GET. After renaming and changing some of the default values for the various components, our design might look something like this:

Web API calls

The PlaceFinder Guide details how to format your web API call. Be sure to read through the Requests page as well as the provided Examples. For our purposes, let’s specify a query with a JSON response (flags=J parameter) with a free form single line address. Note that we encode spaces in an address with the + (plus character). The format therefore would be:

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?flags=J&appid=yourappid&location=yourstreet,+yourcity,+otherlocationinfo

For instance, querying for PayPal’s San Jose offices at 2211 North 1st Street, San Jose, CA 95131 would be done with a query such as:

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?flags=J&appid=yourappid&location=2211+North+1st+Street,+San+Jose,+CA+95131

Submitting the above query with your valid Application ID in place of yourappid should result in the following JSON response from PlaceFinder:


{ "ResultSet" : { "Error" : 0,
      "ErrorMessage" : "No error",
      "Found" : 1,
      "Locale" : "us_US",
      "Quality" : 87,
      "Results" : [ { "city" : "San Jose",
            "country" : "United States",
            "countrycode" : "US",
            "county" : "Santa Clara County",
            "countycode" : "",
            "hash" : "92F01C6AC1A15F33",
            "house" : "2211",
            "latitude" : "37.377919",
            "line1" : "2211 N 1st St",
            "line2" : "San Jose, CA  95131-2021",
            "line3" : "",
            "line4" : "United States",
            "longitude" : "-121.921842",
            "name" : "",
            "neighborhood" : "",
            "offsetlat" : "37.377858",
            "offsetlon" : "-121.921980",
            "postal" : "95131-2021",
            "quality" : 87,
            "radius" : 500,
            "state" : "California",
            "statecode" : "CA",
            "street" : "N 1st St",
            "unit" : "",
            "unittype" : "",
            "uzip" : "95131",
            "woeid" : 12797582,
            "woetype" : 11,
            "xstreet" : ""
          } ],
      "version" : "1.0"
    } }

Likewise, you might submit a landmark name and country based query such as the following for the Eiffel Tower:

http://where.yahooapis.com/geocode?flags=J&appid=yourappid&location=eiffel+tower,+france

which would return a similarly structured JSON response as follows:


{ "ResultSet" : { "Error" : 0,
      "ErrorMessage" : "No error",
      "Found" : 1,
      "Locale" : "us_US",
      "Quality" : 90,
      "Results" : [ { "city" : "Paris",
            "country" : "France",
            "countrycode" : "FR",
            "county" : "Paris",
            "countycode" : "75",
            "hash" : "",
            "house" : "",
            "latitude" : "48.858189",
            "line1" : "Eiffel Tower",
            "line2" : "75007 Paris",
            "line3" : "",
            "line4" : "France",
            "longitude" : "2.294490",
            "name" : "Eiffel Tower",
            "neighborhood" : "",
            "offsetlat" : "48.858189",
            "offsetlon" : "2.294490",
            "postal" : "75007",
            "quality" : 90,
            "radius" : 100,
            "state" : "Ile-de-France",
            "statecode" : "",
            "street" : "",
            "unit" : "",
            "unittype" : "",
            "uzip" : "75007",
            "woeid" : 22907017,
            "woetype" : 20,
            "xstreet" : ""
          } ],
      "version" : "1.0"
    } }

You can do all sorts of things with the responses you get back from PlaceFinder. For our purposes, we merely want to display the location coordinates.

Wiring up blocks

It’s time to open the App Inventor Blocks Editor and hook up our app components. Launch the Editor from the upper right of the Designer interface. Once it loads you can begin hooking together your components’ methods and properties to be executed and set when certain events are generated during app execution.

First, we need to setup the chain that processes input. Select your button, then its Button.Click method. You can then drag in the Web.Url property and supporting components including Web.Get to generate and issue the web API call. Note that you need to use the Web.UriEncode method to encode the location input from the user so that it can be correctly appended to the web API call’s URL. When everything is wired up, the input portion of your app should look something like this (with yourappid replaced by your own ID, of course):

Now that we have our input wired together, we need to drag and wire up the logic to process and display the coordinates returned by the PlaceFinder web API.

For each of the latitude and longitude values, we use the JSON response content, along with a start and end tag from that content, to parse out the pertinent coordinate value. The values are then set via the lat and lon Label.Text properties.

Note how I define a new ParseJSONResponse component to handle the actual parsing. I also use a temporary text variable, tmpData, during parsing.

That’s it! We now have a complete, deployable Android application which queries a the Yahoo PlaceFinder web API and provides information back to the user based upon the user’s requested location. Not too bad, right?

Getting coordinates with our Android app

Now that the app is complete, let’s run it.

You can access and manipulate all of the source blocks from my project pictured above by downloading the project ZIP archive from GitHub (click here to download) and then selecting “More Actions” -> “Upload Source” in the main App Inventor window (see previous article for more on this process). The GitHub project is available from the “Downloads” button here: https://github.com/billday/App-Inventor-Web-Apps

Note: In order to execute the example, you will need to change the yourappid text in the input portion of the program logic in the Blocks Editor to be your own Yahoo Application ID as mentioned above.

You should spend some time working through the Designer and Editor until you thoroughly understand how and why the web API parsing and Android interface components used in this example work. You may also wish two review one of these two examples provided by other developers (I took inspiration from both as I prepared this article): Using the Web component to access Yahoo Finance stock information and the Google Books API.

If you fire up and connect to the emulator as discussed in the first installment in this series, you should now see:

Entering in a location and clicking the “Click to get coordinates” button should execute the call to the PlaceFinder web API and return lat/lon coordinates for the best match to the location you specify.

For instance, if you enter a location of “Eiffel Tower”, you should get back the following:

You can also download the example packaged as an Android application from GitHub: Click here to download the APK. You can run this directly on your own Android device so long as you have it configured to allow non-market apps.

Click here to read the complete article on the PayPal X Developer Network including some conclusions and information on what’s coming in the next part in the series.

]]> http://billday.com/2011/08/10/x-commerce-android-apps-the-easy-way-part-2-accessing-web-apis/feed/ 0 Senior Developer position in Denver http://billday.com/2011/08/09/senior-developer-position-in-denver/ http://billday.com/2011/08/09/senior-developer-position-in-denver/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:51:39 +0000 Bill Day http://billday.com/?p=3510 Also passing this along for talent scout Kelley Zwisler of Goldstone Partners:

Senior Developer (Mobile and Web)

A3 Media Network is an international company whose customers include the largest mobile companies around the world and customers of their app stores. We create mobile apps, TV apps and mobile websites that bring our huge library of videos and images from leading entertainment brands to cutting edge devices all around the world. We are expanding our team of APP DEV NINJAS to create a collection of the greatest apps that mankind has ever seen!

About the role:
Do you like to stay on top of the latest and greatest gadgets and software?
Are you passionate about working with digital media?
Do you love geekin’ out and getting paid for it?
Are you detail oriented, responsible, fun and interesting?
Do you like to play with the coolest new phones?
Would you like to see your creations come to life on them?

Get ready digital media master, the job you’ve been waiting for is here!!!

Here’s how you’ll be spending your days:

  • Developing and designing interface, coding and metadata handling for mobile applications, emerging application development platforms (tablets, connected TV, and beyond), and web sites across several platforms
  • Prototype design, functional mockups, interface design, content updates and site/app maintenance
  • Designing frameworks for products that work within mobile web browsers and can be adapted into smartphone apps
  • Monitoring app/site traffic and scaling site capacity to meet traffic demands and maintain site performance
  • Tracking traffic and conversion stats and adjusting sites to increase conversion and retention
  • Working with internal and external developers to create, implement and improve internal content management systems and site publishing tools
  • Select, edit, resize, rename, transcode and otherwise prepare media for mobile delivery
  • Providing time estimates and manage project timelines for site development
  • Staying on top of the state of the art in web design, mobile development, mobile delivery platforms and tools, and emerging new media platforms.
  • Providing quality control and testing of mobile sites across a variety of handsets and carriers

What you’ll bring to the table

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Programming or related Web discipline
  • Advanced and demonstrated competency in OO design/development
  • Sandbox experience with HTML5, jQuery, JSON, CSS3 (including transitions and animations)
  • Comfortable with open source language including PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, AJAX
  • Demonstrated ability to deliver rapid prototypes and fast turnaround on layouts and wireframes
  • Able to design, code and assemble an entire website from concept to delivery
  • Your tools of choice include: Phonegap, CouchDB, Objective C, Android SDK, Java, Blackberry SDK, WebOS, Windows Mobile, Qt, Symbian, mySQL, PHP, Flash and ActionScript
  • Experience creating Content Management Systems (CMS)
  • In your spare time you’ve developed a knack for desktop image editing tools (Photoshop, Image Ready, Illustrator) and video editing tools including Final Cut Pro

And finally what you’ll enjoy:

  • Competitive Salary
  • Nice package of benefits including health club subsidy
  • Exposure to the international media scene
  • A very cool team of new media gurus to hang out with
  • The opportunity to play with really cutting edge technology and get paid for it!

Goldstone Partners is helping this fast growing and very cool new media group find world-class talent that is shaping the next generation of consumer entertainment. Please send your resume to me personally at success@goldstonepartners.com. Principals only please. Unfortunately we are unable to support relocation or sponsorships at this time.

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