Testing and Submitting Your Ning OpenSocial Application
Testing your Ning OpenSocial Application
Adding your Application
As an Application Developer, you can test your OpenSocial Applications on your network. Navigate to your profile page (My Page) on your network, and click the "Add Applications" link. This will take you to the Application Directory of your social network. While most members of a social network would usually click on the "Add to My Page" button, to verify that your OpenSocial Applicatoin is working correctly you can manually add a URL by navigating to the "Add Application by URL" page. In the text box, paste the URL of your Application XML file.
By default, all OpenSocial Applications will have caching enabled to ensure that all social networks on Ning are running at its speediest. That said, if you are actively developing an OpenSocial Application and would like to temporarily turn caching off, you can bypass the caching mechanism by adding "bpc=1" to the URL of the profile or canvas page that you're viewing.
Adding an Application by URL
Removing an Application by URL
Clicking on the Edit button of your OpenSocial Application brings up the following sub-menu:
You'll notice that there are two ways to remove a feature:
- Remove Application - Removing the application will mean that your OpenSocial Application will be completely removed from your profile; it will no longer be displayed in your profile page or in the My Added Applications page (the Canvas view.)
- Remove Box - Choosing the Remove Box option will have your OpenSocial Application no longer displayed in your profile page - however, the profile will still be displayed in the My Added Applications page (the Canvas view.)
Profile View
You'll be navigated back to your profile page, and your Application's Profile View should be displayed at the bottom of the center column.
Canvas View
Click the 'View Application' link to navigate to your Application's Canvas View.
About View
When viewing the Canvas View of an application you do not have installed, you can click the 'About this Application' link to navigate to the About View for that application. From a developer standpoint, the About View page of an OpenSocial Application is generated by taking the title, description and screenshot image attributes of the OpenSocial XML file, located in the <ModulePrefs> tag.
Submitting your Application to the Ning Application Directory
To submit your OpenSocial Application to the Ning OpenSocial Application Directory, log in to the Ning Developer Network (http://developer.ning.com) and click on "Create an Application" on the main page, or choose "Submissions" from the navigation menu. From there, enter the XML file of your OpenSocial Application.
The <ModulePrefs> tag of your XML file MUST have the following attributes filled out for an OpenSocial Application to be considered for the Directory:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| title | The title of your OpenSocial Application |
| description | The string that describes the OpenSocial Application. This description appears in About View of an Application page. |
| thumbnail | URL of the Application thumbnail. This must be an 120x60 image of a piece of logo or branding of your application or your company. The image should also be on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. |
| screenshot | URL of the Application screenshot. This must be an image on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. Screenshots should be 280 pixels wide, with a maximum width of 502 pixels wide. The height of the screenshot should be the "natural" height of the gadget when it's in use, with a maximum height of 1000px. |
Once you have added the URL, your Application will be in one of the following states, listed below.
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Saved | An Application receives this state once you successfully add the URL of your XML File. Select a Category that best matches your application, and click 'Submit for Review'. Categories are chosen from a select box of the following values: Dating, Events, Food & Drink, Fun, Games, Messaging, Music, Movies & TV, News, Photos, Politics, Professional, School, Sports, Travel, Video. (This category is required.) Upon succesful submission, your application will be in a "Pending" state. |
| Pending | Once the Application is submitted and all required fields have been filed, the Application is in a "Pending" state given approval from a member of the Ning Team. From there, the Application will be either "Active" or "Rejected," and an e-mail will be sent to the email address they used to login to the Ning Developer Network. |
| Active | An "Active" Application indicates that the Application is in the Directory. Once in this state, Application Developers have the ability to delete or take their Applications offline. |
| Rejected | A "Rejected" Application indicates that the Application was rejected. Any additional notes will also be included with the status message. |
| Removed | A "Removed" Application indicates that an Application that was previously in the Directory has since been removed. Any additional notes will also be included with the status message. |
- Terminology and Anatomy of an Ning OpenSocial Application
- Ning OpenSocial Application Tutorials
- Testing and Submitting Your Ning OpenSocial Application
- OpenSocial Best Practices, Known Issues & Other Resources
- OpenSocial APIs Supported by Ning
Last updated by Ernie H. Dec. 2, 2008.
© 2009 Created by Ning Developer Admin
