Beginning Ning Customization

[rsrobbins]

Today I started the explore the Ning developer network documentation. I was not aware that Ning had an API or I would have experimented with it sooner. I managed to get three things done today:

1. Downloaded all the photos for a social network site in bulk. I used the sample PHP script to download photos to my hard drive. I encountered a script timeout so I had to edit my php.ini file to increase the script timeout. I tried this for videos but I think that only gives you the embed code and not the actual video files.

2. Ning is using the TrimPath JavaScript Template engine, JST. I was not familiar with this so I downloaded the single JavaScript file and tried the example script.

3. The Ning REST API JSON operations gave me the most trouble because they do not have a callback function. They are using the Dojo JavaScript library. In February I examined the Dojo JavaScript library but it did not interest me because it's file size is massive. Today I learned that you can pull the library from AOL's Content Delivery Network so you don't have to install it on your web site. Ning's sample code uses a dojo.io.bind() method which has been replaced by the dojo.xhrGet() method in the latest version of Dojo. Ning did not document which version they are using so I wasted a lot of time figuring out that problem.