kevinfarnham1's blog

The release of AOL Open Authentication (OpenAuth) was announced during a presentation by AOL's Kevin Lawver and Gregory Cypes at the Web 2.0 Expo. Kevin applied the OpenAuth APIs in developing the Ficlets.com site. At the Expo, he said the implementation of OpenAuth in Ficlets took less than an hour!

Here's an overview of OpenAuth:

• What it is: an API that empowers web sites and applications to authenticate AOL/AIM users
• What it does: uses AOL's identity based Open Services to provide personalized services to AOL/AIM users
• The Goal: to be able to build web apps in less time without maintaining your own Identity Management Systems

What's this all mean? Well, it boils down to this: if you implement OpenAuth on your web site, you immediately have authentication for the entire 100 Million or so AOL/AIM users. Anyone who has an AIM screen name can log into your site, and their credentials will be authenticated by OpenAuth. This eliminates the need for you to install or invent your own user database and authentication service, letting you focus on developing your core offering.

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is surely one of the core software components provided by AOL. AIM has a registered user base that is rapidly closing in on 100 Million users. The Open AIM API provides developers and startups with an opportunity to integrate access to their sites and applications for the entire AIM community. It's kind of like instantly signing up tens of millions of users -- a nice way to start out when you're deploying your new venture.

AOL regularly applies this business model. For example, everyone who has an AIM account now has an AOL OpenID account and an AIM Page.

More than a callable API, Boxely is actually a full-blown application development language which uses XML and Javascript as the interface to a rendering engine that performs the tasks denoted by the Boxely code. Boxely is similar in ways to Mozilla's XML User Interface Language (XUL).

While Boxely is still relatively new, it is already operational on millions of Windows PCs, since the standard AIM 6.x clients are built using Boxely. Customization of the AIM client's look and feel, or invention of an entirely new AIM client user interface, can be accomplished by applying the Boxely toolkit and the functions and features it provides.

The AOL Web AIM API provides capability to integrate AIM into Web pages. Web AIM is still a "beta" product, but its capability seems fairly well-developed at this point. The introduction to the Web AIM API at the developer.aim.com/webaim site defines Web AIM's chief benefits by saying the API lets you:

• Make it easy for your users to communicate with other AIM users directly on a web page without leaving the site
• Show your users a list of all of their buddies or buddies that are also members of your site
• Show information about your users such as Away Messages and AIM Profiles, right on a web page

One of the easiest ways to get started with Web AIM is to apply one of the pre-constructed AIM Whimsicals widgets. By adding just a few lines of code to your Web page (assuming you've already registered to obtain a Web AIM API key), you can activate:

The AOL Video Search Developer Center provides three different APIs for using AOL Video Search:

• XML API: delivers XML-formatted video search results that can be easily incorporated into your web pages.
• AJAX API: runs in the browser and lets client applications access video search results directly from JavaScript.
• Flash API: runs in Macromedia Flash and lets client applications access video search results directly from Flash.

The XML API was previously known as the "REST API" but the development team decided that "XML API" was a more correct designation because the API is not sufficiently "RESTful." The Flash API is new.

Userplane is unique among the AOL APIs in that it is a ready-made set of tools that online communities can easily integrate into their site with almost no programming required. For example, Ron Miller's recent article "Online Dating Site Finds a Match with Userplane IM" describes how the world's largest online dating site, PlentyofFish.com, applied Userplane's Webchat as its instant messaging solution, with very little effort, and with a highly favorable outcome.

Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) seems destined to take over telephony before long. Why do we need multiple networks that enable people to converse by voice? Of course, VOIP still has some problems, such as occasionally intermittent service. But, as the speed and reliability of the Internet increase, such problems should ultimately be overcome.

AIM Phoneline is unique among the current VOIP offerings in several ways. First, of course, it's integrated with AIM. If you have an AIM Phoneline phone number, and someone calls that number while you're logged into AIM, your AIM client instantly notifies you that you have an incoming call, providing you with options to answer the call (which of course works best if you have your microphone hooked up) or send it to your voice mail.

I recently received an email announcing that MapQuest has launched Advantage API Version 5.1. Before I became Managing Editor of the AOL Developer Community, I had no idea that MapQuest was an AOL property. I'm sure there are a lot of people who still are unaware of this.

You won't find a link to the MapQuest Advantage API on the AOL Developer Network APIs page. The Advantage API is MapQuest's business mapping solution. I'm sure you've seen it in action many times. Whenever you see a web site that offers a MapQuest maps, there's a good chance that you're seeing a solution from the MaqQuest Business Solutions team.

AIM Pages are not an "API" (application programming interface") in the way most developers normally think of APIs. You don't go to a documentation page and find a set of methods with input and output parameters. In fact, if you go to AIMPages.com you'll think you're visiting just another social networking site.

And yet, AIM Pages really are an API when you look at the manner in which they are constructed, the openness of the programming model. AIM Pages are constructed by application of the AOL ModuleT microformat, which was designed by AOL Developers Shawn Carnell, Joe Dzikiewicz, Kevin Lawver, and Paul Maneesilasan. ModuleT provides the opportunity for developers to write "modules" which can then be flexibly inserted into an AIM Page. A module is akin to a "widget" (a more well-known term today for components that can be inserted into a Web page).

WinAMP is among the lesser known AOL APIs, but it's clear that the project is active and work is ongoing. What's WinAmp? A media player -- essentially a music player for your Windows PC, that features a playlist editor, visualizations, skin options, color themes, etc.

So, what sets WinAmp apart from the mainstream MP3 players (Windows Media Player, Rhapsody, iTunes)? Well, if you're a developer, WinAmp belongs to you. You can't change anything about those other "interfaces" to your MP3 music. But WinAmp is entirely customizable. Hence, its inclusion on the AOL Developer Network APIs page.