Mixi's new platform feature: "Apps for Touch"

My name is Yoichiro Tanaka, I am in charge of the architect of mixi Platform. mixi is the most popular social networking service in Japan. We are happy to announce that a smart-phone platform has been launched on mixi Platform.

mixi Platform supports OpenSocial v0.8.1 and have executed applications for two devices “PC desktop” and “Japanese feature-phones” last year. The specification of our feature-phone platform has been proposed as the “OpenSocial WAP extension”, and this specification has been adopted by other platforms in Japan. If you would like to know more, please check the link below:


Recently, we have launched a new feature to mixi Platform. We call it “mixi apps for Touch”. The saturation level of smart-phones is currently increasing in Japan as many people already use the iPhone, and there are many release plans of smart-phones based on Android. Currently, 17 applications have already been launched as mixi apps for Touch, and these developers have attracted many users. The below image is the screenshot of one mixi application executed on the smart-phone. A single mixi application can support three devices -- PCs, feature-phones and smrt-phones at same time.


Figure 1. Screenshots of mixi apps for Touch

Basically, mixi apps for Touch is a Web browser based application and is not a native iPhone/Android application which you download from an application market/store. Technically, the view name of mixi apps for Touch is “touch”, and the value of the type attribute is specified as “url”. This definition is written in gadget spec file with definitions for other devices. The below image is the architecture to describe mixi apps for Touch.


Figure 2. Architecture of mixi apps for Touch

The application is executed in the iframe placed on mixi’s page. One of mixi app’s features is that the domain in the iframe is not mixi’s domain, and is of the developer’s server. Therefore, application developers can generate the contents on his/her server similarly to developing a general web site.

Developers need the OpenSocial RESTful API to use social data, and a 2-legged OAuth is adopted to the authorization mechanism. On the other hand, when developers want to use APIs (invitation, posting activity, and etc) with a user-flow (need to show Popup window), a JavaScript file provided by mixi Platform is loaded by using a script tag. The function written in the script file calls the function which exists on the parent frame, and the user-flow will be executed. Of course, Payment and Ad programs are available for monetization (the Payment API is based on OpenSocial Virtual Currency API).

We believe that our platform will be able to bring OpenSocial more scaling to many devices. For more information, please visit our developer’s site “mixi Developer Center”.

For more information, please visit the mixi Developer Center.


Posted on behalf of Yoichiro Tanaka, mixi, Inc., by Mark Weitzel, President, OpenSocial Foundation

OpenSocial 1.1 Published!

The OpenSocial Foundation is pleased to announce the community has approved the publication of version 1.1 of the specification.

In addition to general clarifications, this release now defines the API that enable gadgets to communicate with each other via a pub/sub mechanism. In addition to the API, the specification also defines metadata that an application can include that specifies the events it is able to publish and subscribe. This enables OpenSocial providers to leverage this metadata in tools and advanced container capability.

Using this new API and metadata, developers of OpenSocial applications (gadgets), can create highly interactive mashups where components are not just assembled on the glass, but integrated with each other. This capability is especially important in enterprise settings where OpenSocial is being increasingly utilized as key Internet technology.

Congratulations to the community on another great release!

Published by Mark Weitzel, President, OpenSocial Foundation

OpenSocial Meetup in RTP, North Carolina

The first Enterprise OpenSocial interop was last week with a number of participants testing container and gadget interoperability. One of the things we took away from the conversation was the need to reach out and engage a broader audience, including application developers who may not be as focused on Apache Shindig or the OpenSocial specification work.

In order to promote the standards work and share new features that are coming soon, a number of OpenSocial members have pulled together in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, to host our first OpenSocial RTP Meetup on November 30, 2010. Here are a few ideas to get the conversation going for the first meeting:

• An introduction to OpenSocial
• Getting started with Apache Shindig
• ActivityStreams integration with OpenSocial
• How to use the new Pub/Sub feature in OpenSocial 1.1

This is a B.Y.O.G event!! (Bring Your Own Gadgets) -- We'll try to do a test/interop session. This will be an informal gathering and we're open to topics, interests and questions, so please jump in and update the wiki page with your ideas. Please be sure to RSVP for the event so that we can get an accurate count.

Note: Because of spammers, we've had to turn off open registration to the OpenSocial wiki. If you need an ID, simply e-mail the coordinators or post a request on the OpenSocial Community group.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Posted on behalf of Andy Smith (IBM), by Mark Weitzel, President, OpenSocial Foundation