This morning I've been working out how to configure a SQLAlchemy mapper to enable me to store an XML blob to relational databases.  Storing the XML element is a bit of  hack right now; ultimately, I want to map all the relevant pieces of the XML to appropriate Python object attributes.  But until I figure that mapping out, I'm saving the XML so in theory I can avoid making yet another API call.

I think I may have found relevant examples to guide me.  SQLAlchemy comes with a set of examples:  see docs and code (v 0.6.1) -- specifically, the examples for serializing XML.  The first approach (using PickleType) is a simple and expedient approach, a good enough one to start with.   I'll come back to study the other ones.

My enthusiasm  for LinkedIn increased dramatically once I learned that LinkedIn had opened up its API to the public at large.  What is still unclear to me is how much the API allows one to get data in and out LinkedIn.   One of the best ways to find out:  dive in and see what we can learn.

In this post, I describe  some first steps you can take to learn to access the LinkedIn API  with Python (a favorite programming language of mine and many):

1. Get oriented by looking the main page for the API, which in this case, is  LinkedIn Developer Network.
2. You'll need a set of developer keys for each application, which you can get by registering an application.  You'll be asked to login with your LinkedIn user account email/password.  If you don't yet have a LinkedIn user account, sign up for one. (Using the API doesn't require a separate developer account.)
3. I found a few tricky bits in the registration process.   First of all, you're going to have remind yourself (or teach yourself for the first time) the basics of OAuth, an open protocol used by LinkedIn (and other websites) to authorize users.   (I won't attempt to provide such a tutorial here. A set of slides  from LinkedIn does a pretty good job of giving an overview of OAuth. ) The second tricky part was that I forgot whether OAuth could support desktop applications.  It turns out that you do get 3 options for the types of app you are registering: desktop, web, and mobile.  In my case, I registered that I was creating a desktop app.
4. When you are finished registering your application, you will get two important parameters for your app:  the OAuth (consumer) key and secret. You will need these two parameters for your Python application.
5. You can choose to work with the API directly at  the HTTP level protocol level or look for API libraries that wrap the protocol.  I searched for such a Python library, and found pylinkedin (a barebone but functional library), whose source you can get via mercurial by hg clone https://pylinkedin.googlecode.com/hg/ pylinkedin
6. Install the library using the usual python setup.py install.  pylinkedin was tested on Python 2.5 but so far, I've found it to work on Python 2.6. Note that the library requires that you have the  oauth Python library installed (available via svn at  http://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/code/python/
7. You will need to correct a small bug that I found in pylinkedin (around the parsing of companies) -- you'll need to edit the __init__.py file according to instructions I posted.

Now we're ready to run the following code, which will display the first and last name of your LinkedIn "connections" (the people in your immediate circle).  Remember that key and secret you got when you registered your application: plug them into the following program.  (Note that a browser window should open prompting you for your LinkedIn password.  You'll then have to enter a code that LinkedIn gives you to let the program access your LinkedIn data.)

# insert your application KEY and SECRET

API_KEY = "_FILL_IN_YOUR_KEY_"
SECRET_KEY = "_FILL_IN_YOUR_SECRET_"

import webbrowser

from linkedin import LinkedIn
li = LinkedIn(API_KEY, SECRET_KEY)

token = li.getRequestToken(None)

# prompt user in the web browser to login to LinkedIn and then enter a code that LinkedIn gives to the user

auth_url = li.getAuthorizeUrl(token)
webbrowser.open(auth_url)
validator = input("Enter token: ")
access_token=li.getAccessToken(token,validator)

# list all connections

connections = li.connections_api.getMyConnections(access_token)

print "number of connections: ", len(connections)
for c in connections:
    print c.firstname, " ", c.lastname

There are obviously improvements to make in this starter code -- but this should get us all on our way.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to LinkedIn for the API and to Max Lynch for pylinkedin, which made getting into the API much easier!

Yesterday, I was very pleased to read Ralph LeVan's review in Ariadne (Issue 57):

I can’t imagine a more comprehensive book on mashups. This book would make a great textbook for a class on the topic. If you are a developer of mashups, this book must be in your reference library. However, if you’re looking for a gentle introduction to the topic, it may be more than you want.

(Thanks to Lorcan Dempsey for pointing out the review to me.)

A little while ago, I also learned about a review on a German blogger: Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services. Buchrezension. Since I can't read German, I turned to Google Translate (Pro Web 2.0 mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services. Book reviews). From what I can glean, the review seems very positive.

The talk I gave recently at the Library of Congress on web 2.0 mashups might be of interest to you all. The recording of the talk is available now from the LC site:

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4346

I tried not to be to be too technical while working in some technical details on the side for those in audience who want to know more.

For those of you who have tried to download code for the book but haven't been able to find the download, there are currently two places you can download the code for the examples in the book. First, you can download it from mashupguide.net:

http://examples.mashupguide.net/ProWeb20MashupsCode.zip

Alternatively, you can go to Apress, the publisher. That is,

http://apress.com/book/downloadfile/3901

specifically,

http://apress.com/resource/bookfile/3901

(Beware that the mime-type of the page is not set correctly for the web server. You may need to right click on the link and choose "Save File As" or "Download Linked File As")

My apologies to my readers who have been inconvenienced by the usability problems of my web presence!

AIM announces winners of the Open AIM Developer Challenge. Some coverage:

• AOL Announces Open AIM Dev Contest Winners - ReadWriteWeb
• AOL gives out $100,000 in prizes to AIM plugin coders - Download Squad

OUseful Info: An OpenLibrary API Handshake With Yahoo Pipes cf my PW post (Open Library API: Cataloging 13 Million Books)

BTW, I just created a record in OpenLibrary for Pro Web 2.0 Mashups, my book.

I'm pleased to announce that my first book interview is now online: Working with Data Sources, part of Jon Udell's Interviews With Innovators. I was excited and a bit nervous talking to Jon over the phone, someone whose work I've admired for years. Undoubtedly, I was pleased with his take on my book:

The book is chock full of good examples. Even if you’re an experienced developer of mashups that involve Flickr, del.icio.us, Eventful, and the various mapping services, you’ll learn helpful strategies for using these services individually and in combination.

It turned out that we didn't end up talking that much about my book. The abstract of the interview captures how we did spend our time: "On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell asks Yee about teaching students how to work with existing data sources, and on ways to expand the supply of available sources."

Take a listen to the interview -- there's a lot of food for thought, especially because Jon provided tons of insight into the subject. I'll follow up tomorrow with my reflections on the interview, what I said, what Jon said, what I meant to say, and what there is to say with more time to ponder.

My book sighted at the UC Berkeley bookstore

Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee

This is the first time I actually saw my book at a in-real-life brick & mortar bookstore, specifically the UC Berkeley ASUC bookstore. Needless to say, I was pretty psyched!

Raymond Yee teachs Intro to Mashups at Mashup University

Originally uploaded by dberlind

Yesterday, I led two sessions at Mashup University (part of Mashup Camp #6), held in Mountain View, CA:

Mashup 101: Getting Oriented to the World of Mashups

This session will help you to understand what will be happening at Mashup University and Mashup Camp. We begin with a non-technical introduction to mashups and their applications and move towards a more technical discussion of how to create mashups and to make your data and services mashable.

and

Mashup 201: Slightly More Advanced Topics in Mashups

This talk surveys some cutting edge issues in the mashup arena, topics that will be (or should be!) discussed at Mashup Camp. The springboard for our conversation will be the question: How do we make mashups easier -- for both developers and enablers?

While I work on converting the book from QuarkXPress into HTML and XML, I've posted the text of book (in the form of pdfs).    For instance, you can now read the Introduction or Chapter 1 on "Learning from Mashups".