Upcoming.org module and other third party APIs

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gusaus's picture
Posted by gusaus on November 14, 2006 at 9:59pm

Here's the low-down on the upcoming.org integration module:

Per the developers description: The upcoming.org module enables you to import events and venues from upcoming.org and display them in a calendar using the event module. Upcoming.org is a website that helps you share and keep track of your events. Synchronizing (using upcoming.org as the master repository) is also supported. Additionally, this module exposes the upcoming.org REST API, making clients written to use it interoperable with Drupal. This makes it possible to build a whole network of websites sharing their events, all using a defined API.

robertDouglass adds: "What Stephan has done is nothing short of revolutionary; he has made it so that every Drupal site can be capable of doing the same thing as Upcoming. That means, we now have the same API they do, and we can share event information not only with Upcoming.org, but with other Drupal sites. Let your imagination run free."

It also looks like the module outputs the hCalendar microformat!

ProgrammableWeb shows some great mashups that are being built off the Upcoming, evdb/Eventful, and other event related APIs.

It seems like the great work started with upcoming.org module should open up some amazing possibilities to create some useful tools and services on top of Drupal.

Would love to hear from those more familiar regarding the development of the upcoming.org module and other types of third party API integration. Also wondering how it relates to the Calendar and Event modules as well as what's being laid out in Events 2.0.

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Comments

Upcoming org API = great untapped potential

Posted by robertDouglass on November 16, 2006 at 12:07pm
robertDouglass's picture

What is yet to emerge from the plethora of great APIs (Flickr, Upcoming, Digg, whatever), is the use of Drupal-Drupal communication based on those APIs. This is really disappointing. Using the UpcomingAPI module (assuming it is working and still compatible with the ever changing Upcoming API), one should be able to share events and venues between Drupal sites. It is a mystery to me why people don't do this. Likewise, the Flickr API. With libraries such as Phlickr (by Drupal's own Andrew Morton), one would think that Drupal-Drupal image sharing based on the Flickr API would be possible. Or uploading images to Drupal sites with Flickr's great desktop tools. Very disappointing that this hasn't happened.

There has been a little success with the Bloggar API, and of course Atom and RSS are in use, but I don't think that people really take the APIs seriously... at least they don't consider them a two-way street.

Seems pretty essential....

Posted by gusaus on November 17, 2006 at 12:04am
gusaus's picture

Appreciate the insight, Robert. Being a bit out of the loop, I'm quite surprised to hear that there hasn't been much excitement around hooking into these APIs and Drupal - Drupal communication. Seems like that type of functionality, and possibly better tools to create/integrate/output microformats (not much excitment around that, too?) would be pretty essential parts of any web2.0, social networking type application.

How to get more people interested and involved?
Possibly some of this functionality will be built into various distributions and install profiles? Maybe some mention and/or tips on how to create these things on the Lullabot website or podcast?

Multiple Drupal sites on this Mashup Matrix?? Sounds exciting to me!

Gus Austin

Microformats support in general

Posted by tanepiper on November 21, 2006 at 10:27am
tanepiper's picture

Thanks for the heads up on this group!

I'm starting to get really excited about microformats in general, but certainly hCalendar and hCard are the two main ones that I'd like to get in to Drupal. I'm currently working on a module, and would like input from anyone who feels they would like to see certain features added.

Off the bat, here are some of my ideas.

  • Allow each user profile to output to a hCard. This can then be embedded in any node that the user creates for hCard readers to index.
  • Be able to create an event in Drupal that will output to a hCalendar-formated node, and also be able to create a hCalendar stream so people can subscribe using an event aggregator
  • Allow users to tag an hCard to an hCalendar event so you can build up list of attendees
  • Support hResume so someone can put up their CV online, and add their hCard to this as their contact details
  • Add XFN to links and hCards to build up social networking structures
  • Support hReview for so people can review an item, website, event, etc. Again, the reviewer can tag their hCard for contact, and other hCards and hCalendar events that tie in with the review

I'd also like to see a microformat parser (such as the one you are suggesting) so people can add external events to their drupal calendar. A JS "viewer" that shows/hides microformats as well, so for example if I linked to gusaus on my site, rather than it being a link to his website, instead a hCard pops up showing details of this person, plus a link to the website.

Check out my Drupal and Microformats work at http://digitalspaghetti.me.uk/drupal5

http://digitalspaghetti.me.uk