Web Development

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Elastic Path raises $8 milloon for Commerce Everywhere API platform. Keek launches API program. Plus: automating the connections between humans and machines in the API economy, Nuvo releases new API for wireless audio system, and 15 new APIs. Elastic Path’s Commerce Everywhere API Platform Raises $8 Million Elastic Path is pursuing e-commerce with a difference. Rather than simply offer shopping carts on websites, it’s using APIs to bring digital purchasing into new experiences. Examples include making it possible for telecom companies to offer voice and data packages to customers traveling out of the country, a loyalty company that enables customers to buy items at a store they are in, not just a catalog, and an in-app purchase while reading a digital magazine, all without leaving the reading material that the customer is viewing. Now, it’s raised $8 million, which Alex Williams of Techcrunch notes, is fueling Elastic Path’s API focus: “Elastic Path is betting its future on the concept of the API Economy — this idea that the world is connecting deeper through APIs, which is in turn creating a new form of commerce that is built on a deep distribution network.” What’s driving their business are four key principles: craft the customer’s digital experience (as in the examples above); contextualize the purchasing experience so that it works well and makes sense on the device the customer is using; bring your offerings to market faster; and by using Elastic Path’s open API, make future growth through collaborations and acquisitions easy. Keek Launches New API Program and Developer Portal When you think of Keek, think the video equivalent of Twitter. Users post videos that seem for the most part to be under 1 minute long, about nothing in particular. That’s how Twitter started out, with little useful content before migrating to include incisive commentary and links that today many of us find vital. The API documentation reviews the standard issues of authentication, rate limiting, API commands, objects and return codes. API News You Shouldn’t Miss NuVo Releases API for New Wireless Audio System and Upgrades Wireless Player’s App to Allow Embedding Within Third-Party Control Apps Twitter API v1.1 with JSON and OAuth1.0a Support Keek Unveils New API Program; Launches Developer Portal Elastic Path Raises $8M For Commerce Everywhere API Platform Speed And Automating The Connections Between Humans And Machines In The API Economy 15 New APIs Today we had 15 new APIs added to our API directory including an application engagement service, a german parliamentary proceedings service, a public works maintenance issue reporting service, a domain and hosting wholesaler service and a business data visualization and analytics service. Below are more details on each of these new APIs. AppSocially API: AppSocially is a service for making applications engaging and viral. AppSocially helps application developers and companies engage with their users and understand their needs and wants. The AppSocially API allows developers to access and integrate the functionality of AppSocially with other applications. The API allows for metric and data tracking of user activity and application virality. BundesTagger API: The BundesTagger is an unofficial open government website exposing the plenary proceedings of the Bundestag, Germany’s national parliament. The BundesTagger API provides developer access to Bundestag parliamentary groups, sessions, speeches and other resources. This RESTful API supports HTTP GET calls and returns XML or JSON formatted responses. JSONP is supported for callbacks. City of Helsinki Issue Reporting API: The City of Helsinki in Finland provides the Issue Reporting API to let people send service requests to the city government regarding things like broken street signs and potholes. These issues are typically handled by the Public Works Department. In the future, other i

At its very core, Framebase constitutes an API for video. The Framebase API enables developers to easily add video to an application without the hassles that usually accompany video. Whether an app needs to record, play, or upload a video; Framebase empowers apps with attractive video capabilities. The Framebase team created Framebase purely out of personal frustration with adding and maintaining video within other apps. Accordingly the team created Framebase: “Framebase is programmatic video.” Framebase launched with the goal to eliminate the need to hire extra headcount and development talent dedicated to video. Framebase wants app developers to focus on their core app functionality and empower developers to add video with just two lines of code. Not only is Framebase flexible from a developer’s standpoint (e.g. cross-format, cross-device, etc.), Framebase also provides helpful metrics to measure a video’s success (e.g. analytics, CTA, social exports). The Framebase API uses REST protocol and returns calls in a JSON data format. Uploading videos is a simple POST request. Recording and playing videos are accomplished through straightforward GET requests. For more information, or to try out the API visit the API Docs. Web and app-based video is quickly changing the way our world works and plays. Sites and apps without video capacity are less attractive to prospective users and less likely to retain attention. Framebase offers ubiquitous access to video. Framebase has solved an ongoing problem in app development that previously prevented cheap, easy access to video. Sponsored byRelated ProgrammableWeb Resources Framebase API Profile

You’ve just created the best user experience ever. You had the idea. You sketched it out. You started to build it. Except you’re already in trouble, because you’ve forgotten something: the copy. Specifically, the microcopy. Microcopy is the text we don’t talk about very often. It’s the label on a form field, a tiny piece of instructional text, or the words on a button. It’s the little text that can make or break your user experience. If you think you’ve built the best user experience but didn’t make sure the microcopy was spot on, then you haven’t built the best user experience. With the adoption of agile development and lean UX, we’re often concerned about racing through iterations and getting our products in front of customers. But we can’t forget that design is still about words. Everyone frets about marketing copy — and they should — but communication doesn’t stop once you’ve sold the user. In some ways, you could argue that words become more important once the marketing experience is done. With most products, users have to be sold to only once — or once in a while — and then they’ll use the core product all the time. If your microcopy isn’t getting the job done, you’ll lose users — and all the marketing in the world might not get you a second chance. With that in mind, here are five ways to make sure your website’s microcopy doesn’t end up sinking your UX. 1. Get Out Of Your Own Head And Get To Know The User. I’m willing to bet that your experience is plastered with internal terminology, especially your labels and navigation. Every company has its own language, which often sneaks onto the website when we’re not careful. Don’t let it happen. Never assume that what works for you will work for the user. Here’s a simple way to check whether your microcopy is too internal — or confusing, for that matter. Let’s assume that you’re running some form of usability testing. (If you’re not, there’s only about a thousand articles out there that will convince you you’re making a mistake, so you don’t need me for that.) When you’re testing, you probably get caught up in watching how the user interacts with your website and their facial expressions. But instead of simply watching, make a point to really listen to — and take notes on — the actual words the user says during testing. Listen closely to the phrases they utter when describing their actions. After all, you’ve told them to think out loud. Listen to the inflection in their voice as they read microcopy: Did they say that label or term with a question in their voice? Don’t hesitate to have your moderator follow up on copy. Have them go back and ask the user whether they’ve understood that label. Take it a step further: Listen to what users say from the moment they walk in the building. Listen to their banter with the moderator, the jokes they make and the words they use to express their frustration or enjoyment. You’d be surprised by what you can learn about a user and their language set from a comment they make about a cup of coffee. Everything someone says tells you something about them and can inform your copywriting process. 2. The User Is A Person. Talk To Them Like One. Because brevity is essential on the Web, most of us tend to truncate everything — particularly labels. Labels are great for design. They organize and keep tidy essential parts of a UI, such as navigation and forms. Unfortunately, labels have an inherent problem: They’re easily subject to a user’s personal context because they don’t provide explanation. They’re on an island in the user’s mind. Not too long ago, we encountered this problem with a label at TheLadders. TheLadders is a job-matching service. Like any matching service, we required information to match a user with the right job. We thought this form was very clear. “Job Goals” is the label we’ve used for our matching criteria for almost 10 years. It’s brief, which helped to keep the navigation ne

The United States’ White House has developed a set of API standards they are hoping will be used across all government agencies. The standards were developed following a number of API releases, including the White House’s We The People API that allows citizen petition collection and lodgement. The new API standards document naming conventions, minimum requirements, and best practices for RESTful interfaces, while also acknowledging the importance of offering a “positive developer experience” through their API releases. The standards have been published to github. White House staffers are hoping other government agencies will copy and personalise the standards to fit their API releases. Gray Brooks, senior API strategist at the White House’s General Services Administration told FierceMobileGovernment: “As someone working with agencies on APIs, I would encourage agencies to basically take this and use it as is. I think that it’s a really good precedent that’s worth following.” Feedback from the open source community may lead to a later revision of the standards – with the White House’s API rules in one section and a second section introduced to document best practice ideals. For now, however, as the standards are already influencing the White House’s API development and have given rise to a number of unresolved pull requests and suggestions, the focus is on cementing the current version. The standards are based on API work by Brian Mulloy, from Apigee, a drupal conference presentation, and a doctorate dissertation by Roy Fielding on RESTful architecture. Some of the standards include: Placing the API version number in the URL Using plural nouns when identifying a resource in a URL That error handling should include an HTTP status code, a message for the developer, a message for the end user, internal error code and links to more information. Sponsored byRelated ProgrammableWeb Resources We the People API Profile

Attending a Twitter Chat is akin to attending an online cocktail party. It happens when a lot of people, all using the same hashtags, Tweet on the same topic. The chats happen at a scheduled time and often repeat every week or biweekly. The events have become a popular tool for social media managers wanting to build their brand. One of the issues with Twitter Chat, however, is that large chats can sometimes be hard to follow from your own Twitter timeline. That’s where Twubs steps in. The hashtag chat company provides a central hub, or “Twub,” where tweets, pics and videos are streamed into a single branded page, making it easier to follow the thread of conversations. Now, the platform has launched a free Twitter API compliant chat tool. The API was built within Twitter’s new API guidelines, which means it won’t going the route of a few other programs. With Twubs Twitter Chat Tools, chat organizers can create a public branded homepage for their Twitter Chat. Once a chat is created, its organizers can add the chat to a global calendar, making it easier for new users to see what chats are coming up and join in a conversation. In addition, the platform separates host messages from the regular feed, so participants can easily follow the conversation. The service also includes spam and abuse blocking, search engine optimization, branding, and another other features to support social media managers. An intuitive interface appeals to both the novice and more experienced Twitter user. Those entering a conversation late, can get up to speed by viewing the host’s Tweets in a separate area above the feed. The company says its infrastructure, which is built on the Amazon Web Services cloud, is designed to withstand traffic spikes that are common to Twitter Chats. “This is only the beginning,” said Tony Ferraro, president and CEO of Twubs.com. “We will continue to develop our solution by adding features that will make Twitter Chats even more compelling.” Sponsored by

Quick: name that huge search engine you use a lot that starts with G but isn’t…Google. (Hint: it’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony.) Right. It’s Gracenote, the folks who help you identify all those tracks in your music library. Okay, it’s not exactly a search engine in the conventional sense. But it does have 130 million tracks and TV listings across 28 countries. And it handles 15 billion queries a month. We’ve covered Gracenote’s earlier APIs in a previous column. Now, Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen in Streaming media reports the company is releasing new APIs during the TVOT Hackathon in San Francisco June 22. The Hackathon, hosted by Gracenote and others, offers a $2,000 prize for the best hack using the Gracenote API. The two video APIs are Gracenote Entourage and the smartly named Gracenote eyeQ. The latter is “an Interactive Program Guide (IPG) featuring local, national and international TV listings, as well rich program-related photos and imagery.” Entourage is an automatic content recognition (ACR) platform that unlocks second screen experiences as well as identifies video content by “listening” to a few seconds of the video. Sponsored byRelated ProgrammableWeb Resources Gracenote API Profile

In Tech Digest, Geral Lynch suggests that Apple’s move to support made for iPhone and iPad (MFi) consoles and controllers with an API in iOS 7 is a game changer. Does it spell doom for Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s Wii U? Although not official, it certainly seems correct that Apple’s support for third party controllers that are made for idevices like the iPhone and iPad is in the offing, as chatter and the graphic below, courtesy of Appleinsider, suggests. Apple’s track record of disrupting markets certainly supports Lynch’s prediction. From Research in Motion Jim Balsillie scoffing at a phone without a keyboard way back in 2007, only to his Blackberry business destroyed, to Microsoft’s Bill Gates saying that Apple’s OS would never threaten Windows, (among many examples), the iOS 7 API looks to herald Apple’s reinvention of another large industry. Source: Apple's Developer Portal via Appleinsider But let’s take a closer look. Apple’s efforts aren’t always game changers. How’s the iBookstore doing? It remains in third place behind Kindle and Nook. (And, unbelievably, Apple’s ebooks still aren’t available on the Mac and won’t be until the next version of its iOS ships later this fall. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Kindle books have been on the Mac for years.) Apple provides free software that can produce beautiful interactive multi-media books that are light years ahead of what you can do on a Kindle or Nook. But it may turn out that multimedia books will, regardless of their growth, fail to disrupt the long standing words-and-photo tomes that we see in print and now e-book form. The book may be losing its trees to inhabit a new electronic forest, but there’s little evidence that the age-old habit of curling up with the written word, sans interactivity, is under any threat. How about Apple TV? It’s an area of “intense interest,” CEO Tim Cook says, elevating the focus from “a hobby” back in Steve Jobs’s day. But so far it’s been years since Apple TV was released, with no disruptive effect. How about Apple’s video content on iTunes? Apple smashed competitors in the retail music business who insisted that the subscription model would win. But in TV and movies, Apple  looks ill-suited to take on Amazon’s $79 a year subscription (with free shipping on its merchandise). Because of its allergy to subscriptions, Apple has also failed to dent Netflix’s universe. What does this mixed track record of disruption tell us about whether game consoles for the iWorld are a threat to current game boxes? The heart of the answer may lie in the API, as Lynch suggests: “On the surface it doesn’t sound like a major deal – we’ve already had iOS gamepads from the likes of iCade and Ion. However, without any standardised API blueprint to work against, games developers had to put the effort in to optimising their titles for each manufacturer’s unique hardware control system. For many games devs, it just wasn’t worth the extra hassle to add support for a controller that only a few thousand people (at best) may own, especially when the iPhone and iPad’s touch controls worked out fine. But with the introduction of a standardised API, whatever Apple-certified gamepad you buy going forward from the release of iOS 7 will adhere to a unified design, a single system that any game dev can easily add support for.” Still, Apple’s competitors in the gaming field are huge: Playstation 2 alone has an impressive 155 million users. But, Lynch counters, iOS devices have shot past 500 million users. Besides, installed base hasn’t turned out to be the advantage it was once thought to be. Think of Apple’s advance despite Windows’ huge installed base. Linux has also advanced. I think a different factor may decide Ap

For this showcase, again we used the DMXzone Bootstrap for the responsive one page scrollable layout and the DMXzone Bootstrap Elements for the content that features: list, table, headings, text and forms.

Very similar to our One Page Scrollable Template is today's showcase, where we offer a one page scrollable, fully responsive layout, completely designed with DMXzone Bootstrap and its Elements add-on. The content is made with headings and text elements, as well as images with circle styling. Also we used table, list and form. Check out this beautiful showcase below and get the DMXzone Bootstrap Elements with a discount as the special offer ends on Wednesday!