MySpace Developer Platform

OpenSocial State of the Union on May 12th

Chris Cole — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:25:00 GMT

It's hard to believe another year has passed. As such, it's time for another State of the Union for OpenSocial. OpenSocial has grown and changed quite a bit over the last year. No longer is it just a platform for a few social networks to allow third-party games. OpenSocial has continued to evolve into uses as a general purpose integration framework. It's seen broad adoption in the Enterprise by the likes of IBM, Oracle, Jive Software, and many others. Myspace has also open sourced large pieces of our OpenSocial platform as Project Negroni.

Come join us and many others at the OpenSocial State of the Union on May 12th (just after Google IO). It's going to be held at the Google San Francisco office. Looking forward to seeing you there. Register for OpenSocial SOTU

Updated OpenSocial Activities API

Alex — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:53:00 GMT

What are your friends up to?

We're helping people answer that question with an upgrade of the OpenSocial Activities endpoint! You can use it to retrieve what you’ve been up to, what your friends have been up to, or even just limit it to certain activities, like the songs people are sharing.

This RESTful endpoint allows you to get rich data associated with each activity with the amount of detail you desire, whether only the activity title or complete details. The activity data is structured according to the ActivityStrea.ms standard, in addition to containing Myspace-specific properties.

With this release the Activities endpoint now returns all activity types and supports filtering for specific types of activities. As before the endpoint allows you to get metadata about the fields, activity types, and object types that are supported.

Current app developers: If your app currently uses the OpenSocial Activities endpoint, no code changes are required. Your app will automatically get the new data exactly as before.

All developers: An example is shown below and detailed documentation is available at http://wiki.developer.myspace.com/index.php?title=OpenSocial_v0.9_Activities

Here’s an example of activities of friends seen on a user’s page:

For example, to retrieve activities of friends, HTTP GET to http://api.myspace.com/1.0/activities/@me/@friends

The JSON response that corresponds to the last activity is shown below:
{
"activity": {
   "actor": {
     "id": "tag:myspace.com,2009:/Person/447833258",
     "links": [
   "http://www.myspace.com/test76a"
],
     "objectTypes": [
       "http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/person"
],
     "title": "Test Test"
},
   "body": "<time><a href=\"http://www.myspace.com/test76a/stream/activity/634359632849731747/ShareItem/447833258/353681684\"> 3 mins ago </a></time><aside> <replacement name=\"miniProfile\" size=\"Post\" userId=\"447833258\" /></aside><section class=\"postItem share\"> <h5><a href=\"http://www.myspace.com/test76a\">Test Test</a></h5><p>I want one of everything!</p><article class=\"media\"> <aside>              <a href=\"http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LklMb3ZlU3VtbWVySG91c2UuY29t\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"> <img alt=\"Summer House Design\" src=\"https://store-54c85.mybigcommerce.com/product_images/uploaded_images/2011.2window.jpg?rand=0.8571769161815189\">                         </a> </aside>    <section><p><a href=\"http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LklMb3ZlU3VtbWVySG91c2UuY29t\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Summer House Design</a> </p><p class=\"meta\">via <a href=\"http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmlsb3Zlc3VtbWVyaG91c2UuY29t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">ilovesummerhouse.com</a></p>     <p>Welcome to Summer House Design! We carry an awesome and eclectic collection of homewares, personal accessories, local products, kitchen, tabletop and desk accoutrements, swingin' CD's and amusing books.</p>        <p><a class=\"more\" href=\"http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LklMb3ZlU3VtbWVySG91c2UuY29t\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">See more</a></p>        </section></article></section>",
   "externalId": "353681684",
   "id": "myspace.com.activity.tag:myspace.com,2009:/MySpace/Unknown/Bookmark/353681684",
   "links": [
     "http://www.ILoveSummerHouse.com"
],
   "msActivityId": "634359632849731747.118.447833258.0.353681684",
   "msActivityType": "ShareItem",
   "msPerson": {
     "displayName": "test76a",
     "id": "myspace.com.person.447833258",
     "msUserType": "RegularUser",
     "name": {
       "familyName": "Test",
       "givenName": "Test"
},
     "profileUrl": "http://www.myspace.com/test76a",
     "thumbnailUrl": "http://a2.l3-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/136/7c84811ead3b43f69ba5b813139a89ac/s.png"
},
   "numComments": "0",
   "objects": [
{
       "detail": "Welcome to Summer House Design! We carry an awesome and eclectic collection of homewares, personal accessories, local products, kitchen, tabletop and desk accoutrements, swingin' CD's and amusing books.",
       "id": "353681684",
       "links": [
         "http://www.ILoveSummerHouse.com"
    ],
       "objectTypes": [
         "http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/bookmark"
    ],
       "title": "Summer House Design"
}
],
   "postedTime": "2011-03-17T19:54:44Z",
   "source": {
     "detail": "Welcome to Summer House Design! We carry an awesome and eclectic collection of homewares, personal accessories, local products, kitchen, tabletop and desk accoutrements, swingin' CD's and amusing books.",
     "id": "353681684",
     "links": [
       "http://www.ILoveSummerHouse.com"
],
"objectTypes": [
       "http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/bookmark"
],
     "title": "Summer House Design"
},
   "title": "Test Test I want one of everything!",
   "url": "http://www.myspace.com/test76a",
   "userId": "myspace.com.person.447833258",
   "verbs": [
     "http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/share"
]
}
},

Enjoy!
Alex D’Angelo, on behalf of the Myspace Developer Platform team.

Follow-Up: "Protecting Myspace User IDs" Implementation

Donny Mack (DM) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 22:22:00 GMT

We are preparing to roll out our implementation of encrypted user id’s announced in late December: Protecting Myspace User IDs

This will affect ALL IFRAME based applications.

The two easiest solutions are to either grab the Opensocial token from the IFRAME URL and make a call to: http://api.myspace.com/1.0/people/@me/@self?opensocial_token= or the decryption method outlined in the previous blog post: Protecting Myspace User IDs

This will be permanently enabled in 30 days. Please have your code adjusted no later than Monday, April 18th, 2011.

Simplified off-site login with Myspace ID

Chris Cole — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:52:00 GMT

We're always moving to bring more value and improve the experience of working with the Myspace Developer Platform to you, our developers. As we've upgraded our APIs to support OAuth 2.0 we've also been looking at the experience of developing experiences that leverage the Myspace platform outside the walls of Myspace.

The current off-site login tools, collectively known as Myspace ID, are just too complicated and have too many similar options. Currently we support two different off-site login mechanisms through MySpace ID and our MySpace ID SDKs:

OAuth Login
OpenID Login

As we roll out our OAuth 2.0 support, that's going to add a third login option - OAuth 2.0 client login. Time and again our developers have shown us that what they want is to validate users in order to leverage their social graph data through our rich API catalog. The best solution to this problem is OAuth Login. In order to focus on delivering the best experience to our developers, we're going to phase out support for OpenID login from Myspace ID so we can focus solely on OAuth login solutions moving forward.

OpenID support will continue to function for a time period in order to allow our developers time to transition to using OAuth login. If you are currently using one of the Myspace ID SDKs, this should be a relatively simple matter; the SDKs currently include support for both OAuth login and OpenID login. In the coming months we will be removing OpenID support from the SDKs in order to eliminate confusion and retiring OpenID support.

In the mean time, you are encouraged to explore and transition to OAuth login, enjoy the simpler implementation, cleaner interface, and mobile device support. Happy coding!

Using the Simplified JavaScript API

Chad Russell — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:11:00 GMT

The OpenSocial 1.0 spec brought some interesting changes to the Myspace platform, but one often overlooked piece of the 1.0 pie is the new simplified JavaScript API.

One of the major complaints about the legacy JavaScript API found in OpenSocial version 0.8, which lives in the opensocial namespace, is that it is very verbose. Let’s take a look at an example; the snippet below shows how you would fetch a list of 100 friends in a 0.8 app:

function fetchFriends(){
  var request = opensocial.newDataRequest();

  var params = {};
  params[opensocial.IdSpec.Field.USER_ID] = opensocial.IdSpec.PersonId.VIEWER;
  params[opensocial.IdSpec.Field.NETWORK_DISTANCE] = 1;
            
  var idspec = opensocial.newIdSpec(params);

  params = {};
  params[opensocial.DataRequest.PeopleRequestFields.FIRST] = 1;
  params[opensocial.DataRequest.PeopleRequestFields.MAX] = 100;

  request.add(request.newFetchPeopleRequest(idspec, params), FRIEND_KEY);
  request.send(outputFriends);
}

The new API, which lives in the osapi namespace, is a little more succinct. Let’s take a look at a code snippet that has the exact same functionality only rewritten to use the osapi API:

function fetchFriends() {
  osapi.people.getViewerFriends({
    'count': '100',
    'startIndex': '1'
  }).execute(outputFriends);
}

You can plainly see the difference. The first example has 16 lines of code and uses 519 characters, the second example has 6 lines and 127 characters. As we all know, the less code the better: it’s easier to read and understand and less bugs will be introduced. The osapi API also has a very jQuery-like feel to it, which more and more developers are becoming used to.

When it comes to parsing the response the osapi API has further simplified things. Let’s say that after we execute the request above we want to access the first friend’s thumbnail URL. First let’s see how it’s done in the legacy API:

var pic = response.get("friends").getData().asArray()[0].getField(opensocial.Person.Field.THUMBNAIL_URL);

And now in the osapi API:

var pic = response.result.entry[0].thumbnailUrl;

A large difference to be sure.

Now that we’ve seen the benefits of the osapi API let’s talk about what it can and can’t do in relation to the legacy API. In terms of accessing and manipulating data (fetching friend lists, updating app data, creating albums, etc) the two APIs have the same functionality. Any data you can access or manipulate using the legacy API can be done with the osapi API.

Outside of data access you’ll still need to use the opensocial or gadgets namespace for most everything else. The osapi API just simplifies data access. So, for example, to share the app you’ll still need to do something like this:

function rsa(friend_array){
  var body = "Hey [recipient]! [sender] wants you to ";
  body += "add [app]. It's way awesome!";

  var reason = opensocial.newMessage(body);

  opensocial.requestShareApp(friend_array, reason, rsaCallback);
}

And to resize the height of the app when it loads, you’ll still need to do something like this:

function resize(){
  gadgets.window.adjustHeight();
}
gadgets.util.registerOnLoadHandler(resize);

So how exactly does the new API work? The best place for technical documentation is the official spec. This first link introduces the osapi namespace and describes how to batch and send requests and handle errors:

http://opensocial-resources.googlecode.com/svn/spec/1.0/Core-Gadget.xml#osapi

This next link describes the different services that are defined in the spec and how to use them. Keep in mind that Myspace doesn’t support everything in the spec and we also define some services that aren’t in the spec — more on this later.

http://opensocial-resources.googlecode.com/svn/spec/1.0/Social-Gadget.xml#JavaScriptAPIReference

Because the osapi API uses the same JSON input and output as the REST API, it can be useful to take a look at that spec as well:

http://opensocial-resources.googlecode.com/svn/spec/1.0/Social-API-Server.xml#services

Finally, probably the quickest way to start using osapi is to use a sample app we have developed:

http://www.myspace.com/games/play/195871

The app lists all of the services that Myspace currently supports along with all the available parameters that can be specified. Simply click the service you want to use and fill in all the parameters you want. At this point you can click one of the three buttons:

Execute. This will send the specified request to the server and output the result.
Add to Batch. This will add the request to the batch, which is just a queue of requests. You can see the current state of the queue by clicking the *Batch* tab. From the *Batch* tab you can execute the batch or generate the sample code (see point 3 below).
Generate Sample Code. This will display code that can be used in your app to execute the exact request you have specified.

Let’s look at an example. Say you want to find the viewer’s first five friends that don’t have the app installed. To make this happen just follow these steps:

Click the People tab
Under Method click getViewerFriends (you could also click get and specify @me under UserId and @friends under GroupId, but this is a handy shortcut)
Enter 5 in the Count field
Click hasApp under FilterBy
Click equals under FilterOp
Enter false in the FilterValue field
Enter 1 in the StartIndex field

Figure 1: Request parameters

The desired parameters are now entered in (see Figure 1). At this point you can make sure the request will do what you think it will do by executing it and checking the results (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: The response

Once you’re satisfied that you’re getting the correct data you can click Generate Sample Code to see what the code would look like.

Figure 3: Sample code

The sample code can now be copied and pasted into your app.

Note: you can see that a function named myCallback is passed in as a parameter to the execute() function. You’ll need to define this myCallback function to correctly handle the callback from the request. If you don’t do this you’ll get an error. You may or may not want to rename myCallback to something more appropriate.

You can play around with all the functionality that the osapi API provides and take away some custom sample code that you can pop right into your app, hopefully you’ll find it useful.

Happy coding!
Chad Russell

For reference the complete code of the two sample apps that were used to test the code in the article are below.

1.0 app

<Module xmlns:os="http://ns.opensocial.org/2008/markup" >
<ModulePrefs title="MiscTest1.0" description="A test app">
    <Require feature="opensocial-1.0"/>
    <Require feature="opensocial-templates"/>
</ModulePrefs>
<Content type="html" view="canvas">

<button onclick="rsa(FRIEND_ARRAY)">share</button>
<div id="output"></div>

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[

var FRIEND_KEY = "friends";
var FRIEND_ARRAY;

function fetchFriends() {
osapi.people.getViewerFriends({
    'count': '20',
    'startIndex': '1'
}).execute(outputFriends);
}

function outputFriends(response){
var friends = response.result;

if(!friends.error){
    var friend_array = friends.entry;
   FRIEND_ARRAY = [];

    for(var i = 0; i < friend_array.length; i++){
      writeToOutput(friend_array[ i ].displayName);
      FRIEND_ARRAY.push(friend_array[ i ].id);
    }
}
else{
    writeToOutput(friends.error.code + " -- " + friends.error.message);
}

gadgets.window.adjustHeight();
}

function rsa(friend_array){
var body = "Hey [recipient]! [sender] wants you to ";
body += "add [app]. It's way awesome!";

var reason = opensocial.newMessage(body);

opensocial.requestShareApp(friend_array, reason, rsaCallback);
}

function rsaCallback(response){
// 0 is cancel
// 1 is send
// -1 is error
var data = response.getData().result;
}

function resize(){
gadgets.window.adjustHeight();
}

function writeToOutput(msg){
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML += msg + "<br />";
}

gadgets.util.registerOnLoadHandler(fetchFriends);
gadgets.util.registerOnLoadHandler(resize);

// ]]>
</script>

</Content>
</Module>

0.8 app

<button onclick="rsa(FRIEND_ARRAY)">share</button>
<div id="output"></div>

<script type="text/javascript">

var FRIEND_KEY = "friends";
var FRIEND_ARRAY;

function fetchFriends(){
var request = opensocial.newDataRequest();

var params = {};
params[opensocial.IdSpec.Field.USER_ID] = opensocial.IdSpec.PersonId.VIEWER;
params[opensocial.IdSpec.Field.NETWORK_DISTANCE] = 1;

var idspec = opensocial.newIdSpec(params);

params = {};
params[opensocial.DataRequest.PeopleRequestFields.FIRST] = 1;
params[opensocial.DataRequest.PeopleRequestFields.MAX] = 20;

request.add(request.newFetchPeopleRequest(idspec, params), FRIEND_KEY);
request.send(outputFriends);
}

function outputFriends(response){
var friends = response.get(FRIEND_KEY);

if(!response.hadError()){
    var friend_array = friends.getData().asArray();
    FRIEND_ARRAY = [];

    for(var i = 0; i < friend_array.length; i++){
      writeToOutput(friend_array[ i ].getDisplayName());
    FRIEND_ARRAY.push(friend_array[ i ].getId());
    }
}
else{
    writeToOutput(friends.getErrorCode() + " -- " + friends.getErrorMessage());
}

gadgets.window.adjustHeight();
}

function rsa(friend_array){
var body = "Hey [recipient]! [sender] wants you to ";
body += "add [app]. It's way awesome!";

var reason = opensocial.newMessage(body);

opensocial.requestShareApp(friend_array, reason, rsaCallback);
}

function rsaCallback(response){
// 0 is cancel
// 1 is send
// -1 is error
var data = response.getData();
}

function resize(){
gadgets.window.adjustHeight();
}

function writeToOutput(msg){
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML += msg + "<br />";
}

gadgets.util.registerOnLoadHandler(fetchFriends);
gadgets.util.registerOnLoadHandler(resize);
</script>

Legacy REST API Updates to OAuth and Permissions

Tosh — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:43:00 GMT

Hello.
We just wanted to give the development community a heads-up on two changes to our legacy REST APIs we will be making to the platform in the coming weeks. Neither will require any changes on your part. The goal of the changes is to make sure developers have a consistent experience accessing the legacy (v1/v2) REST endpoints with the current OpenSocial 1.0 APIs.

The first change we are making is to reuse the code to compute and validate OAuth digital signatures that exists in the OpenSocial 1.0 APIs, in the legacy v1/v2 REST endpoints. OAuth signed requests should work consistently regardless of what endpoint you are requesting.

The second change is related to privacy bugs in the legacy endpoints. The legacy endpoints will now perform the same permissions checks as the OpenSocial 1.0 APIs. For example, profile requests in v1/v2 will check the same user permissions that the OpenSocial person endpoint does. You should expect the legacy endpoints to work the same as the current OpenSocial 1.0 endpoints, but we highly encourage you to code to the OpenSocial 1.0 endpoints and consider the legacy REST APIs deprecated.

Again, developers should not have to make any changes to continue using the Myspace Developer Platform, but we just wanted to let you know what’s coming. As always, please let us know if anything seems incorrect or needs improving. We’d love to hear from you.

Thanks,

Tosh
Dev Manager
Myspace Developer Platform

Protecting Myspace User IDs

manu — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:16:00 GMT

As we continue to evolve our developer platform and to create an environment that most effectively empowers the developer community while at the same time protects the privacy of our users, Myspace is enacting a number of new initiatives related to data security within our application platform. We also wanted to discuss briefly some of the actions we've taken over the past month to enforce our Developer Terms of Use, which -- as we've said publicly -- prohibit the passing of any user information, including user IDs, to third parties without the consent of our users.

We determined that a handful of developers had intentionally disclosed user IDs to a single data broker in violation of our Terms. We promptly suspended the applications who were engaged in this activity. We also demanded that the data broker who received user IDs delete all such information, and it agreed to do so.

We have been working to come up with both better methods to enforce our Terms, and also mechanisms to allow developers to provide great apps without the need to share Myspace user IDs with third parties.

Initially, we are introducing the following initiatives with the goal of providing the best possible environment for developers while ensuring we protect the privacy of our users.

Encrypt Myspace User IDs. In order to ensure that user IDs will not be included in URLs that could be inadvertently passed to third parties by offsite apps (something that our technology already prevents for apps hosted on the Myspace platform), we are encrypting the parameters (including the user ID) exchanged between Myspace and developers for all offsite apps. Developers will have the ability to decrypt the data but the user ID will not be readable by other parties.
Use anonymous identifiers. We will require all developers to use anonymous identifiers by January 21, 2011. These anonymous identifiers should be used as a proxy for the Myspace user ID in cases where developers need to share a unique identifier with permitted third parties, such as content partners and advertisers.
No data brokers. We have no tolerance for data brokers. Accordingly, going forward, any developer found transferring Myspace user data, including user IDs, to a data broker will be punished with immediate suspension and a minimum 6-month moratorium on their apps.

Below are technical changes that developers will need to make in order to ensure they are not inadvertently passing user IDs to third parties.

Encrypt Myspace User IDs

We are working to eliminate any trace of the user ID from the URL in cases where it's not strictly necessary. For apps that are rendered from an external server via an IFrame, we will begin encrypting the user ID in a way that only the app can recover the user ID. Specifically, the user ID will be encrypted with AES 256 using the specific app's private OAuth consumer secret as the encryption key. Starting on January 21, 2011, apps will need to change over from using the unencrypted user ID to using the encrypted user ID, at which time we will completely eliminate sending the bare user ID as a query parameter. The sample code provided below (in C#) shows developers how to encrypt Myspace user IDs using their app's consumer secret key.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using System.IO;

using System.Security.Cryptography;

using System.Web;

// 128 bit iv

private static readonly byte[] iv = new byte[] { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 }; // this is the IV we will be using

/// <summary>

/// Decrypts url and base64 encoded string

/// </summary>

/// <param name="encodedCyperText">cyphertext</param>

/// <returns>plaintext</returns>

public static string Decrypt(string encodedCyperText)

{

byte[] csBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(consumerSecret);

// generate a 256 bit key

SHA256CryptoServiceProvider sha = new SHA256CryptoServiceProvider();

byte[] cryptoKey = sha.ComputeHash(csBytes);

// setup encryptor params

AesCryptoServiceProvider aes = new AesCryptoServiceProvider();

aes.BlockSize = 128;

aes.KeySize = 256;

aes.IV = iv;

aes.Key = cryptoKey;

aes.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;

aes.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;

// url decode, base64 decode the cypher text to byte array

byte[] cypherBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(HttpUtility.UrlDecode(encodedCyperText));

// decrypt

MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();

CryptoStream decryptStream = new CryptoStream(memStream, aes.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write);

decryptStream.Write(cypherBytes, 0, cypherBytes.Length);

decryptStream.FlushFinalBlock();

byte[] decodedBytes = memStream.ToArray();

return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decodedBytes);

Use Anonymous Identifiers

We have developed a two-phased solution to address the practical need to share anonymous unique identifiers with legitimate third parties. The first phase will utilize an anonymous and unique 32 bit integer matching the same specifications as the Myspace user ID. All developers are required to switch over to this solution prior to January 21, 2011.

Here is how to access the anonymous ID via Myspace javascript container for on-site apps:

opensocial.Container.get().params_["thirdPartyId"]

External Iframe apps came pull this value from the querystring:

third_party_id

In addition to this interim solution, we are working on a long term solution that will be based on industry standards. Anonymous unique identifiers will not be consistent across applications and will consist of a cryptographic secure token. This will prevent the creation of a global lookup table. We do understand the need for consistent anonymous unique IDs across applications for fraud prevention purposes and we will provide mechanisms for authorized parties to be able to link these IDs together across the platform.

We encourage you to review our Developer Terms of Use and if you have any questions, feedback, or are unsure if your app complies or not, please contact us at DeveloperRelations@myspace-inc.com.

Open sourcing the Myspace gadget renderer

Chris Cole — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:03:00 GMT

Myspace has always been committed to open standards and the open Internet. The Myspace Developer Platform team is now taking it a step further and will be open sourcing our internally developed Myspace OpenSocial Gadget container. Now there will be a high quality and highly scalable .Net implementation of an OpenSocial Gadget container available to the community. This will provide an excellent complement to the Java and PHP based containers developed by the Shindig project as we continue to support OpenSocial as one of the foundational building blocks of the open web.

If you would like to see a preview of the template framework code, it is available for download at Project Negroni on Google Code. In the coming weeks we'll be releasing the OpenSocial gadget renderer controls as well so you can start exploring our code, testing your gadgets locally, and even implementing your own gadget container on your .Net hosted site!

Like Us on Facebook

Taylor — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:46:00 GMT

We now have a Facebook page dedicated to the Myspace developer community. In addition to our blog, twitter, and newsletter, this is another great place to find news, updates, and events about our platform.

Aligned with our continued efforts of communicating with the developer community about events and changes to our platform, we're expanding and discovering new and additional ways of addressing developers. We want to assure that you are provided details in the quickest and most convenient way, allowing you to make any necessary adjustments and updates to your game(s) on Myspace.

Emails are good - phone calls are better, but what's most often the greatest way of communicating? FACE to FACE. We're always interested in having developers come work with us directly in our office. We want to work side by side to ensure that your game is using our best practices, including key viral channels. If you're interested in working with us, check out our Myspace Labs program for more information. Also, if you're interested in signing up for our developer newsletter, email us or click the button to sign up at the bottom of our developer site.

If you haven't done so already, please take a moment to "Like" us on Facebook here, and let us know if you have any questions or suggestions - we always appreciate and "Like" your feedback.

User Homepage App Module Testing

Ronojoy — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:15:00 GMT

For the next 1-2 days we'll be conducting some tests on the user homepage app modules on the new Myspace, so don't be alarmed if traffic patterns to your games from that source are irregular during this test.

For users who a) have the new Myspace and b) have app modules on their homepage, we'll be testing adding prominently placed links to recently played games at the top of a user's homepage, and then removing the app modules. This test will last 1-2 days so you might see some changes in your games' traffic patterns.

We are continually looking into better ways for users to discover the games that they love. We are exploring adding more prominent links and bookmarks to games that appear towards the top of the page, rather than a user having to scroll down the page to see an app module. More to come on that soon!

Watch Today’s Games Webcast

manu — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:02:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended our first ever live webcast for developers. There were a lot of really great questions. For those of you that weren't able to make it, don't worry, you can watch it at your leisure here. The first few seconds got cut off during recording, but you don't miss much.

We're excited about the new Myspace, and what it means to the games. If we didn't have a chance to answer your questions, feel free to email us at DeveloperRelations@Myspace-inc.com.

So check out our webcast for more info! http://vivu.tv/portal/archive.jsp?flow=395-535-6814&id=1288908323616

Also, if you'd like to be whitelisted on the new site, sign up here.

Don't Forget! Live Webcast at 3pm PT Today

Amy — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:59:00 GMT

Join the event here: http://vivu.tv/portal/Join?flow=395-535-6814

Our live webcast will feature a personal introduction of the new Myspace from Mike Macadaan, our VP of User Experience & Design. Manu Rekhi, GM of Games, will then walk through the changes to games and how they will impact developers. Developers can use the group chat functionality to ask questions to Mike and Manu.

Thursday, November 04, 2010, 3:00 - 4:00 PM PDT

Agenda:

3:00pm - 3:15pm: The new Myspace - Presented by Mike Macadaan - VP, User Experience & Design

3:15pm - 3:30pm: Changes to games - Presented by Manu Rekhi - General Manager, Games

3:30pm - 4pm: Q&A

More details found at http://myspacedeveloperplatform.eventbrite.com

Erlang Factory Lite conference hosted at Myspace LA on Nov 7th

Chris — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:03:00 GMT

Myspace and The BitSource are hosting the Erlang Factory Lite conference on Nov 7th at the Myspace Beverly Hills headquarters. The event will be free to attend and will run from 11am - 4pm. The Erlang Lite meeting aims to bring people together and share thoughts and ideas while growing the community within the LA area and give you the chance to present and share with the community.

Speakers confirmed so far are Ulf Wiger, CTO of Erlang Solutions, Kresten Krab Thorup, Chief Architext and Co-founder of EOS Trifork and Robert Virding, one of the creators of Erlang and stars of Erlang The Movie.

For more information, please visit the conference page at http://www.erlang-factory.com/conference/ErlangFactoryLiteLA. Registration for this event is free and required. You can register here.

Webcast on Nov 4, 2010

Amy — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:00:00 GMT

The new Myspace is here, and we couldn't be more excited. We're placing the focus on showcasing games more. Users have more ways than ever to discover popular and relevant games and see what their friends are playing. Check out Manu's blog for details on how the new site impacts games and developers.

Please join our live webcast to get a personal introduction to the new Myspace from Mike Macadaan, our VP of User Experience & Design. Manu Rekhi, GM of Games, will also walk through the changes to games and how these changes will positively impact developers.

Here are the details (you can also check them out here):

Date: Thursday, November 04, 2010 from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (PT)

Agenda:

3:00pm - 3:15pm: The new Myspace - Presented by Mike Macadaan - VP, User Experience & Design

3:15pm - 3:30pm: Changes to games - Presented by Manu Rekhi - General Manager, Games

3:30pm - 4pm: Q&A

Join the Event here: http://vivu.tv/portal/Join?flow=395-535-6814

Webcast Meeting Requirements:

Hardware:

- 2GB RAM or higher

- Dual core processor with 2.0 GHz or higher

- Wired network connection with 1Mbps Up link and 1Mbps Down link

Software:

- Flash 10.1 should be installed

- Java 1.5 or later

Suggested Browsers: IE8 & FF 3.6

Hope you can make it!

Updating Permissions on REST API endpoints

Chris Cole — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:33:00 GMT

At MySpace we take the privacy of our users seriously. As we continue to improve the privacy controls and permissions being presented to our users we will be applying these upgraded permission controls to both the newer OpenSocial 1.0 REST APIs and the older APIs used for 0.7/0.8 apps (sometimes called v1/v2 APIs).

What does this mean for you? Your code will not need to change. You may experience a change in the amount of data returned by some of these endpoints as we make these changes. When an app has explicitly requested and been granted permissions, there should be no change in the amount of data returned.

New App Viral Features

manu — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:05:00 GMT

We've recently introduced three new viral features that we feel will make it easier for games to grow on myspace. Here's a rundown of the new goodies for developers...

Enabled Share on myspace for onsite apps. This is an improved way for apps to share more types of content into the myspace stream.

Stats: Using Share on myspace now accounts for 10-20% of new installs per day for some games. It has quickly become the second largest source of installs behind invites during our initial testing. There has been a 14x increase in CTR on stream posts using Share over our traditional Activities API.

Launched a new In-Game Friending API, allowing users to friend each other within a game.

Stats: Some developers have found a 65 - 70% acceptance rate on friend requests sent from within the game. They also found an added benefit of a 16% increase in gift sending.

Launched a new App Requests API, enabling users to send gifts and/or invites to friends. This is a new user to user gifting and invite channel for apps.

The feedback we've heard from developers was to enhance our viral channels. We believe these new features are a big step forward, and we'll continue to improve and find new ways to grow apps virally on our site. We've gotten some great initial stats from test partners, which we've included below.

We hope you enjoy the new features, here's more details about each one!

SHARE ON MYSPACE

The stream is becoming an increasingly popular and an effective way for apps to acquire new users. We recently launched Sync with Facebook, allowing users to sync their myspace updates, including some app activities, with Facebook. App activities allow users to share the level they've achieved in a game, boast beating a friend at poker, or show off the new pet they've adopted.

Currently most onsite app developers use our Activities API to post app activities into the myspace Stream. Now, we'd like to recommend another way for onsite apps to utilize the myspace stream - by using Share on myspace. With Share on myspace, an app has increased flexibility and added benefits. Apps are able to share more types of content into the stream, like links and photos. Developers are also able to include an externally hosted image with the stream activity. This means developers can quickly customize and test photos associated with stream content. Currently, our Activities API only allows developers to include a photo that's been uploaded to myspace. Using Share on myspace is a smart and easy alternative for app developers to maximize using the stream.

Initial Stats: Using Share on myspace now accounts for 10-20% of new installs per day for some games. It has quickly become the second largest source of installs behind invites during our initial testing. Companies have seen an increase of 14x the CTR on app activities in the stream using Share on myspace over our current Activities API.

Check out our wiki documentation for Share on myspace
More information on Share on myspace

IN-GAME FRIENDING API

Our new In-Game Friending API gives developers the new ability for users to friend each other within a game. This feature allows users to make new friends in order to add neighbors, clan members, or players to a game.

Initial Stats: After a few days of testing, some developers have found a 65 - 70% acceptance rate on friend requests sent from within the game. Most people accepted friends within several hours, showing that users were looking for more people to play games with right away. An added benefit of implementing this feature was a 16% increase in gift sending. New friends made within the game sent each other more gifts, leading to increased user satisfaction.

Check out our wiki documentation for In-Game Friending API

APP REQUESTS API

We're also excited to bring developers a new ability for apps to send gifts and/or invites to users. This new viral channel allows users to accept and send gifts and other type of requests to friends. Users are also able to accept and send an invite to play a new game with a gift or request attached to the invite.

We've found that on myspace user-to-user communication channels are more effective than app-to-user communication. So, we expect this new channel to drive more re-engagement within games since it's a more personal (1:1) form of communication. We also expect it to also drive more conversions of users to your games since gifts can accompany an invite to add the game, which is more compelling than a simple invite. The goal with this new channel is to make apps/games more personalized and engaging, and provide developers the mechanism to get users to perform viral actions. The key is that this communication comes from a friend, creating social influence and a more personalized recommendation to add the app.

Now that we've added this new communication channel, we thought it would be wise to give everyone a breakdown of what app communication channels are available, what they're for, and what the differences are between them all. Hope this is helpful and let us know what metrics you're seeing with this new communications channel.

Check out our wiki documentation for App Requests API

MySpace Introduces Sync with Facebook

Jennifer — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:55:00 GMT

Today we're introducing Sync with Facebook, www.myspace.com/guide/sync, which allows MySpace users, musicians, and celebrities around the world to sync their status updates with their Facebook profile or Page, while also offering them the ability to share content such as game activity, music, videos, links and photos with their friends on Facebook.

Sync with Facebook allows users to keep their friends on Facebook up to date on everything, including: sharing songs, latest photos, fun game apps, and more.

So, when a user adds a game on MySpace, it will now be broadcast to that users' Facebook friends in their Facebook stream. Users who click on the stream activity within Facebook are taken to the game's profile page on MySpace so that logged in and non-logged in users can see the content. At launch we are syncing game install activity, but are working to sync more gaming related activities with the Facebook stream.

The opportunities to experience and share this type of entertainment content are endless. This is particularly exciting for artists who can now use this tool as a complement to their MySpace Music presence and share their vast library of content, including full album catalogs, to people who've liked their Facebook Page.

Here are a few screenshots of how the sync functionality will look:

And here's an example of what a MySpace game activity will look like on Facebook.

Syncing with Facebook is easy to set up:

Click on the settings box in the update module on your Home page
Check the box next to Facebook or Twitter (or both!)
Follow the steps prompted to sync your accounts
Done! Your updates will now automatically sync.

Users continue to have the option to sync to Twitter as well. Once you've synced your Facebook account, simply update your status on MySpace as you normally would (from your Home page, Status and Mood page, or mobile phone). When you update your status on MySpace, it will then be shared with friends on Facebook.

This new sync functionality is part of an ongoing effort to make it simple for people to share their updates beyond MySpace and allow fans and friends to interact with that content across the web.

As always, let us know what you think.

Jen Ruffner

Director of Product, Stream

Searching for Games Just Got Easier

Bill — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:29:00 GMT

We've recently made some changes to our global search product to allow users to discover games more easily. Our current search product is tabbed by content vertical, so users can search for something within Music or Video. We have now added a Games tab to search, so users can more easily find the games they're looking for. We have also included an auto-complete feature that suggests content for users, further making it easy to find the content you want. We hope that the new Games search contributes to more of our users discovering fun, new games.

Several months ago we evaluated our internal search product and realized that if we were going to deliver a better search experience, it was necessary to revamp how we implemented search, end to end - creating an extensible platform for ingesting search data (in this case, information about each game), all the way to a brand new, fast, consistent, modern, user experience supporting both .NET and non-.NET platforms. During the process we even switched from .NET to Java! Our first step on this long "search in a box" journey is complete, and it's a big milestone for us and for Games. We're looking forward to making even more enhancements to the search experience, improving the visibility and discoverability of great content.

Note the difference!

New search experience for ‘mobsters'

Old search experience for ‘mobsters'

- Bill Bliss, VP & GM of Search and Recommendations

App Testing on the User Homepage and Profile Surfaces

manu — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:47:00 GMT

Over the past few days we have been testing different options for the amount of apps a user can display on their homepage (UHP) and profile. Due to this testing, some of your apps may be affected and may not show on the UHP or profile for some users. We are constantly testing different ways to optimize the user experience, and we will continue to test options for limiting and smartly surfacing apps that are displayed on a users' homepage and profile.

We believe smartly rendering apps that have great UHP and profile surfaces could help us optimize page load time and also reward those apps that are utilizing these surfaces appropriately. Our goal is to ensure we have the best user experience possible, and we find that users are more engaged with apps if these surfaces look good and add value.

The UHP and profile app surfaces allow users to easily access an app, express their interests, and showcase their store, pet, or avatar to friends. They are a key channel for many apps to acquire new users and re-engage with existing app users. Some developers find that 60% of new users and 45% of repeat users come from these surfaces! We've also found that once an app includes dynamic content within the surface, it receives 10-30% more page views as well as increased engagement within the app. Clearly these surfaces are an important source of traffic to apps, so you should be paying attention to them.

Over the course of the next several months, we will be reviewing the UHP and profile surfaces of many apps to determine if they are using them appropriately. Our goal is to reward those apps that are optimizing this prime real estate. We highly encourage you to refine and work on these surfaces if you haven't already. Or, if you're not taking advantage of them, now's the chance to get started!

Here are a few tips for making these UHP and profile surfaces more effective and fun.

Appropriate size. With our new user profile layout, there is a two column format so surfaces should optimize width to fit both formats. The surface should either auto-resize or optimize for a 280px width and have the image also be able to work in a 480px width column. The small column on the new user profile layout is 280px in width and the large column is 480px. The height should be 250px. This sizing should be the same for the UHP surface.
No hidden content or dead space. You shouldn't make a user scroll to see content in the surface or have lots of unused space.
Dynamic content. Show relevant content that reflects what is happening in the game. For instance, the level you're on, your avatar, or notifications No more static ads, you should want to add value to your users with these surfaces.
Fast Page Load. The surfaces should load quickly (suggested time should be less than 2 seconds) and not negatively impact our overall page load time.

In the example below, the game Happy Aquarium is showing dynamic content from the game by displaying what level the user is on as well as hunger and cleanliness levels. In the profile surface, the user can show off what their fish tank looks like to everyone. The surfaces look good and create value, good job Happy Aquarium!

Example: User homepage module

Example: User profile module

MySpace Previews New User Homepage With Two Column Stream

Christina — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:04:00 GMT

Starting this week, users have the option to preview our new user homepage. The new user homepage prominently displays the activity stream and makes sharing and discovering new content easier than ever.

As users log-in to MySpace, there is a prompt to opt-in for an early look at the new homepage. The homepage will be rolled out and formally launched to all users next week. New features include:

A wider activity stream: The stream now spans the first two columns, featuring shared content and status updates from friends across your network. With this new design, we're placing more of an emphasis on all of our great content by really making it pop from the moment you sign-in.
My Stuff and Recommendations: The new "My Stuff" module gives you quick access to games, photos, videos and music right from the homepage. Similarly, all recommendations (Games You Should Play, Featured Games, People You May Know, and Recommended Events) have been combined into one simplified "Recommendations" module. The new "My Stuff" module will replace the "My Apps" module that was on the old homepage. We hope with more navigation to games in a clear format with the new user homepage, it will make it easier for users to find the games they love.
New alerts system and address book importer: The new alerts system collects similar alerts and repositions them in a more visible and persistent location, enabling users to browse and interact with their alerts without ever leaving the UHP. All app requests and notifications will be presented in this module. A new version of the address book importer will help users find and connect with friends more easily.

Check out the new user homepage:

This is the first of a series of changes to the UHP that you'll see in the coming months. We look forward to rolling out products that will further improve the ability to quickly and easily surface content that matches your interests.

To learn more, check out our page with details on how to upgrade and let us know what you think.

Updates on Daily Limits for App Invites

Jamie My_____ — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:59:00 GMT

Hello pirates, ninjas, and developers... just a quick update on our efforts to limit (throttle) the number of invites a user can send via an app per day. In the original blog post, we communicated the plan was to initially limit invites that can be sent to 100 per day per user per app; and then further reduce the limit down to 40. Those changes have gone into effect (July 14th), and we have been analyzing the results.

We have confirmed this mechanism to be effective in preventing an excessive amount of invites sent by users. And, as a result, the invites conversion percentage has gone up. We are continuing to optimize this viral channel to maximize the number of invites converted into active app users. This week we set the daily limit for invites to 60 and are measuring the resulting impact. This value was chosen to provide additional headroom for this viral channel. We anticipate this limit value will be set indefinitely, and recommend all app developers to implement the sending of invites considering this limit value.

For more info on invites, check out the Invites Wiki Page.

New Canvas Ad Unit

Hatch — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:31:00 GMT

Today we began testing the location of two new ad units on the App Canvas page (the game play surface). Since the units appear in the gutters of App Canvas pages (the game play surface area), they will not affect the current size of the Canvas page. The goal of these new ad units is to help developers increase awareness and conversions of their game or app without negatively impacting engagement time per game. We want to encourage the discoverability of new games to our users, and because the test ads appear only to users who have added a game, they are inherently targeted to those users most likely to play games on MySpace.

Let us know what you think and if you’re interested in testing out this new ad unit with us, email me jhatcher@myspace-inc.com.

Showing 1.0 Apps on Profile

Chris Cole — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:58:00 GMT

We've been getting occassional reports of apps written in 1.0 not showing when they correctly specify a content block for the profile surface.

ex:

<Content type="html" view="profile">
...
</Content>

While we've solved most of the issues, developers are still reporting occassional problems. The sure way to solve this problem is to use the super-secret, undocumented (until now) extension to force recognition of a view. This is done by adding the MySpace-Views feature block to the ModulePrefs section. In this block you can specify the anchor location for your profile view (left or right), as well as initial sizing on all views.

<Module>
  <ModulePrefs title="MySpace specific app settings" 
    <Optional feature="MySpace-Views">
      <Param name="profilesize">300</Param>
      <Param name="profilelocation">right</Param>
      <Param name="canvassize">100,1500</Param>
      <Param name="homesize">250</Param>
    </Optional>
  </ModulePrefs>

...
</Module

When the MySpace-Views feature is found in the gadget and a profilesize and profilelocation are specified, you force the gadget to recognize that it has a profile view.

Valid values for profilelocation: left | right
Valid values for profilesize: width,height | height

Apps Shortcut Added to the WebIM Bar

Nikita — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:52:00 GMT

We are continuing to add new ways for users to engage with their Apps and Games on MySpace. Today we have added a shortcut to users’ Apps from the WebIM bar. All users by default have access to the WebIM bar, and it persistent at the bottom of their screen while logged into MySpace. A small icon for the last three Apps the user has played appears, with an arrow that when clicked on displays all the Apps a user has added. The goal of adding the Apps shortcut is to enable quick access to users’ Apps and Games from wherever they are within MySpace.

We hope this new, persistent engagement channel helps users easily play the Games they love. We’ll be keeping an eye on engagement levels within Apps to see how it performs, but keep us posted what you think and if your metrics are impacted.

New Games filter in the Stream

Benson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:43:00 GMT

We wanted to make you aware of some Game and App testing we’re doing in the Stream starting today. We’ve added Games filters so users can sort through the Stream based on the content they want to see. So, users that just want to see posts related to Games can easily sort through the Stream to see those posts. Since most of our Apps are actually Games (‘Games’ is a subset of Apps), we are testing having one filter for both or having separate Games and Apps filters. The goal of these tests is to determine if the filters help with clicks on stream posts. It’s also an easy way for users to find the content they want and discover new games. Let us know what you think and how this effects your conversions.