The wait is over. Finally Google released the Google+ API for developers. Even though the initial Google Plus API release is focusing only on public data, it gives developers plenty of opportunities to get familiarise with the API and start building client applications for the new social media sensation, Google+.
Google also introduced a new Google+ developers site ,which provides information on policies, terms, discussions with other developers, access to documentation etc.
Since the initial API release will allow access to only public data, the API lets you retrieve information that people have shared publicly on Google+. To access the data you need to register your application before making requests.
Related Article:
- 10 Most Useful Google Plus Tips and Tricks
- Tips To Ensure Your Google Plus Profile Privacy
- Easy Way to Update Twitter and Facebook From Google Plus
More About Google+ API
As we all know Google+ API is the programming interface to Google+ and can be used to integrate your app (client application) or website with Google+. All the API services are implemented as RESTful (Representational state transfer) services. Restful API design allows you to use standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT,DELETE etc) to access methods and manipulate data. The response of each method call will be in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. As we mentioned the new Google+ API release allow read-only access public data. Every API call require OAuth 2.0 protocol token or a Google+ API key to authorize the application.
Below is an example usage of the API as given Google+ Platform API documentation.
The example shows how to get the profile details of a Google+ user by calling Google+ API.
Your application should invoke the API as below
1 | GET https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/people/<userId> |
The reponse JSON object will be similar to the below object
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | {
"kind": "plus#person",
"id": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
"displayName": "xxxxxxxxxxx",
"url": "https://plus.google.com/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
"image": {
"url": "https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XnZDEoiF09Y/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAYCI/7fow4a2UTMU/photo.jpg"
}
} |
Different API methods require parameters to be passed either as part of the URL path or as query parameters. For example the parameter to represent the API key is “key” and “access_token” represents the key for OAuth 2.0 token for the current user. Read more about the Google+ API specification.
We can expect that this API release will soon results in release of hundreds of Google+ client applications that will help you to integrate multiple social media services to Google+ as well as other applications to make your Google+ life bit more easier and interesting.
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