BostonPHP: Learn how to use API's like Google Maps

When: Wed September 29, 2010 7:00 pm

Organization: Boston PHP User Group

Location: Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center - 1 Memorial Dr, Cambridge

Speaker(s): Andrew Drane, Michael Bourque

Website: http://www.meetup.com/bostonphp

Do you want to give your web apps all of the power of Google Maps? Integration with the 300+ Million member of Facebook or the entire inventory of Amazon.com? It's easier than you might think. These companies (and many others) allow you to access their data and user base through APIs. What you do next is limited only by your imagination.

This meetup is hosted by our own Andrew Drane of Boston PHP

I'll go over some of the general principals of APIs, how they work, how to sign up and get data flowing to your web application, then do some live coding examples and build some pages demonstrate how to plug-in to powerful APIs. All the code and slides will available so anyone can adapt it to their needs, or even build their own examples during the presentation. I will be working with examples from 3 popular API's that I've worked with in the past.

• Google Maps allows you to put powerful interactive maps right in your application. You can put locations of events and even customize how the data points are displayed on the map.
• Registration woes? Many people won't even sign up for your site because they have too many accounts and they don't want to remember another user name or password. However, 300 Million people have Facebook accounts, and you can save them the trouble of signing up using Facebook Connect. Users connecting with Facebook connect sign into your site with their Facebook account.
• Amazon.com is the world's largest online retailer. Did you know that you can plug in to their entire product catalog and pull data into your application? I'll show you how it's done.

* If users have some interesting examples of APIs in use, please send them to me. I'll post a link or use it as an example in my presentation.

RSVP Now - this is going to be a popular event!
http://www.meetup.com...

Agenda:
6:00 - 7:00 : Doors open, food, socializing
7:00 - 7:15 : Announcements
7:15 - 8:45 : Presentation
8:45 - 9:00 : Questions
9:00 - ???? : Beers somewhere?