Making your Application Social with the Chatter API Logan Henriquez Product Manager @loganh Quinton Wall Developer Evangelist @quintonwall
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Agenda Why Social Enable Your App? Use Cases Eloqua: Demo and Sample Code Tips Summer 12 Preview Q&A
Make any app social with the Chatter API REST API
IT: Why Social Enable Your Custom Apps? Collab between dept. & teams Partners, customers, suppliers Make existing apps social
IT: Why Social Enable Your Packaged Apps? Connect to enterprisewide news feed (eg: Chatter) Easily add social functionality (feeds, likes, comments etc) Distribute app virally via feed
Chatter API Use Cases
Next Generation Intranets for the Social Enterprise Burberry World Company-wide and team based collaboration Dynamic, real-time information Integration of multiple data sources Sharepoint webpart reference implementation
Use Case Custom Mobile, Desktop, Tablet Apps Build custom mobile applications, e.g. Product information apps Q&A Note taking and case discussion for medical providers https://github.com/quintonwall/rhatter https://github.com/cseymoursf/chatter-api-ios-sample
Use Case - Internet of Things Share service data from Cars, Generators, Computers using custom object records / feeds Foster conversation centered on products and services. Scenarios: - Service - Technical presales - Technical support - Project Management
Build Highly Branded Customer Communities Enable partners or customers to collaborate with your employees or each other Share business process data Customize the UX to meet your exact brand requirements Extend to mobile and tablet apps
Drive Collaboration Around Business Process and Data Chatter feed inside external applications Supplement data, process, and analytics with rich conversations Analytics, Finance, Supply Chain Management, HR
Drive Collaboration Around Business Process and Data
Eloqua Use Case 105,000 42 2.5 Billion 8.2 Billion
Why Collaboration with Chatter? Buyers need information Marketers create info assets Sales has relationships Collaboration is key: Sales intuition + Marketing resources = Buyer engagement
What scenario are we solving Sales Marketer
Eloqua Demo
REST API Resources
Chatter API Resources Latest version "/services/data/v24.0/chatter All requests to API made using OAuth2 Start here http://developer.force.com/chatter-api
How We re Using the Chatter API Feed Users Groups Messages Records Topics Recommendations Files Organization Today Future
/chatter/users/me TBD styling changes
Feed Item Resources
Comments Resources
Users Resources
Comments Resource ( POST )
Chatter API Tips
Chatter API or SObject REST API? Chatter API: Semantically rich resources Localized presentation-ready data in JSON or XML form Comprehensive feed data in a single request Matches the web UI SObject REST API: Data directly from the database Arbitrary SOQL queries The same Oauth tokens can be used for both
Tips - General Group feeds are just record feeds /chatter/feeds/record/<group id> Security model of UI is observed News feed can only be retrieved for the logged-in user Following an object is described by a subscription. DELETE the subscription to stop following Use 'Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate HTTP header Always encrypt your Oauth access and refresh tokens
Rate Limiting Rate limiting: each user + remote access app combination gets 200 requests per hour Requests to endpoints outside /chatter and /connect are not counted in this rate limit Image requests not rate limited Sobject API requests count against org-wide rate limit Use separate remote access apps for production and development to avoid being rate limited Also use different users if your automated tests run often
Tips Javascript served from non-salesforce domain Use a controller pass-thru to work around Single Origin Policy for ajax requests Two approaches to rendering: pass JSON responses through server as-is and render using client side template library such as Mustache, Handlebars, or Eco Deserialize and render to HTML on the server and send to client Requests from HTML (img tags, HTML forms) must also use controller pass-thru to put Oauth token into HTTP header
Tips Javascript served from salesforce domain Can make ajax requests directly to Chatter API and render to HTML on client. When Connect in Apex goes GA, you can also make requests to a controller to get custom rendered HTML. Use an ajax proxy if you re on a custom domain. (see the salesforce ajax toolkit) to work around SOP.
Tips Apex Apex Now Call the Chatter API using Apex callouts Use session Id from UserInfo Apex Future ConnectAPI class will provide Chatter API resources directly
Connect in Apex (Pilot in Summer) Exposing the same Chatter API resources and data in Apex Use cases include: Customized social experiences in Visualforce Custom Chatter feed rendering in Visualforce Posting feed items with @-mentions in Apex Modifying user and group photos in Apex Taking pilot nominations over the next two weeks.
How do I begin? https://developer.force.com/chatter-api
Take Aways Chatter can drive better user engagement with external applications Easy to build integrations with existing applications Wealth of interesting use cases emerge from news feed integration.
Q&A http://bit.ly/chattersur vey @loganh @quintonwall