OpenSocial FAQs

What version of OpenSocial does OCLC use?
Currently OCLC is using version 2.0 of OpenSocial.

What Javascript Libraries are pre-loaded as part of the OpenSocial Container?
Currently, the OpenSocial Container includes support for JQuery version 1.4.2. Developers wanting to use this feature need to require it as part of their gadget code.

<Require feature="org.jquery.core-1.4.2"/>

Developers who wish to use other Javascript libraries will need to load them as part of their gadget code. One simple way of loading external Javascript libraries without having to keep a copy of them on your server is to use Google AJAX API which allows you to easily preload popular Javascript libraries such as JQuery, Prototype, YUI, MooTools.

Should I include my WSKeys in the gadget XML?
You should not include any WSKeys directly your gadget XML. Instead if you want to create a click-to-install app that uses a web service that performs read operations, you will need to develop the app so that the WSKey is stored via the AppData feature in OpenSocial. This will allow a WSKey to be configured correctly for the click-to-install portion of the app. This functionality allows developers to share their apps with other libraries and allows each library to configure a WSKey upon installation. For more information on how to build a gadget with a configurable WSKey please see our Example Gadget Using WSKey

Additionally, if you need to interact with web services that perform write operations, you should code your interactions with these services in a server-side application. This can be done in one of two ways: via web service proxy or by building the click-to-install app completely in a server side programming language then proxying that application using an OpenSocial gadget.
 

What OCLC products and services currently support OpenSocial containers?
Currently the OCLC WorldShare Management Services (previously known as OCLC Web-scale Management Services, or WMS) support an OpenSocial container. More OCLC products are planned to take advantage of platform capabilities through OpenSocial in th 2012-2013 timeframe.
 

What areas within the WMS UI can I put my applications into?
Currently, applications can only appear in the main portion of the WMS UI.  Links for installed apps will appear in the left hand WMS module navigation. We reccomend that links for applications that are related to a particular module within WMS such as Acquisitions, appear in the left hand navigation for that particular module and that links for applications which are not related to any particular WMS module appear in top navigation.

How should I size my gadgets to appropriately appear in various interfaces?
OpenSocial includes functionality to allow gadgets to be resizable based on the size of the area into which they are rendered. To utilize this feature you need to require dynamic-height and dynamic-width.

<Require feature="dynamic-height"/>
<Require feature="dynamic-width"/>

You can then automatically adjust the height and width.

gadgets.window.adjustHeight();
gadgets.window.adjustWidth();

Where can I find  out more information about OCLC's use of OpenSocial?
Learn more about the OCLC WorldShare Management Platform, which is the architecture and infrastructure that supports OpenSocial use in OCLC services and beyond in libraries.