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Connecting to Google API using OAuth2 - Part 2 - Logging into Google

terry.luschen@sundoginteractive.com (Terry Luschen) — 2013-12-09T02:31:45+00:00

Now that the registered app is setup from our first blog post we can how login to Google to retrieve an authorization code.

When doing web service calls from Apex in Salesforce we must tell Salesforce which URLs we are trying to hit so Salesforce can trust those calls. In order to do this we must do the following:

1) Log into Salesforce
2) Go to Setup
3) Under Administer, Security Controls, click on ‘Remote Site Settings’
4) Setup a new ‘Remote Site’ for each of these URLs
a. https://www.googleapis.com
b. https://accounts.google.com
c. https://spreadsheets.google.com
d. https://www.google.com

If you do not do this you will get a message about the web service call not being allowed for that remote site.

To authenticate to the Google API the first thing that needs to be done is to send the user to Google in order to login so we can get an authorization code. As can be seen by the code in DoGoogleConnectCall:

The user is sent to Google because a PageReference points to accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth. The user is expected to enter his/her credentials to access the Google account and approve the permissions that are needed for the application to function.

In the code for redirecting to account.google.com the client id and redirect uri come from the details of the registered app that was created earlier. The Google documentation for the APIs does a thorough job of explaining the various query string parameters needed on the URL. The result of a successful login to Google is that the user is returned back to the URL defined in the redirect uri field. This will cause the constructor of the Apex controller ‘GoogleConnect()’

tied to the Visualforce page to run again, which will use logic to automatically start the requested action.

But how will the code know what program made this request in the first place? The code will know which action is requested because of the ‘state’ parameter in the request. Whatever is in this parameter will be passed back on the redirect uri so that it can be used to determine who requested the call. The code related to the ‘state’ parameter is first used in DoGoogleConnectCall(). It is next referenced in the constructor GoogleConnect() so the code will know which scenario to complete.

All of the code listed above is available here. These blog posts related to the Google API will soon be released together in one whitepaper.

The next blog post will be about trading this authorization code for an access token, which can then be used to make the desired API calls.

Please reach out to me for help with your integration projects!

Women And Black Friday: Not Always A Perfect Combination

lynlee.espeseth@sundoginteractive.com (Lynlee Espeseth) — 2013-12-04T16:56:16+00:00

As much as decorating trees and leftover turkey, Black Friday shopping has become a post-Thanksgiving tradition. But has the lure of all those big deals worn off, to the point where stores are making enemies by participating? And are those most vocally against Black Friday also the biggest spenders: women?

This year, it seemed that Black Friday came with some trepidation. For one, Black Friday turned into “Grey Thursday,” with many stores choosing to open on Thanksgiving evening in an effort to lure in even more consumers. This was met with backlash, however, as other businesses, like restaurants, decided to be open as well, thus preventing many employees (retail and otherwise) to potentially miss time with their family.

Additionally, the crazy stories of customers fighting each other and being arrested appeared again, causing many people to question not just holiday shopping, but our society as a whole.

When it was all said and done, spending was down, even with the extra time Thanksgiving Day provided. Of course, many economic factors play a role in whether people choose to spend a lot of money or a little, but economic issues are closely tied to how we feel emotionally as well.

When it’s obvious that a lot of people are struggling (both in our own country and across the globe) it sometimes just doesn’t feel right to be so wrapped up in the gift buying part of the holidays. Even people who are fortunate enough to have extra money for gifts may find it distasteful to make a big deal out of the purchases they are making, or make an event out of buying things. The togetherness, spiritual aspects, and generosity that many people believe the holidays are supposed to be all about take a more prominent role.

Given all of this, it’s not hard to see why Black Friday/Grey Thursday fatigue could be particularly prominent among women. While women are generally big spenders, it is not in the “go crazy and spend a fortune way,” rather, it’s all about making smart and considerate shopping decisions. Women are much more likely to make purchases based on the ethical practices of a store (which makes opening on Thanksgiving problematic), and they are also smart when looking for a deal. When holiday sales start as early as October, items are deeply discounted after the holidays, retail blogs suggest better times to get a deal than Black Friday, and online shopping makes everything cheaper and easier, they have no reason to participate anymore.

Some retailers seemed to pick up on the fact that women (and men) are getting sick of the holiday spending spree. For stores that chose to stay closed on Thanksgiving, many were vocal about it, including department store Nordstrom, who stated, “We just like the idea of celebrating one holiday at a time,” and Ace Hardware,who simply stated, “Some things are more important than money.” Online retailer Everlane has built an entire business model around ethical practices, and chose to shut down entirely on Friday.

Even for retailers who were open on Thanksgiving Day, advertisements have taken a different tone. According to Ad Age, if advertisements have a theme this year it is “holiday subtle.” Decorations, Santa, and doing good, rather than gifts, gifts and more gifts are popular themes, such as in this Kohl’s ad:

Of course, all of these stores still have the same end goal of selling “stuff,” but they are choosing to go about it in a more measured way, which may prove to be smarter economically in the end.

Our preferences and the economic climate change year to year, but don’t forget the women you are selling to. Most of them don’t want to feel like they have forgotten what the holidays are all about, and ads and business practices that make them feel guilty will not bring business your way. No matter if it is Christmas, or any time of year, focus on doing good and being good.

Bluetooth 4.0 is quickly becoming your new master key

rob.burke@sundoginteractive.com (Rob Burke) — 2013-11-30T22:06:56+00:00

Keys have been largely unchanged in the past centuries until the last decade with key fobs, NFC chips, and now Bluetooth 4.0 changing the way we unlock our possessions. Bluetooth 4.0 is a low energy secure connection between devices. Your devices must be paired, with both of them accepting the connection before they will start communicating with each other, making it a very secure connection. The low energy makes it viable for always being on without draining your battery. Keys will be around for some time to come due to their less hackable nature, but we are fast seeing our lives tied to the digital world, and locks are just another milestone. Take, for instance, the Nymi with the goal to bring added security to Bluetooth 4.0 by unlocking only with your unique heartbeat.

NFC (or near field communication) has been around for many years now and is a viable solution, but it is only good for a specific task and lacks the security we want more and more in this day and age due to the growing amount of hackers and security breaches. Bluetooth totes an added security with its encrypted tethering. As our possessions get smarter with integrated wireless communication, so, too, will we be able to control them with more ease.

Here are just a couple of products already out or coming soon that will tie us even closer to our phones or the likes of Nymi.

August Smart Door Lock: http://www.august.com/
Knock App to lock/unlock your computer: http://www.knocktounlock.com/
Nymi: http://www.getnymi.com/
FitBit Force activity tracker: http://www.fitbit.com/force

What are some awesome ways you could implement Bluetooth 4.0 into a product or customer experience?

#DF13 and the IoT (Internet of Things)

craig.isakson@sundog.net (Craig Isakson) — 2013-11-30T03:10:11+00:00

From the keynote to breakout sessions to a corner of Moscone West devoted to a connected devices lab, Dreamforce 2013’s obvious theme seemed to be connected devices and the Internet of Things.

Internet of Things and connected devices are ways of describing things we use everyday that are not necessarily electronic or connect to the internet in the traditional sense. These devices use non traditional means to gather data about themselves or the user using them. This data is then pushed through the tubes and stored in the cloud. Once in the cloud the data can be analyzed and trigger or report on any number of different things.

This all seems very vague but that is part of what is cool about connected devices. The scale and possibilities of what can be accomplished is nearly endless. An example could be a car that has various different sensors on board that monitor and track performance and diagnostics. The tracking data would be stored in the cloud and when certain scenarios occur that may require service, the service department is notified and they can reach out to the owner even if the owner is not aware of the issue. Another example would be to wire an office building with sound, temperature, motion, and door sensors to track and automate certain office functions. Then there was the example that Marc Benioff gave about a toothbrush being connected and your dentist being able to see your brushing habits without you needing to interact.

Like I said, the possibilities with this are endless. If you can think it, you can do it. Salesforce has done a good job with trying to get out in front of this by providing pretty much any API you could need with the Salesforce 1 platform to help with connecting any device. If you are looking for more information on this I would suggest checking out Reid Carlberg’s blogs about the connected devices lab and checking out some of the breakout sessions that were recorded.

I am excited to start being able to implement some of the ideas I have in my head related to the IoT. How about you? Do you think this is just marketing hype or will the connected devices prediction come true?

Integrate Salesforce with Google Glass Using the Mirror API

craig.isakson@sundog.net (Craig Isakson) — 2013-11-30T01:44:24+00:00

While at Dreamforce this year, one of my favorite sessions I had the opportunity to attend was “Integrate Salesforce with Google Glass Using the Mirror API” by Mauricio Ardila of Velocify. I really enjoy this session because it shows a great example of how to integrate Salesforce Glass and the Mirror API. The example provided gives any developer that is looking to integrate the two technologies a good base to build upon.

If you were unable to attend the session, there is some good news, Salesforce recorded it for all to see. Check it out, it is very interesting!

Ink: Framework for Responsive Email Design

susanna.oliver@sundoginteractive.com (Susanna Oliver) — 2013-11-29T22:03:10+00:00

With responsive design for email coming to the forefront, it’s inevitable that frameworks follow. One such framework that recently came to my attention is Ink, created by Zurb, the same folks that built Foundation. Ink is a responsive 12-column tabular grid, and from the surface exploration that I’ve done so far seems to have a lot going for it. Most importantly, Ink puts compatibility before web standards by using tables which are necessary for email development which lost its way somewhere back in the 1990’s.

Ink includes visibility classes for controlling what displays on mobile and desktop. It’s important to note, however, that the visibility classes do not work in Gmail.

Ink downloads with a boilerplate and offers a variety of starter templates for generic layouts. The website, http://zurb.com/ink, has extensive documentation on implementing the email framework.

More to come as I have time to explore it.

Pinterest vs. Keep

alyssa.greve@sundoginteractive.com (Alyssa Greve) — 2013-11-29T15:44:46+00:00

This past month, I stumbled across a website called Keep. Keep is the place to go to discover and buy the latest trends in fashion, decor, accessories, and design. The look and feel is similar to Pinterest, so let’s take a deeper dive to compare the two sites. Below are some of my comparisons about each site:

Let’s first take a look at the design as you enter the homepage of each site. The designs are very similar with the top navigation bar and square-like photos to see the content. From prices notifications, secret boards and style boards, each site has their own features. See the screenshots below for a side-by-side comparison.

The next area I wanted to take a look at was each site’s description in Google.

Keep.com: Keep is the place to go when you want to discover and buy the latest trends in fashion, decor, accessories, and design.

Pinterest.com: A content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard. Also includes standard social networking features …

Both sites include options to have a price, where Keep allows you to “keep” the item or “buy” the item directly from the site. Pinterest allows users to “pin” items to a specific board and if you click through a pin, the URL attached to it will direct you a website.

One of the most interesting things I found was a Keepdotcom account on Pinterest!

Keep also makes it easy to access things like: “Oprah’s Favorite Things for 2013” and collects all the items, making the users be able to purchase the items from the site. Then again, Oprah also has a Pinterest account with her own “Oprah’s Favorite Things” board as well.

In addition to a board focused on Oprah’s favorite things, Keep also has stylist boards like this. This allows users to discover hot trends in a more collective way. I also could see users going to Keep but then using the “Pin” button in a web browser to pin things found on Keep onto their Pinterest boards.

Overall, the sites seem similar. I view Pinterest taking on any features Keep might have differently and adopting them for their users. Overall, I see Pinterest owning this market place and while Keep may focus on a more niche audience. What do you think? Does Keep tap into another target market that Pinterest doesn’t? Do you think Keep has a chance to compete with Pinterest?

Keep wasn’t the only site online following the trend of Pinterest. View 20 other sites here.

Ziosk Revolutionizes the Dining Experience

shawn.tennyson@sundog.net (Shawn Tennyson) — 2013-11-29T02:17:07+00:00

I have fond memories as a child of a small diner that allowed patrons to phone in their food order right from the booth. We browsed the menu, picked up the landline phone and spoke directly to the kitchen staff. A few minutes later, your food and beverages were magically delivered direct to your table.

Fast forward 20 years and now we have Ziosk, the first entertainment, ordering and pay-at-the-table touchscreen for the casual dining restaurant market. It features a 7-inch Android OS touchscreen and credit card reader. The device sits on tables and enables restaurant guests to:

see menu items
order food
order beverages
calculate a tip
pay on demand
print or email a receipt
leave a comment
capture the moment using the built-in camera
check into social networks to rate the restaurant, etc.
enroll in eClub programs
enroll in restaurant loyalty programs
learn about charities that the restaurant supports and have donations added directly to your check
play games
view news

Ziosk gives the guest complete control over their dining experience, no more waiting for slow wait staff to take your order, or being pressured by aggressive wait staff when you’re not quite ready to order (although, you’re still reliant on them to deliver your food.) This could also spell the end of the traditional printed menu, since all the food and beverage offerings are available on the device, making updates and the addition of specials a simple upload to the Ziosk system.

There is a similar system available for the iPad, albeit much simpler in features. The RM_Kiosk by Action Systems, Inc. is a free app that you can customize on your iPad to integrate with the Restaurant Manager POS system (not free).

With either system, tablet technology is significantly changing how we dine at our favorite restaurants.

Create a Hybrid Mobile App With the Salesforce Mobile SDK

craig.isakson@sundog.net (Craig Isakson) — 2013-11-27T20:42:30+00:00

Dreamforce is over but you don’t have to stop learning!! Salesforce has posted all of the sessions from Dreamforce. If you are interested in learning about how to create a hybrid mobile app on the Salesforce platform check out my session below.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have. The source for the demo can be found here.

Connecting to Google API using OAuth2 - Part 1 - Setting up the Registered App

terry.luschen@sundoginteractive.com (Terry Luschen) — 2013-11-27T18:49:58+00:00

Google has a wide variety of APIs that can be used. Some of the APIs can be accessed anonymously and others must be authenticated. If the API being used requires authentication, there are usually multiple ways to authenticate, but one of the most common ways is OAuth2. Here is a help page from Google that describes the steps needed to authenticate using OAuth2.

The first step is to create a Registered App within a Google Code Project. Here are those steps:
1) Create a gmail account.
2) Log into your gmail account.
3) Go to this URL where your application will be created. (Note that you do not have to do this step 3 in order to connect to a Google API, but it can be useful if you need a place to store your source code.)
- You can also get here by
a) Clicking on the drop-down to show all of the Google options and clicking on ‘Even more from Google’

b) Scroll down and click on ‘Code’ under the innovation section.

c) Under the Project Hosting section click on the ‘Create a new project’ link

d) Fill out the new project details and hit the ‘Create Project’ button

4) Now go to this link
4a) Click on ‘Go to my console’
5) Click on the Project link on the left and then click on ‘Create Project’
6) Fill in the Project Details

7) Click on the Registered Apps link under the project name and then click on the ‘Register App’ button.

8) Fill out the details of the Registered App and click on ‘Register’

9) Now when you click on your registered app you will see the details that will be needed for authentication through OAuth2.

Now that we have the registered app we will be able to try to connect to the app to get an access token. I will talk about that step in my next blog post.