I'm building a web application using GMails IMAP API. What would be the best way for me to make the updates "real-time"?
As of right now I'm using a Ruby Sinatra backend and backbone.js on the frontend. I'm looking for a way to make the communication between my frontend, my server, and the gmail api to be as fast and seamless as possible.
Thanks for the help
Edit: what I mean is what is the best way to make it seem real time. I realize gmail does not support web sockets. But what would be a good way of setting up my server and front end to make the data transaction as frictionless as possible.
I do not think this is possible. HTTP does not work this way. You would need WebSocket for this, but Gmail API does not support WebSocket.
You can either update info often (but you will run into google api request number limits).
Or update info when user needs it (that needs careful planning).
Related
I want to build an instant chat app with flutter without any third party services.
I've been working in a simple app using a restful laravel api for login, multiple methods and logout, using token authentication for each request. However, I find that architecture not suitable for a modern instant chat. I discovered WebSockets, which sound great, but can't yet grasp how I could subscribe to and consume one from flutter. I´ve read about web channels, but I'm not sure how they handle authentication for users. Is it possible to handshake and establish a session from my app? If so, how?
Or, can it be done totally restful? How could I post messages and listen other user's messages in that case?
Besides the chat functionality, is it recommended to work restfully? Or is flutter able to mantain a solid, authenticated session? I'm kinda new in flutter.
I appreciate any info, link or recommendation. Please, refrain if you were going to mention firebase, I want to build my own backend. Thanks!!
You should check out MQTT, an IOT protocol which is currently used for chat applications very widely.
To know about MQTT, see this.
But first I will recommend you to understand Pub-Sub(Publisher-Subscriber) Model, if you understand it then that's great.
For pub-sub model, see this.
Or, can it be done totally restful? How could I post messages and listen other user's messages in that case?
Yes, it can be done totally restful but honestly it's not recommended. You should do it with websockets.
Besides the chat functionality, is it recommended to work restfully? Or is flutter able to maintain a solid, authenticated session? I'm kinda new in flutter.
Depends on your architectural choice. There are many good options on which architecture you want to choose. Apart from restful there is GraphQL also, if you are comfortable with it. Apart from chat functionality mostly you will see people using RESTful but people who know GraphQL, might also use that instead of RESTful.
Guys,
I am opening up a bunch of RESTful API, mostly GET at the moment, not modifying anything in the database.
I am planning to use this in our own mobile app, also to one of two trusted developers in the android applications they make.
I would like to know what's the possible & easiest way to secure the API to only the applications I authorize.
What's the best way to do that? I am using Rails 3.2
This is really basic.I want to implement a RESTful web API.
Now I know you can write custom applications and scripts to integrate with the API.
What I need to know:
In what languages can you write this API? C#, Java, php?
When building/programming a program that implements this API, is this the client and the software that issued the API the server? (eg. Dropbox would be the server and the custom app that integrates with the Dropbox API is the Client?
Thank you.
A REST API can be built in any programming language that allows you to handle HTTP requests (or can be attached to a Web server as a handler for requests). The two methods I've been using:
Stand-alone Windows service implementing a REST service using WCF
WEB server Apache + PHP
You are correct about the terminology. A program consuming a service is called the client, a program providing a service is called the server (while actually in the PHP approach, Apache would be the server as it is taking the request and having the script handle it).
Additional nitpicking: JQuery is not a language, but a framework to help you use some JavaScript features more easily.
On your comment Recap:
Close :-) The Client transfers JSON/XML/whatever to a server using HTTP requests. The Client can be written in any language that can perform HTTP requests.
On the server side, there needs to be some application that handles the HTTP requests (service), also written in any language, as long as it "speaks" HTTP.
The API is the definition of which operations are possible, for example, adding user accounts, getting the current time, etc. (this is what you define - what do you want your service to do?).
The JSON/XML/whatever that you transfer is the workload, the parameters for the API call. For example, if you want to add a new user to your system, the workload could be the new user name, the real name, the eMail address and some other details about the user. If the API call returns the current server time, you might not need any parameters at all, but you get back JSON/XML/whatever from the service.
The actual call being made is determined by the URL you call. For example, the URL for adding a user could be http://localhost/myrestservice/adduser and you'd perform a POST request against that URL with the required workload. For the time example, the URL could be http://localhost/myrestservice/getservertime and you'd perform a GET request against that URL.
I suggest that you read about how REST services actually work before you start, as I see some question marks on your face ;-)
Short:
API = available operations (=> URLs)
Parameters to API calls = JSON/XML/Plain Text/whatever
Client = calls the service through HTTP
Service = handles the calls, replies to client in response to HTTP requests
If you are a php programmer and familiar with Codeigniter framework then go here : Working with RESTful Services in CodeIgniter.
visit also : Rest Tutorial
First of all, you should begin with learning what is a RESTful API.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer
http://www.restapitutorial.com/
http://rest.elkstein.org/
In what languages can you write this API? C#, Java, php, jQuery?
You can write an API in any language. What can help is the framework you'd be using. JQuery is not a language, but a framework for integrating Javascript application in every web browser, so it won't help.
I'd advice you to use a microframework to write your first RESTful API, because they usually are easy to use and help focus on the important (bottle/flask in python, express in javascript, silex in php, spark in java or nina in C#)
When building/programming a program that implements this API, is this the client and the software that issued the API the server? (eg. Dropbox would be the server and the custom app that integrates with the Dropbox API is the Client?
You're right, the server is providing you the service, hence the API. The client is user to that API, and implementing it into something useful.
As most of the people stated already, you can do this in just about any language.
Might I suggest that you look into NodeJS? If so, check out Restify: http://mcavage.github.io/node-restify/
There's a nice community behind NodeJS and I think it's quite open to newcomers. Just try not to pick up bad habits from JavaScript pitfalls. If you're new to programming, I'd suggest reading some intro book.
good luck!
Does any one have idea about the best way(implantation) to send Bulk Google Cloud Messaging on a Linux server. (Personally I like non-java implementation) Any help, link or suggession appreciated.
Edit
I didn't try any method for bulk messaging. I know there is a php implementation for GCM too, But I like to know what should I consider before go for an implementation. Like, How to handle failed messages, Is there any limitation on http requests goes to GCM server, etc.
Finally, I found the best answer for my own question. We can send a message to 1000 Google could message recipients using one http request. Sending bulk messaging Shouldn't be that much complicated. Any language or tool are capable of sending appropriate http request to the GCM server is enough.
GCM allows you to attach up to 1,000 recipients to a single message,
letting you easily contact large user bases quickly when appropriate,
while minimizing the work load on your server.
As shown by this example, it seems that the server-side code can even be written in C#. This question also confirms that this approach works. Other people seems to be able to setup standalone Java applications, as shown here.
If you have to setup a Linux server to send GCM push notifications, you can freely chose to use C# or Java at your own discretion.
For what concerns C/C++, however, things are a little more complicated. This question (PHP) shows that GCM notifications can be sent using CURL, so I suspect that a "C/C++" implementation using libCurl could be possible. However you'll have to tweak it yourself, given that it does not seem to be the "standard way" to use GCM.
If you are familiar with PHP than implement it in PHP. Since GCM uses only 2 GETs with HTTPS, you can easily implement it in any language, even batch processing with curl (i am using this for testing). You can find the calls here.
Note that you need a curl.exe which is capable of doing HTTPS. The link from Avio's answer shows you how to do that in PHP, stick to that and do not use C++.
First there is TornadoWeb, it's async and non-blocking, and on the other side: there is Dojo. If I use tornado, how can I communicate with dojo?
And the other problem, if I use a WSGI solution like Flask, can I make a "notification" with them? Or dojo must have an "open connection" to speak with the server, which is not done using WSGI? mean; Apache or CherryPy will not work with Dojo?
And if WSGI can't speak with Dojo, what about using Atom or Feeds to program notifications under WSGI?
NB: the notification will be devided on two: notification about products for all users, and notification about specific users; it will use sessions...
And last question, what about WebSockets and HTML5? the server must be compatible to use this option with the browser?
I'm not sure why Dojo seems to be the problem in the communication.
Dojo provides you with AJAX wrappers which you can use for almost real-time notifications in a web app with little load by making an AJAX request each 1-5 seconds.
If the app will have a lot of users, frequent AJAX requests can cause too much overhead quickly. Fortunately, you don't have to use Dojo to communicate with the server. You could have a look at Socket.IO and, if you want to stick to Python on the server-side, gevent-socketio. It uses the best technology available in the web browser (WebSockets, Flash sockets, comet) to provide real-time communication.
There is also dojox.socket but I think it's less robust (and far less popular).
You should remember, however, that by using any kind of persistent connection (be it WebSockets, Socket.IO or dojox.socket) you need an asynchronous server able to maintain many simultaneous connections.
The solution you choose should depend on the web app itself and its user base.