Social networking has made one thing clear: websites and applications need to provide users with experiences tailored to their preferences. This in-depth guide shows you how to build rich social frameworks, using open source technologies and specifications. You'll learn how to create third-party applications for existing sites, build engaging social graphs, and develop products to host your own socialized experience.

Programming Social Apps focuses on the OpenSocial platform, along with Apache Shindig, OAuth, OpenID, and other tools, demonstrating how they work together to help you solve practical issues. Each chapter uncovers a new layer in the construction of highly viral social applications and platforms.

• Learn how to build applications on top of social containers, and leverage existing user data


• Map user relationships with a social graph, and extend social links between users


• Customize your application with user profile information and encourage growth through friendships


• Build a scalable social application container with OpenSocial and Shindig


• Dive into advanced OpenSocial topics such as templating and data pipelining methods


• Protect your container and its users against malicious code