Monday, June 28, 2010

Blogger C# API

Source: http://google-gdata.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/clients/cs/samples/blogger/ConsoleSample.cs

using System;
using System.Text;
using Google.GData.Client;
using System.Net;
using System.Xml;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace BloggerDevSample
{
    class ConsoleSample
    {
        /** Lists the user's blogs. */
        static void ListUserBlogs(Service service)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("\nRetrieving a list of blogs");
            FeedQuery query = new FeedQuery();
            // Retrieving a list of blogs
            query.Uri = new Uri("http://www.blogger.com/feeds/default/blogs");
            AtomFeed feed = null;
            feed = service.Query(query);
            foreach (AtomEntry entry in feed.Entries)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("  Blog title: " + entry.Title.Text);
            }
        }

        /** Lists the user's blogs and returns the URI for posting new entries
         * to the blog which the user selected.
         */
        static Uri SelectUserBlog(Service service)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("\nPlease select a blog on which to post.");
            FeedQuery query = new FeedQuery();
            // Retrieving a list of blogs
            query.Uri = new Uri("http://www.blogger.com/feeds/default/blogs");
            AtomFeed feed = service.Query(query);

            // Publishing a blog post
            Uri blogPostUri = null;
            if (feed != null)
            {
                foreach (AtomEntry entry in feed.Entries)
                {
                    // Print out the title of the Blog
                    Console.WriteLine("  Blog name: " + entry.Title.Text);
                    Console.Write("  Post to this blog? (y/n): ");
                    if (Console.ReadLine().Equals("y"))
                    {
                        // find the href in the link with a rel pointing to the blog's feed
                        for (int i = 0; i < entry.Links.Count; i++)
                        {
                            if (entry.Links[i].Rel.Equals("http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#post"))
                            {
                                blogPostUri = new Uri(entry.Links[i].HRef.ToString());
                                Console.WriteLine("  Your new posts will be sent to " + blogPostUri.AbsoluteUri.ToString());
                            }
                        }
                        return blogPostUri;
                    }
                }
            }
            return blogPostUri;
        }

        /** Creates a new blog entry and sends it to the specified Uri */
        static AtomEntry PostNewEntry(Service service, Uri blogPostUri)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("\nPublishing a blog post");
            AtomEntry createdEntry = null;
            if (blogPostUri != null)
            {
                // construct the new entry
                AtomEntry newPost = new AtomEntry();
                newPost.Title.Text = "Marriage!";
                newPost.Content = new AtomContent();
                newPost.Content.Content = "
" + "

Mr. Darcy has proposed marriage to me!

" + "

He is the last man on earth I would ever desire to marry.

" + "

Whatever shall I do?

" + "
"; newPost.Content.Type = "xhtml"; newPost.Authors.Add(new AtomPerson()); newPost.Authors[0].Name = "Elizabeth Bennet"; newPost.Authors[0].Email = "liz@gmail.com"; createdEntry = service.Insert(blogPostUri, newPost); if (createdEntry != null) { Console.WriteLine(" New blog post created with title: " + createdEntry.Title.Text); } } return createdEntry; } /** Creates a new blog entry and sends it to the specified Uri */ static void PostAndDeleteNewDraftEntry(Service service, Uri blogPostUri) { Console.WriteLine("\nCreating a draft blog post"); AtomEntry draftEntry = null; if (blogPostUri != null) { // construct the new entry AtomEntry newPost = new AtomEntry(); newPost.Title.Text = "Marriage! (Draft)"; newPost.Content = new AtomContent(); newPost.Content.Content = "
" + "

Mr. Darcy has proposed marriage to me!

" + "

He is the last man on earth I would ever desire to marry.

" + "

Whatever shall I do?

" + "
"; newPost.Content.Type = "xhtml"; newPost.Authors.Add(new AtomPerson()); newPost.Authors[0].Name = "Elizabeth Bennet"; newPost.Authors[0].Email = "liz@gmail.com"; newPost.IsDraft = true; draftEntry = service.Insert(blogPostUri, newPost); if (draftEntry != null) { Console.WriteLine(" New draft post created with title: " + draftEntry.Title.Text); // Delete the newly created draft entry Console.WriteLine(" Press enter to delete the draft blog post"); Console.ReadLine(); draftEntry.Delete(); } } } /** Display the titles for all entries in the previously selected blog. */ static void ListBlogEntries(Service service, Uri blogUri) { if (blogUri != null) { Console.WriteLine("\nRetrieving all blog posts"); // Retrieve all posts in a blog FeedQuery query = new FeedQuery(); Console.WriteLine(" Query URI: " + blogUri.ToString()); query.Uri = blogUri; AtomFeed feed = service.Query(query); foreach (AtomEntry entry in feed.Entries) { Console.WriteLine(" Entry Title: " + entry.Title.Text); } } } /** Display title for entries in the blog in the hard coded date range. */ static void ListBlogEntriesInDateRange(Service service, Uri blogUri) { Console.WriteLine("\nRetrieving posts using query parameters"); // Retrieve all posts in a blog between Jan 1, 2006 and Apr 12, 2007 FeedQuery query = new FeedQuery(); query.Uri = blogUri; query.MinPublication = new DateTime(2006, 1, 1); query.MaxPublication = new DateTime(2007, 4, 12); AtomFeed feed = service.Query(query); foreach (AtomEntry entry in feed.Entries) { Console.WriteLine(" Entry Title: " + entry.Title.Text); } } /** Change the contents of the newly created blog entry. */ static AtomEntry EditEntry(AtomEntry toEdit) { Console.WriteLine("\nUpdating post"); // Edit the new entry if (toEdit != null) { toEdit.Title.Text = "Marriage Woes!"; Console.WriteLine(" Press enter to update"); Console.ReadLine(); toEdit = toEdit.Update(); } return toEdit; } /** Delete the specified blog entry. */ static void DeleteEntry(AtomEntry toDelete) { Console.WriteLine("\nDeleting post"); // Delete the edited entry if (toDelete != null) { Console.WriteLine(" Press enter to delete the new blog post"); Console.ReadLine(); toDelete.Delete(); } } /** Get the comments feed URI for the desired blog entry. */ static Uri SelectBlogEntry(Service service, Uri blogPostUri) { Console.WriteLine("\nPlease select a blog entry on which to comment."); FeedQuery query = new FeedQuery(); query.Uri = blogPostUri; AtomFeed feed = service.Query(query); Uri commentPostUri = null; if (feed != null) { foreach (AtomEntry entry in feed.Entries) { // Print out the title of the Blog Console.WriteLine(" Blog entry title: " + entry.Title.Text); Console.Write(" Post a comment on this entry? (y/n): "); if (Console.ReadLine().Equals("y")) { // Create the Post URL for adding a comment by finding this entry's id number. // Find the href in the link with a rel pointing to the blog's feed. for (int i = 0; i < entry.Links.Count; i++) { if (entry.Links[i].Rel == "edit") { string commentUriStart = Regex.Replace(blogPostUri.ToString(), "/posts/default", ""); string selfLink = entry.Links[i].HRef.ToString(); string entryId = Regex.Replace(selfLink, blogPostUri.ToString() + "/", ""); // Build the comment URI from the blog id in and the entry id. commentPostUri = new Uri(commentUriStart + "/" + entryId + "/comments/default"); Console.WriteLine(" Your new comments will be sent to " + commentPostUri.ToString()); return commentPostUri; } } } } } return commentPostUri; } static AtomEntry PostNewComment(Service service, Uri commentPostUri) { Console.WriteLine("\nCommenting on a blog post"); AtomEntry postedComment = null; if (commentPostUri != null) { // Add a comment. AtomEntry comment; comment = new AtomEntry(); comment.Title.Text = "This is my first comment"; comment.Content.Content = "This is my first comment"; comment.Authors.Add(new AtomPerson()); comment.Authors[0].Name = "Blog Author Name"; postedComment = service.Insert(commentPostUri, comment); Console.WriteLine(" Result's title: " + postedComment.Title.Text); } return postedComment; } static void ListEntryComments(Service service, Uri commentUri) { if (commentUri != null) { Console.WriteLine("\nRetrieving all blog post comments"); // Retrieve all comments on a blog entry FeedQuery query = new FeedQuery(); Console.WriteLine(" Query URI: " + commentUri.ToString()); query.Uri = commentUri; AtomFeed feed = service.Query(query); foreach (AtomEntry entry in feed.Entries) { Console.WriteLine(" Comment Title: " + entry.Title.Text); } } } static void DeleteComment(AtomEntry commentEntry) { Console.WriteLine("\nDeleting the comment"); if (commentEntry != null) { // Delete the comment. Console.WriteLine(" Press enter to delete the new comment post"); Console.ReadLine(); commentEntry.Delete(); } } static void Main(string[] args) { Service service = new Service("blogger", "blogger-example"); // ClientLogin using username/password authentication string username; string password; if (args.Length != 2) { Console.WriteLine("Usage: BloggerDevSample.exe <username> <password>"); return; } else { username = args[0]; password = args[1]; } service.Credentials = new GDataCredentials(username, password); ListUserBlogs(service); Uri blogPostUri = SelectUserBlog(service); AtomEntry createdEntry = PostNewEntry(service, blogPostUri); PostAndDeleteNewDraftEntry(service, blogPostUri); ListBlogEntries(service, blogPostUri); ListBlogEntriesInDateRange(service, blogPostUri); AtomEntry editedEntry = EditEntry(createdEntry); DeleteEntry(editedEntry); Uri commentPostUri = SelectBlogEntry(service, blogPostUri); AtomEntry commentEntry = PostNewComment(service, commentPostUri); ListEntryComments(service, commentPostUri); DeleteComment(commentEntry); Console.WriteLine("Press enter to quit"); Console.ReadLine(); } } }

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Remoting Exception "[...] is not registered for activation"

RemotingException "[...] is not registered for activation"

I had to write something about it, because I was stuck for a whole hour and couldn't google anything useful.

It happens when the Client is trying to create a new remoting class "X".
The Server, by mistake, registered a remoting class "Y".

The classes must have the same name. Fix the class name.
That's it.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Google Command Line

Project homepage:
http://code.google.com/p/googlecl/

It is originally for *nix, but can also be used on Windows:
http://publicint.blogspot.com/2010/06/setup-googlecl-on-winxp.html

From the usage examples:

Blogger
  • google blogger post --tags "GoogleCL, awesome" --title "Test Post" "I'm posting from the command line"
  • google blogger post blogpost.txt
  • google blogger list title,url-site # List posts
  • google blogger delete --title "Test Post"
  • google delete --title "Silly post number [0-9]*" # Delete posts matching regex
  • google tag --title "Dev post" --tags "Python, software" # label an existing post

Calendar

  • google calendar add "Dinner party with George today at 6pm" # add event to calendar
  • google calendar today # List events for today only.
  • google calendar list --date 2010-06-01,2010-06-30 # List events.
  • google calendar delete --title "Dinner party with George" # Delete an event.

Contacts

  • google contacts add "J. Random Hacker, jrandom@example.com"
  • google contacts list name,email --title "J. Random Hacker"
  • google contacts delete --title "J. Random Hacker"

Docs

  • google docs delete --title "Evidence"
  • google docs edit --title "Shopping list" --editor vim
  • google docs get --title "Homework [0-9]*"
  • google docs list title,url-direct --delimiter ": " # list docs
  • google docs upload the_bobs.csv ~/work/docs_to_share/*

Picasa

  • google picasa create --title "Vermont Test" --tags Vermont vermont.jpg
  • google picasa get --title "Vermont Test" /path/to/download/folder
  • google picasa list title,url-direct --query "A tag"
  • google picasa post --title "Vermont Test" ~/old_photos/*.jpg # Add to an album
  • google picasa tag --title "Vermont Test" --tags "places"
  • google picasa delete --title "Vermont Test" # delete entire album

Youtube

  • google youtube post --category Education --devtags GoogleCL killer_robots.avi
  • google youtube delete --title "killer_robots.avi"
  • google youtube list # list my videos
  • google youtube tag -n ".*robot.*" --tags robot

Search, Buzz, Gmail, etc.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Get IMDB movie rating using JavaScript (Cross domain AJAX solution)

UPDATE: I modified my script to use imdbparser.appspot.com that I built, so the information is always accurate and it works fast.
This query:
https://imdbparser.appspot.com/?callback=foo&context=bar&action=rating&id=tt0411008
Gives this result: foo('bar', '8.7')
So you can write something like that:

<script type="text/javascript">
function foo(context, rating)
{
  alert("The rating is: " + rating);
}
</script>
<script src="https://imdbparser.appspot.com/?callback=foo&context=bar&action=rating&id=tt0411008" type="text/javascript">
</script>

Original Post:



Solution to what exactly?

In JavaScript you aren't suppose to communicate with other sites, such as IMDB. As a result, you can't get the rating of a movie just like that.
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_origin_policy

Example: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

How to use it in your website?

Put this code in the top of the page:
<script src="http://sites.google.com/site/ycouriel/files/imdbrating.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>
Put this code each time you want to get rating:
<script type="text/javascript"> IMDBRATING.registerTitle("tt0068646");</script>
Finally, put this code in the bottom of the page: 
<script type="text/javascript"> IMDBRATING.processTitles();</script>
You also need to put this CSS if you want the nice stars: imdbrating.css


How it's done?

The trick is to use Google. Consider the following query:
You get in return:
IMDBRATING.ratingCallback( <search results here> );
This wonderful feature of Google allows you to write a query as the source of JavaScript: 
<script src=" <the query above here> " type="text/javascript"> </script>
By parsing the search results, you can easily find the rating.

Notes:
  • This is a JavaScript solution; if you have a server running PHP or something you can put some page like Google's, only instead of search results you return the ratings. This could be wonderful, but all the websites on the Internet that do exactly that didn't work for me or were very slow.
  • The rating you get is sometimes not updated, it entirely depends on how often Google database is updated.

Sunday, June 6, 2010