AOL and AJAX ►The AJAX Experience

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Agenda

►Why AOL is here

►History of AJAX and DHTML at AOL

►Challenges

►What’s next / Coming Up

►Dev.aol.com & Open APIs

►Getting more info

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AOL operates some of the most popular Web destinations – many of which have Open APIs

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AOL's network of Web properties is the second largest in the United States

►113 million domestic monthly unique visitors to the AOL network of Web properties

►Nearly 52 billion domestic monthly page views for the AOL network

►2 billion Instant messages sent across AOL's messaging networks each day

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We use a mix of technology

►Imagine the kind of technical solutions and creativity that allows sending 2 billion IMs in a day

►Programming Languages we develop with include:⊳ JAVA - Java, JSP, Servlets, J2EE⊳C and C++ ⊳ .NET - C#⊳ AJAX for Browser and front end development

►Building scalable and high-available infrastructure to serve users

►We build on top of commercial products, open source as well as build our own solutions⊳ Tomcat, Apache, PERL⊳ Linux boxes, HP, Solaris, Windows Server⊳ RDMS – Sybase, Oracle, mySQL⊳ Custom caching technology

AJAX Development at AOL

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AOL and AJAX – Did you know…

AOL has nearly a dozen products that use AJAX or AJAX-like technologies

►We’ve focused on applications, but beneath them we have AJAX technology

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AJAX over the years at AOL

►2001 to 2005: The AOL “DIG” framework, used as a common platform to build Web applications⊳ AOL Webmail, AOL Calendar, AOL Pictures, AOL Radio

►2005 : AJAX for popular photo sharing service – AOL Pictures

►2005 : The Webmail framework, client side engine for Mail & Calendar

►2006 – DOJO – for AIM Pages and many other products within AOL

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DIG : Common Platform for AOL apps

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AOL Pictures – Demo

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Why we chose DHTML/AJAX

►Wanted experiences that closely mirrored client experiences

►Mail is a key application - high scale, high usage - updates without refreshes

►Media is another key app - want an environment that's as dynamic as the content and media

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Challenges

►At first we mimicked the AOL client experience too closely

►Although generic platforms were built, they also got too intertwined (both technology and teams) with individual products

►Difficulty of building a platform at the same time as building out the products

►Cross-browser capabilities (early on between IE/Mozilla, increasingly with Safari)

►Performance, particularly on the initial non-cached state

►Back button blues (many teams experienced this)

►QA Automation

►Finding qualified developers

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Embracing Standards – Dojo

► Contributing to Dojo⊳ Contributor to enhancing the DOJO

framework⊳ Hosting releases of Dojo on CDN⊳ JavaScript Compiler tool

► Using Dojo in large scale applications⊳ AIM Pages and IAMALPHA

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What's next for AOL and you!

►Working to build accessibility standards for AJAX

►Continuing to work with open source and standards to build out the platform

►Develop, consume, and publish Microformats

►Continuing to open our API’s for you to build on

Opening up our API’s and platforms, for you to use

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AIM Plugins: Add features to AIM. AIM Bots: Create your own Bot. AIM Presence: Online availability into your app.

Create Modules. Drag and drop them into AIM Pages. Based on standard tools such as XHTML, CSS, Javascript. Review our Module Microformat

Use Javascript to integrate routing, geocoding and mapping into your website. Add location based functionality using the OPEN API. Tons of features for Business solutions.

Utilizing RSS obtain info on Artists, Albums, charts, playlists. Integrate favorite music in your application

High Fidelity Music Player for windows. Plugins, support for MP3 & CD, SKINS

Next Gen standards based UI toolkit to enable creation of rich desktop application interfaces. Supporting Layering, animation, data binding, composition.

A place to incubate the interesting prototypes

AOL Video Search APIs give you a one-stop source for integrating the best video experience into your website.

Allows you to use your photos from AIM Pages, make a collage of images, then add it to your web page (on MySpace, AIM Pages, Blogger, Google Pages etc.)

Offer value through personalized notifications, anytime and anywhere

Social networking solutions for the long-tail. Userplane helps you drive user interaction on your website.  Monetize your site with a flexible range of licensed, revenue sharing, and advertiser-supported solutions

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What can be done with these APIs

How about “Search4Surfers” :•Allows surfers to search for other surfers. •Find them, IM them, then go surf! Hit the waves!

“It’s cool dude!”

Example : Like Surfing? Real Surfing, not Web!

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A Sneak Preview of Web AIM APIs

► The Web AIM APIs allows easy and seamless integration of AIM functionality into web pages

► WIM provides⊳ Distributed, instant community

⊳ Create an instant network by matching users with people on their Buddy List (i.e. show a list of all of my buddies that have videos on YouTube)

⊳ Great for the Enterprise and Intranet and Internet…

⊳ Lightweight deployment⊳ Implemented using JSON and URL-based APIs

⊳ In-context integration⊳ Service-level access allows developers to customize how the AIM

experience is integrated

Demo of WIM

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Get more information

►Developer Resources:⊳ Come by and see us at the booth⊳ Checkout http://dev.aol.com⊳ Tell us what you'd like to see; we're here and we're engaged.

►PODCasts – going behind the scenes of AOL. On iTunes.⊳ Search for AOL Mountain View and get the inside scoop!

►Contact me :⊳ William Morris – come see me after this, or contact me on IM or email!⊳ Social Network : http://aimpages.com/williammorris

Thank you

API detailsSee dev.aol.com for full details

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AIMPages and ModuleT

►Microformat for web widgets

►A way to capture the essentials of a widget to you can syndicate it⊳ Markup⊳ CSS Links⊳ JavaScript tags⊳ Meta data about widget

►Compatible with Apple Dashboard Widgets, Microsoft Gadgets, Dojo Widgets, Opera Widgets, etc.

►Open proposal on http://microformats.org/wiki/widget-brainstorming

►Used at the core of AIM Pages⊳ Anyone can upload a module for everyone to use in their pages.⊳ Over 600 modules already.

►Docs at http://iamalpha.com

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API Profile: MapQuest OpenAPI ► Description

⊳ The MapQuest OpenAPI is a free service that allows you to use JavaScript to easily integrate routing, geocoding and mapping into your website. With this feature-rich API you can create dynamic routing and mapping applications for personal or community use.

► Key Mash-up Opportunities⊳ http://www.mapzierge.com⊳ http://www.gamedaymapping.com⊳ http://betimely.com

► Only free mapping API that includes both geocoding and routing

► It’s free, it’s simple, it’s feature-rich

► Is the only map API from a company dedicated to mapping as a business

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Boxely UI Toolkit:► Description

⊳ UI and presentation toolkit that’s currently being used by most of AOL client applications. Advanced feature set for desktop applications being migrated for web usage a la flash. Makes use of ocp runtime and services, can consume multiple web apis (http, XML, JSON, SOAP, etc.)

► Status⊳ Shipping in Frontier, SSC, Triton, etc⊳ Boxely Community Tech Preview Fall 06⊳ Code as content in late 06

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AOL Pictures APIs►Web services API (XML-SOAP)

⊳ Enables you to create your own extension or experience around AOL Pictures.

⊳ External partners using this API to create their own AOL Pictures UI experience (iPhoto plugin for Mac

⊳ Authentication through trusted white-list or Liberty

►JSON⊳ JSON API enables reading of users public albums⊳ Being updated to allow other options (photos by tag, most recent photos) ⊳ Sample application: woohoo.aim.com

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API Profile: OpenAIM► Description

⊳ Presence API⊳ Add presence info to your web page

⊳ Plugins API⊳ Add features and functionality to AIM Triton and OpenAIM clients

⊳ Custom Clients API⊳ Build your own AIM client or add AIM functionality to your application

⊳ AIM Bots⊳ Build your own bot to respond automatically to IMs

⊳ Web IM⊳ Add presence, IM, Buddy List, Location info, or Expressions to your web page

► Status⊳ All APIs and services available today (except WIM – coming soon)