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Restler is a multi-protocol and open source framework for exposing PHP classes and methods as a REST API.

The framework is lightweight (works only with few files) and can be used by any developer experienced in object oriented PHP with no learning curve.

It works with multiple formats: XML, JSON, Plist and AMF. Also, it is very modular which means creating new formats or features is possible.

Restler can convert formats in both ways (requests and responses) and has support for the GET, POST, PUT and DELETE HTTP requests.

P.S. There is a short and informative slideshow about the framework to get you started easily.

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It is usually a good practice to enable users to sign-in/sign-up using popular social service accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Google or OpenID.

Such an alternative not only fastens the process (no approval e-mails required, fewer form fields to fill, etc.) but also a "one less password to remember" from the user's perspective.

There are many social authentication providers besides the ones counted above including LinkedIn, Hotmail or Yahoo and integrating each can be a headache. Also, such codes may require to-be-updated from time-to-time to reflect any changes applied to them.

OneAll is a web service easing this process by providing a single API for using APIs of ~20 social services.

With the help of a "Social Login plugin", a widget that can be inserted to web pages with a copy-paste, users can be powered with an option to login with their social IDs.

A "Social Share plugin" empowers users to share their comments, purchases, reviews or other activities directly from the website with their friends on multiple social networks.

And, every action performed using OneAll (sign-in, sign-up, repeating visits, etc.) can be viewed in detail from its analytics interface.

It is hard to find such a service for free, however, OneAll is currently in beta (in-search of testers) and free during that period. Also, there will be a free plan once it is out-of-beta.

Update (18 Nov 2011) – There is now a WordPress plugin for the service which allows visitors to comment and login with social networks.

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If you have a web application with an API, a good documentation makes it much easier for the users to consume it and helps the service grow faster.

Swagger is an open source application that supports REST-based APIs and simultaneously solves server, client and documentation/sandbox needs.

It enables developers and non-developers to interact with the API in a sandbox UI that gives a good idea on how the API responds to parameters and options.

It speaks JSON + XML and comes with implementations in Scala, Java and HTML5. And, client generators are available for Scala, Java, Javascript, Ruby, PHP, and Actionscript 3.

It is developed by Wordnik and a working implementation can be found at Wordnik's API documentation page.

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Jeffrey Way of Nettuts+ has recently created a simple-yet-useful web application named Prefixr that can auto-insert cross-browser prefixes for a given CSS file.

Once a CSS file is pasted into the application, it scans all the rules and adds browser-specific ones when applicable. Simply, writing only border-radius will end up in getting -moz-border-radius, -webkit-border-radius, etc.

Best of all, the web interface is not the only way to use it. With the help of an API, it can be integrated into your code editor and can be ran with a shortcut (a how-to exists on Nettuts+).

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RandomText is a website for easily creating dummy text either in Lorem Ipsum or Gibberish format.

It is possible to select the type of the element (paragraph,list or heading), number of these elements and how long they will be.

The generator has shortcuts for getting the HTML-formatted source code and downloading the output as a text/html file.

For a quicker access to the service, you can use a specific URL format like: randomtext.me/lorem/ul-10/5-10/ to create a 5-itemed unordered list with Lorem Ipsum text that has 5 to 10 words.

Also, an API generates the text in JSON format which is great for integrating with 3rd party apps.

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Once we build a web application, creating an API for it and enabling anyone to interact with the service easily is a great way to help the application grow.

However, it can be a time-consuming process to build the API from scratch (if you want to build one, check: How To Create An API? -10 Tutorials-).

And this is where FRAPI, an open source PHP API framework for building an API for any web application very quickly, comes in.

The framework is RESTful, simple and only focuses on building the API. It generates the skeleton for you to handle REST calls and you only need to put your business logic in it.

From a web-based interface, it enables you to create the methods, error codes and messages for your API.

Once finished, the PHP files for the methods are created automatically where you can easily add any extra functions.

FRAPI also auto-generates the documentation for the API using the "description" fields of each function.

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Traffic Light Feedback, an instant feedback service, is giving away 3 annual accounts ( £180 GBP/account) to WebResourcesDepot readers.

Details on "how to winning the licenses" can be found at the bottom of the post, but before that:

What is Traffic Light Feedback?

Learning what your users are thinking on a subject (a new feature you're planning to add, how the support was, etc.) is so important to better shape products, services or plans.

However, nobody is interested in filling forms that requires time & focus.

And, this is where Traffic Light Feedback comes in. It offers a very simple way of getting feedback from users: asking a question & having 3 clickable responses (green, yellow and red) where users don't have to fill anything.

You can create an unlimited number of templates (that carry your logo) to be sent anytime you want.

Every feedback gathered can be viewed from your dashboard & it is possible to set different e-mails to be notified for every traffic light clicked (which is great for taking proactive measures "for ex: customer support contacting the user if the feedback is red).

Adding customer lists to Traffic Light Feedback is very simple with the "import from spreadsheet" feature. And every e-mail sent has an "unsubscribe" link attached for allowing your customers to unsubscribe themselves.

The service also has a SOAP API for seamless integrations with 3rd party softwares.

How to win the licenses?

Commenting to this post is enough to join the giveaway & winners will be selected randomly via the query below on 8 March 2010 (1 week later).

SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_id=1486 AND comment_approved=1 AND comment_type='' GROUP BY comment_author_email ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 3

Good luck to all : ).

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While creating web applications, finding data we need can be a very difficult process. Whether it is a signup page that requires all countries/cities or a "restaurants directory" which needs the data of restaurants.

Factual is a website which can be a quick solution for reaching data. It is a free-to-use platform where anyone can share & mash open data on any subject.

There are lots of different data tables provided like:

• Video Games & Cheats
• Popular Books of the 1990s and 2000s
• Hiking Trails
• American Idol Finalists
• Beer Qualities
• & much more

It is possible to view the data in a table form, make changes, filter or export as a CSV file. Also, all data can be reached via Factual API which we’ll probably be seeing lots of applications built around it.

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hurl is a free web-based application which enables users to send custom HTTP requests & view the responses.

It can seem unfunctional at first but for anyone who is working with APIs, the service is a great time-saver to easily see the responses & develop accordingly.

It is possible to add any number of headers to the request, define user-pass for HTTP authentication & set the request to follow redirects.

Optionally, you can sign-up to save the requests-responses for future comparison.

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URL shortening services, with the popularity of Twitter, has a very wide usage, probably more than anyone had expected few years ago.

These services not only makes URLs shorter but more readable & trackable. Also, some offer features like password-protecting, custom URLs & more.

Although there are very succesful services like TinyURL or bit.ly, you may still want to have your own as these services can be shut down one day like tr.im (a huge service that is closed yesterday – update: tr.im re-opened which was a good example for the stability risk of these services). Or, you may be asking for more/custom features.

Here are 7 open source & free URL shortener scripts to create your own:

Shorty

Shorty is a free URL shortener script built with PHP & MySQL. It comes with an admin interface where links can be edited/deleted & number of clicks can be viewed.

YOURLS

It is a set of PHP scripts for running a custom URL shortening service.

It can be private or public, custom keyword URLs can be picked, counts clicks & has an API. Best of all, a WordPress plugin integrates it with your blog & links are shortened automatically.

kissa.be!

This short URL script has support to shorten various inputs:

• URL
• e-mail
• text
• image

It is built with PHP/MySQL & has an API for shortening/expanding URLs.

PHPurl

PHPurl is a simple script to shorten URLs. Optionally, custom URLs can be defined for more readable links. The script is created with PHP & MySQL.

BrokenScript

This is a basic URL shortening script where a custom info is required to generate the URL.

TightURL

TightURL is a PHP/MySQL script which has a nice spam control feature. It checks entries in various spam databases before shortening them.

phurl

The script has a captcha & re-captcha support to prevent bots. It also comes with a basic admin interface which enables deleting URLs.

And Some Fresh Ones (updated 28 August 2009)

• PHP URL shortener script that can shorten over 4 billion URLs
• Lessn
• Open URL Shortener

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