What This Book Covers

The first chapter introduces the concepts of web mashups to the reader and provides a general introduction to the benefits and pitfalls of using web mashups as stand-alone applications or as part of existing web applications.

The first project is a mashup plugin into an existing web application that allows users to find the location of the closest facility from a particular geographic location based on a specified search radius. The location is mapped and displayed on Google Maps.

The second project is another mashup plugin. This plugin allows users to send messages to their own list of recipients, people who are previously unknown to the website, on behalf of the website. The project uses Google Spreadsheets and EditGrid to aggregate the information, and Clickatell and Interfax to send SMS messages and faxes respectively.

The third project describes a mashup plugin that allows you to track the sales ranking and customer reviews of a particular product from Amazon.com. The main API used is the Amazon E-Commerce Service (ECS).

The fourth project shows you how to create a full-fledged Facebook application that allows a user to perform some of the functions and features of a job board. This mashup uses Facebook, Google Maps, Daylife, Technorati and Indeed.com APIs.

The fifth project shows you how to create a full web mashup application that allows users to view information on a location. This is the chapter that uses the most mashup APIs, including Google Maps, FUTEF, WebserviceX, Yahoo! geocoding services, WeatherBug, Kayak, GeoNames, Flickr, and Hostip.info.

The sixth project describes a mashup plugin that allows an online event ticketing application to receive payment through Paypal, send SMS receipts, and add event records in the customer's Google Calendar account. The APIs used are Google Calendar, PayPal, and Clickatell.

The final project shows a complex mashup plugin used for making corporate expense claims. It allows an employee to submit expense claims in Google Docs and Spreadsheets, attaching the claims form and the supporting receipts. His or her manager, also using Google Docs and Spreadsheets, then approves the expense claims and the approved claims are retrieved by the mashup and used to reimburse the employee through PayPal. It uses the PayPal APIs and various Google APIs.