mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
addon/3247)
If you see a form of communication between the add-on and the application, you know
there is some form of public or private API. Other browsers have extension mechanisms,3 but
I single out Firefox add-ons because you can unzip the add-on to study the code (if it hasn??™t
been obfuscated) to gain more insight into the hooks of the corresponding web site.
Getting Data In and Out of the Web Site
How can you import data into the application? With what protocols? What data or file formats
are accepted?
How can you export data from the application? What formats are provided? What protocols
are supported?
It??™s much easier to make mashups out of widely deployed data formats and protocols
(whether they are de jure or de facto standards) than with obscure data formats and protocols.
Can you embed data from the web site elsewhere? An example of such embedding is
a JavaScript badge (such as http://www.platial.com/mapkit/faq). What options do you have
for customizing the badge? Super-flexible badges can be used themselves to access data for
mashups and hint at the existence of a feature-rich API.
The Community of Users and Developers
What communities of users and developers have grown around the web site? Where can you
go to participate in that community and ask questions? What are members of the community
discussing? What are some of the limitations of the application that they want to be overcome?
What clever solutions or workarounds??”hacks??”are being popularized in that community, not
only among developers but also among nonprogramming power users in the community?
Again, seeing how the API gets used and discussed is a great way to get a handle on what
is possible and interesting.
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