And if you don??™t see much activity around the API, realize that you
are likely to be on your own if you decide to use it.
Why do I stress looking at the community around an application and its API? A vibrant
and active community makes a lot of mashup work practical. When making mashups, some
things are theoretically possible to do??”if you had the time, energy, and resources??”but are
practically impossible for you as an individual to pull off. A community of developers means
there are other people to work with, lots of examples of what other people have done, and
often code libraries that you can build upon.
CHAPTER 2 ?– UNCOVERING THE MASHUP POTENTIAL OF WEB SITES 25
3. http://blog.mashupguide.net/2007/04/29/browser-extension-mechanisms-for-various-browsers/
Mobile and Alternative Interfaces and the Skinnability of the
Web Site
How many versions of the user interface are there for the web site? Is there amobile interface?
A mobile version is often easier to decipher than the main site and highlights what the web
site??™s creators believe to be some core logic of the web site. A mobile version might be more
easily integrated into a mashup for a phone; there is typically no JavaScript to worry about,
and the HTML is easier to parse.
How difficult is it to change the look of the interface? That is, how ???skinnable??? is the web
site? Easy customizability of the interface for end users is an indicator that the application
developers have likely separated the application logic from presentation logic.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98