Google Wave: Up and Running

General Architecture

The Google Wave API is actually three APIs that allow developers to programmatically access and interact with the Google Wave platform:

• Robots API

• Gadgets API

• Wave Embed API

The APIs allow for access to various types of information, including content and metadata for waves, wavelets, blips, and participants. As you have already seen through our use of the Google Wave Client, the platform is highly versatile, and it lends itself well to the development of extensions that can address a broad spectrum of features and functionality.

Although we haven’t discussed the Google Wave Embed API in much detail yet, conceptually it is easy to understand that this API represents a viable means for integration of waves (and their content) in external environments, thereby reducing dependence on the Google Wave Client for access to waves.

In addition to the three APIs, Google Wave provides for a user-friendly means of adding extensions to waves through extension installers.

Robots API

The Robots API is based on the use of HTTP requests and responses transmitted using the Wave Robot Wire Protocol. You don’t really need to worry too much about the handling of the requests and responses or about the Wave Robot Protocol, however, because Google has made client libraries available that handle all the backend work associated with the Wave Robot Protocol. As I pointed out earlier in the chapter, currently there are Python and Java client libraries available, although other client libraries ...