Programming Social Applications

Extending Shindig with Your Own JavaScript Libraries

Note

The full code for this sample is available at https://github.com/jcleblanc/programming-social-applications/tree/master/chapter_4/countdown_feature.

In Chapter 3, we discussed the process of installing Shindig to run your own OpenSocial container to host applications. Thus far, this chapter has outlined the “out of the box” JavaScript components that are available to you in a Shindig container, but what if you want to create your own JavaScript libraries and features to extend those native offerings?

As with the default feature libraries, adding new JavaScript libraries and features to Shindig in order to make them available to your gadget is a simple, multistep process. Let’s look at a practical example to showcase how to do this. We’ll add a new JavaScript library feature to create a countdown clock that’s displayed in a gadget.

First, from the root of your Shindig installation directory, go to the JavaScript features directory:

cd features/src/main/javascript/features

This is where the JavaScript features we’ve explored thus far are housed, and where we’ll create a new one. Create a new directory called “countdown” and then move into it:

mkdir countdown
cd countdown

Now we need to create the files that will define our JavaScript library feature. Create a new file called countdown_base.js. This file will house the JavaScript that will run our countdown clock. Within the JavaScript file, add the following code:

gadgets['countdown'] ...