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bflora edited this page Jun 18, 2012 · 2 revisions

How to create an app for NowSpots

These docs will explain the process for creating a new app on the NowSpots cloud advertising platform. An "app" is like a plugin that can run inside the NowSpots ad wrapper. For instance, we've created a "Youtube app" that lets NowSpots users display content from Youtube in various ways inside their ad unit. The goal here is to give developers a way to write software that NowSpots users can choose to run inside their ads for fun and profit! If you have any suggestions, please send them to support@nowspots.com. Thanks!

Structuring your app.

There are three resources the app needs to provide the nowspots application in order to be part of the app offerings.

  1. A url responsible for serving the app. This is the "serve url".
  2. A url responsible for providing json formatted configuration options. This is the "settings url".
  3. A url responsible for providing json formatted event designations. This is the "events url".

The page host.nowspots.com/spot_app_templates/new page requires that each of these items be entered.

Serving your app.

When a spot is composed with the app defined in the spot_app_templates page, the spot makes a request to the "serve url" in order to render the app. The spot will pass all variables that the app requires as key value pairs in the query string. These variables fall into two different groups, variables needed for the app to operate and variables needed for customizing the look and feel of the app. All of the variables in these two groups can further be defined as required/not-required and grouped as system-provided or settings-provided. See more about what's coming at you on the query string at https://github.com/nowspots/app-bootstrap/wiki/Serving

Settings for your app.

The "settings url" defined on the spot_app_templates page serves two purposes. It defines what variables your app would like to recieve via the query string and also how the settings options are presented to the user. See more about settings at https://github.com/nowspots/app-bootstrap/wiki/Settings

Events of your app.

Nowspots provides an api with which the app can track events. The Nowspots tracking api tracks certain events by virtue of being included in the app: App views, clicks and click throughs. It also provides a facility to track app defined events such as "Clicked an app specific item" or "Completed an app specific task". The reporting system of the nowspots.com application by default doesn't know about these events, but for these events to be listed on the nowspots.com spot details page they need to be listed in the json provided by the "events url" defined on the spot_app_templates page. In the json, each event is defined as a key and paired with a value that designates the group that the event will be listed under on the spot details page. Events in a common will be aggregated. See more about the Nowspots Tracking API at https://github.com/nowspots/app-bootstrap/wiki/Nowspots-api

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