Use the FeedHenry online IDE or your own tools to develop widgets using standard web technologies and the FeedHenry API and client libraries.
Ensuring quality is simple with the FeedHenry multi-stage workflow system that can adapt to your rigorous testing requirements and needs. Never get caught out again.
Once tested your widgets are prepared for publishing to multiple widget hosts on our reliable hosting solution that takes care of scaling to millions of users.
Facebook, Windows desktops, the iPhone, OpenSocial and many more hosts are a few clicks away for your widgets using our flexible distribution platform.
The FeedHenry architecture follows best practice in loose coupling. Each component is independent and communicates with open APIs over HTTP. Where existing technologies work we have used them and where we have had to build our own we have built them on existing, standardized systems. The layered, loosely-coupled approach allows new and existing systems to slot in without requiring excessive integration work. The W3C Widget standard ensures that components integrate in a standard and open manner. Widget Hosts (Mobile, Desktop, Web, iGoogle, Facebook etc.) provide a common environment for widgets to operate in. Sensitive and limited-access systems can still work with FeedHenry through special adapters that balance the needs of security and functionality.
All of this achieves the goal of being part of the web and ensures your existing skills and knowledge can be applied to widget development.
Use your existing skills, tools and knowledge
If you have developed a single web-page, a whole web-site or even a web-app then you are ready to develop a widget.
Many of us at FeedHenry are web-developers and we wanted to re-use all our skills when developing widgets. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are all you need to build your widgets. You can build them using our online IDE or use your existing tool-chain and upload directly to our widget API. We have developers building widgets on Windows, Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux using Visual Studio, TextMate, Eclipse and even vim and Notepad. Rake, Make and Ant have been used for unit testing and publishing widgets to the FeedHenry API. You really can use any tool you want.
Experienced web-developers can re-use their libraries of choice while less-experienced developers can use the FeedHenry JavaScript Client Library which provides most of what a widget requires to work. jQuery, Prototype, YUI, Ext and others are fully supported as are your own custom JavaScript libraries.
Widget Development Manager
The Widget Development Manager is an online, end-to-end tool for widget development. It is the fastest and easiest way of getting your widget live. The Widget Development Manager features:
- Widget preview
- Multi-browser support
- Syntax highlighting
- File and widget versioning
- Database entity creation and management
- Debug logs
- Binary file upload
- Online documentation
- Widget service management
- Import and export of W3C standardized widget packages
With this tool you can develop anytime and from anywhere with an internet connection.
Development API
Use your favourite text-editor and publish over HTTP to the FeedHenry Widget Development API.
The Widget Development Manager is a great tool but we also realise that many developers have existing systems that they are comfortable with. With the FeedHenry Widget Development API any existing system can integrate with FeedHenry and provide full round-trip widget development.
Because FeedHenry widgets are built from standard web technologies you do not require complex SDKs or development environments. A simple Apache or Microsoft IIS config will have you developing and testing your widgets before you are ready to publish to FeedHenry.
You can also swap between your own development system and the Widget Development Manager. You can export widgets from the online tool to your local system, edit them locally and then import back into FeedHenry.
Develop and Test
FeedHenry customers include everyone from demanding individual blog owners to billion dollar telecommunications providers who have the highest quality requirements. Therefore quality is an important aspect of the FeedHenry system which extends from our core components right out to the smallest widget. With the potential of millions of users across multiple hosts we have to ensure widgets work reliably and perform well.
To this end we provide a multi-stage workflow that can adapt to your needs and the needs of widget hosts.
With the Widget Development Manager developers can create widgets and test them in staging hosts. These staging hosts are not live to normal users and give an accurate representation of how the widget will function in a live host. Developers can spend as much time as they want between the development and test stages before they publish their widgets. Complex, multi-stage workflows are also supported with varying levels of user access to ensure that your development and test process is followed.
Then publish
Once you are happy with your widget you can publish it to the FeedHenry server cluster. Publishing puts the widget into various widget host directories and allows users to subscribe to your widget.
Control over your widget does not end here however. All widgets are versioned and you can update live widgets, disable them, push patches and fixes and monitor the usage of your widget.
Worldwide distribution
FeedHenry makes distributing your widget to a multitude of devices and systems easy. The same widget you developed, tested and published will work as intended across every widget host that FeedHenry provides. From Apple's iPhone to Facebook to the sidebar of a blog to a telecommunications portal to a user's desktop. The widget host environment is consistent and takes care of cross-environment problems for you.
Distribute to
The list of FeedHenry supporting hosts is growing:
- Windows XP and Windows Vista desktops
- Mac OS X desktops
- Apple iPhone and Apple iTouch
- Nokia N95, N96 and Symbian Series 3 mobile-phones
- Mobile-phones running Opera Mini
- Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and Firefox web-browsers
- Netvibes and PageFlakes
- iGoogle and OpenSocial containers such as Orkut, Hi5 and MySpace
- WordPress powered blogs and websites
- Various Linux desktops
Copyright © 2008 Research & Innovation Centre, Carriganore Campus, Carriganore, Waterford, Ireland.