Hi, I did sign in on sandbox (step 2) the URL was sandbox.orkut, but I could not get into the New Developer Page.
Still 404. Any help. Thanks. > **The new developer page is located > athttp://sandbox.orkut.com/Main#Developer. There is no link to it from the > interface (there will be soon), so bookmark this URL or memorize it to have > it handy. However, you can only access it *AFTER* logging into sandbox (step > 2). If you try to go there directly without logging in first, you will get a > 404 error as if the page didn't exist. On Feb 13, 1:06 pm, "Bruno Oliveira (\"btco\")" <bru...@google.com> wrote: > The new Developer Page is up, and with that, the application development and > submission flow is now considerably different (and, we hope, easier to > understand). > > * > * > > *New Application Development/Submission/Review Workflow* > By btco, 2011-02-13 > > *0. Before we start...* > *Warning #0:* The new developer page is working but please bear with us as > we polish some rough edges that still exist. Please read this guide > thoroughly before using the new page. The workarounds and known issues are > highlighted > in red. > > *Warning #1:* Much of the information here overrides what is currently > written in other documentation posted in code.google.com/apis/orkut. If you > see an inconsistency, please follow what we say here instead of what you see > in the older documentation. > > *1. Sandbox signup* > **If this is your first time developing an application (or if you are using > a new profile you just created and you never developed an application with > it), the first thing you have to do is sign up for the orkut Developer > Sandbox <http://sandbox.orkut.com/SandboxSignup.aspx>. If you've already > done that some time in your life with this profile, you don't need to do > this again. If you already had signed up for sandbox in the old > development/submission/review workflow, you do not need to sign up again. > It's the same sandbox, it's just a different process! > > *[ Tip ]** Use a separate Developer Profile* > If you have a personal profile on orkut, please use a separate profile for > application development. This will make your life much easier and more > organized! > > *[ Tip ] If sandbox is ever offline...* > Yes, sandbox is offline sometimes because it's very new code and sometimes > it fails or becomes a little slow. If that's the case, please use Prod > Sandbox as an alternative (prod.sandbox.orkut.com). You don't have to sign > up for prod sandbox separately (your sandbox signup works for prod sandbox > too). Prod sandbox is a sandbox environment that's closer to the production > environment, since it runs the same binary and has similar flags. > > *2. Sign into sandbox* > **Sign into sandbox by going tohttp://sandbox.orkut.com. After signing in, > notice if the URL stays as "sandbox.orkut.com". If it reverts back > towww.orkut.com, something is wrong -- you probably didn't sign up for the > sandbox! If you did sign up for sandbox and you are still getting thrown > back intowww.orkut.com, it's a bug: please complain at the forum. > > *3. Access the New Developer Page* > **The new developer page is located > athttp://sandbox.orkut.com/Main#Developer. There is no link to it from the > interface (there will be soon), so bookmark this URL or memorize it to have > it handy. However, you can only access it *AFTER* logging into sandbox (step > 2). If you try to go there directly without logging in first, you will get a > 404 error as if the page didn't exist. > > If this is your first time developing an orkut app, please make sure to read > at least the OpenSocial Tutorial for > Orkut<http://code.google.com/intl/en/apis/orkut/articles/tutorial/tutorial....>, > but please bear in mind that the app testing/submission workflow written > there is *out of date* (use this one instead). > > *4. Add your application to your developer profile.* > **To do this, just type the URL to its XML in the box that appears at the > top of the page (the one that says "add an application by URL") and clicking > the "add" button. After that, you have to reload the page in order for it to > work. If you don't do that, your newly added app will not show up. Just to > be clear, this step only adds the application to your developer profile so > you can run it and test it, this does NOT cause the application to be > published. After adding your application here, it will show in your list of > applications and you can run it. > > *5. Test and debug your app.* > **Now it's time to test and debug until your app is clean, shiny and ready > to hit the shelves. To run your application, simply click the View button > under its entry in the Developer Page. Once the app is running, you will > notice that the URL changes to something like > > http://sandbox.orkut.com/Main#Application?appId=12345678912345 > > The highlighed part above is your AppID, a number that identifies your > application. If you ever have a complaint or doubt about your application, > always mention this AppID, otherwise we won't be able to do anything for > you. > > *6. My changes aren't showing!* > **If you modify your app and the modification is not showing: this is > because we keep an internal cache of assets and XML. However, this can be a > pain when developing, since you want to see the results of your > modifications immediately. In this case, please append the "&bpc=1" > parameter to your URL to force a cache bypass. When you do that, you should > be able to see your changes immediately: > > http://sandbox.orkut.com/Main#Application?appId=12345678912345&bpc=1 > > *7. Polish your XML.* > Make sure your XML is well formed and has all the necessary parameters. Your > XML should look something like: > > <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> > <Module> > <ModulePrefs title="*Your App Title Here*" > author="*Your name here (or your company's name)*" > author_email="*youremailh...@domainhere.com*" > description="*A description of your app here*" > screenshot="*http://url/of/your/screenshot.jpg*"; > thumbnail="*http://url/of/your/thumbnail.jpg*";> > > <Require feature="opensocial-0.8" /> > <Locale lang="en" country="us" /> > </ModulePrefs> > <Content type="html" preferred_width="900"> > <![CDATA[ > > <!--ALm6fM2Ja1zhd/onBrNuxUWETQAoxE1lyg3WP0pqtO1OfnRFc8e4yPgDuW0oC9l8w1gTqJRoZbx0oQThry4Uo5uBZ87rtmTdLrIpCx0CRuc9pkS3NemA/xDaL2WvlEIDP/wEJXOzNre8--> > > *...your content goes here...* > > ]]> > </Content> > </Module> > > The funny-looking <!-- ALm6.... --> string is the Verification Token. You'll > get it in the next step (verification), it's okay not to have it at first. > > Naturally, the Locale element should be as appropriate for your application, > my example uses US English. Please include all the locales of the users who > might reasonably want to play your app. This is because of a current bug > (Known Issue K04), which causes users whose locales are not compatible with > the application's locale to experience weird bugs (they might see "app not > whitelisted" while running the app, and will not be able to post newsfeeds). > > Always include all this information: author name, e-mail, description, > thumbnail, screenshot. If your XML is missing any of the required > parameters, your application *will* fail review. > > *8. Submitting your app.* > **When you're done editing your application and you're ready to show it to > the world, you have to Submit it. To do that, look up your application in > the Developer Page and click the corresponding "Submit" button. You will > then be shown a Verification Token that looks like <!-- Aafoiwejfaowijw..... > --> (it's longer than that). You must now copy that token and paste into > your application's XML. This is done to verify that you are indeed the owner > of the application (we presume that if you can write an arbitrary string to > it, then it must be because you own it). Please make sure to copy the whole > token! It ends in "-->". > > This verification token MUST go into the <Content> tag of your XML. You you > put it anywhere else, the verification service won't find it. And do use * > <![CDATA[*, otherwise there might be strange escaping problems that will > prevent your application from being verified. Also, DO NOT split the token > into multiple lines! Leave it all on the same line: > > <Content> > <![CDATA[ > <!--ALm6fM2hd...........--> > ...your content here... > ]]> > </Content> > > After you've added this string to your XML, test that it's really being > served *with* that string. Open a different browser and point it to your > XML's URL, for example, and check that it's showing the XML *with* the > verification token. If you see the plain XML without the verification token, > please take action to correct your server's configuration! It is probably > caching what it shouldn't. > > After checking that the new XML with the verification token is indeed being > served, you are ready to click the "Verify" button on the Developer Page, > which appears right under the Verification Token. > > After doing that, the page will display a Consumer Key and a Consumer > Secret. Write down those values!!! Copy them and paste them to a place of > your choice. *WARNING: These values will never be shown again and cannot be > recovered, so do not lose them!* > > *9. My app is now 'pending'. Now what?* > If the previous step ended successfully, then your app must now be showing > as 'pending', in orange, on the page. This means that your application was > submitted and is awaiting orkut's review. Now you must wait until our team > reviews your application (the piece of software on our side that does this > is called AppReviewer). > > Normally, the review process should take 48 hours or so, but currently (as > of 2011-02-13), we're having some trouble with AppReviewer so we're running > it manually every week or so. Therefore, you might have to wait up to a week > to get your application reviewed. > > *Q: I refreshed the page and my app is no longer pending! It came back to > the "testing" state!!! Was it rejected? Is it a bug? Do I have to submit > again?? > * > A: Calm down! Please see *Known Issue #K10* in the forum (if it's not there, > it's because I haven't posted it yet -- I'll do so after posting this > guide). Summarizing: the Developer Page displays a state that's a few > minutes old. So recent status changes (from testing to featured, for > example) may not appear on the page for several minutes (yes, even though it > did seem to change at first -- that was smoke and mirrors on the interface > side!). > > *10. How long is considered a "normal" time to wait for an approval? * > Currently, up to 1 week is normal. As listed in the Known Issues, > AppReviewer is currently offline and we're running it manually every week or > so. Therefore, it may take up to a week for AppReviewer to take a first look > at your application, at which point you will receive an e-mail indicating > whether your application was approved or not. > > *11. I've been waiting for 23 years, 8 months and 3 days for an approval. Is > that normal? * > If you find yourself waiting for more than 2 weeks and never got an e-mail > from AppReviewer, something is very wrong. In this case, please check your > spam box -- maybe your e-mail filtering backend doesn't like our friendly > AppReviewer messages and sends them to your spam folder. If the AppReviewer > e-mail is not there, please complain to us on the forum, and provide your > appID so we can look into it and tell you what's going on. > > *12. I got an AppReviewer error. Now what?* > You have to fix your application and submit it again. The message will tell > you what's wrong with your application, and all you have to do is fix it. > Okay, that's lie. The message is often a bit obscure. We're fixing that, I > promise! Now, if the error is in a URL that your app uses, it's probably > because we're having trouble fetching the asset from that URL. Please check > that it's spelled right. If it's spelled right and you can access the asset > yourself, then maybe your content provider is not reliable -- it may work > for you now, but when we try to pull it, the server might be overloaded and > giving us a "temporary error". > > Also, please take a look at "Common causes for AppReviewer failures" below. > > Now, if the URL error is on some strange internal orkut URL, something to do > with a "gmodules" proxy, in that case it's our fault -- your app failed > review because AppReviewer couldn't access our own internal cache. In the > (increasingly unlikely) case that happens to you, please complain and try to > submit your app again. > > *13. What are common causes for AppReviewer failures?* > 0. XML syntax errors. Your syntax is bad, or you are missing one of the > required parameters (author name, author e-mail, screenshot, thumbnail, > etc). Refer to our XML example a few pages above. > > 1. HTTP errors: your resources can't be fetched. Sure they may work now for > you, but perhaps they are only available some of the time, and were offline > when we tried to fetch them. Please switch to a reliable hosting service. > > 2. You are using a registered trademark in your app. You can't use "Google", > "orkut", or any other trademark you don't own. So if your app is using any > unauthorized trademarks, you will not get approval (and the error message > won't really explain why). > > 3. Your app has objectionable content. > > 4. Your app redirects the user to another app or page, or does any other > funny or suspicious trick with the browser. You are not allowed to do that. > > 5. Your app has a security breach which allows it to be exploited > maliciously. > > 6. You are violating one or more of our Developer Guidelines. We have > automated tests that verify compliance to many of them, and we manually > review several cases. > > 7. A bug in AppReviewer. If you believe you've found an AppReviewer bug, > we'd like to know about it! > > *14. Success \o/* > If you fix all the problems in your application (if there were any), you'll > eventually get a message from AppReviewer saying your app was successfully > reviewed and published. Congratulations! > > *IMPORTANT: It may take up to 48 hours for our DB to replicate to the > production environment, so you may have to wait up to 48h after approval to > see your app go live. During this period, users will not be able to add or > run your application.* > > *15. What if I have to update my application once it's live?* > Your updates are immediate! *There is no need to resubmit.* Once you change > your XML, the changes are automatically live. However, due to caching, some > assets (notably graphics) may take a while to go stale and refresh (a few > hours, typically). So, if it all possible (and this is a general > recommendation for any Web development), use a different resource name if > your resource's content has changed. That may help solve the caching issues. > In any event, our internal asset cache should normally refresh its version > of your assets in at most 24 hours. > > *WARNING:* our review process runs continually, so if you introduce a change > in your application that causes it to fail review (say, for instance, you > broke the XML's syntax or changed the screenshot to something that's causing > an HTTP error), it may be taken down and rejected. If it is taken down and > rejected, you will have to fix the problem and, in this case, *submit it > again, as it will not be automatically reviewed again after a rejection.* > * > * > *[ Tip ]** Use version-specific assets* > One of the recommeded ways to do application updates is to always use > version-specific assets. For example, on version 1 of your application, your > screenshot would be hosted athttp://.../myapp/v1/screenshot.jpg. Likewise, > any other assets would all be located at the "v1" directory... for example, > your theme song that your app plays could go > intohttp://.../myapp/v1/theme.mp3. > Your XML would behttp://.../myapp/v1/app.xml. But that's NOT the one you > submit to orkut -- instead, make a link (or copy) in > *http://.../myapp/latest.xml*. THAT's the one you submit (notice that this > one is not tied to any version -- it's by definition the LATEST launched > version). > > Now, when developing an update, all you have to do is create a new directory > on your server, "v2", starting out with a copy from "v1". You can update > your screenshot, theme song and any other assets there (careful to update > the URL's to say v2 instead of v1), including the XML, which now lives > athttp://.../myapp/v2/app.xml. > > When you want to launch version 2, all you have to do is replace the link > (or copy) so that *http://.../myapp/latest.xml*now points to (or contains a > copy of)http://.../myapp/v2/app.xml. > > Since the asset URL's are all different, caching at any point in the > pipeline won't be an issue (the new never-seen v2 assets will be fetched), > and your new version will launch as a whole, without having to wait for > assets to individually refresh on the cache. > > Also, if you ever want to test a specific *past* version of your app, all > you have to do is go into the sandbox and load the path to the specific > version's XML and play it. It will come with that version's specific assets, > so doing that, you obtain the effect of "going back in time" and seeing a > specific version of your app. Twenty years from now when you're in version > 1492, you might even be able to offer your users the ability to play the > "vintage" version 1 of your app :) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "orkut Developer Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to opensocial-orkut@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to opensocial-orkut+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-orkut?hl=en.
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